problem solving in reading and writing

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Reading as Problem Solving/Impact of Higher Order Thinking

Reading is essentially a problem-solving task. Comprehending what is read, like problem solving, requires effort, planning, self-monitoring, strategy selection, and reflection. As students move through school, reading materials become more complex, thus more effortful. Students who approach reading as a problem solving activity take an active and strategic approach to reading, and are metacognitively aware of how well they understand what they read.

Here are some strategies to enhance students’ comprehension by focusing on problem solving skills.

Helpful Hints

• Provide students with guidance in using various reading comprehension strategies, such as paraphrasing and summarizing techniques. For example, when teaching paraphrasing and summarizing, provide information about differentiating main ideas from supporting details, knowing what to include or exclude, condensing a long passage into a brief restatement, etc.  
• Discuss the benefits of various reading comprehension strategies with students. Have students choose a strategy to use during an activity and then rate its effectiveness in helping their reading comprehension.  
• Provide a wide variety of texts for students to read. Discuss how certain strategies may be best suited for certain types of texts, e.g., textbooks, narratives, poetry, newspaper articles, etc.  
• Ask students to write down the reading comprehension strategy or strategies they will use before they start their reading, for example, using guiding questions, underlining important details, summarizing after each paragraph, etc.  
• Show students how you elaborate on a reading passage by making connections between the text and your prior knowledge about the topic.  
• Cite the story evidence you used to make an inference or draw a conclusion when reading.  
• Describe a picture that you created in your mind to help you understand and remember what you read.  
• Encourage students to preview reading passages. For example, have students write down or talk about what they think a passage will be about before they read it, or have them preview questions that go along with the passage before reading, etc.  
• Encourage students to self-monitor while they read by giving them guiding questions, such as: “Does what I’ve read make since to me so far?,” “Do I need to re-read any parts, or talk with someone to help me understand?,” etc.  
• Help students learn how to pace, or control, the tempo of their reading rate by having them think about the time they have to read a given passage, and the time needed to achieve full comprehension. Students may compare “easy” passages with ‘difficult’ passages, noticing the “difficult” passage may require a slower pace.

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A Problem-Solving Approach to Language Arts

roblem-solving might not be the first thing you think of when you hear “language arts,” but taking a problem-solving approach to reading and writing can be a powerful way to motivate students to want to learn.

Problem-Solving isn’t just a math thing.

Whenever we “do” language arts—in other words, any time we read, write, speak, or interpret—we are problem solving. If you’ve ever researched a car before you purchased it, or seen through a politician’s hedging, or tried to describe your symptoms to a doctor, you’ve solved a language arts problem.

Problem-solving in language arts means using language skills to understand or communicate an idea: Is this car worth the money? What’s that guy’s agenda? How can I get my doctor to understand what I’m experiencing? By some combination of reading, writing, speaking, and interpretation, you have probably solved thousands of language arts problems in your lifetime.

But language arts problems aren’t just personal—they can happen on a large scale, and they can impact people in very real ways. Take medical brochures, for example. In 2017, NPR reported on a problem that hospitals in the UK were experiencing . At the time, the average reading level in the UK was fourth grade, but most hospital literature was written at a twelfth-grade level. This meant that, if you needed hip-replacement surgery, your doctor was likely to hand you a brochure on par with Shakespeare or Dickens, when you were more comfortable reading Judy Blume. Granted, we tend to read at a higher level when we’re reading something that is deeply interesting to us (and what could be more interesting than your own impending surgery?), but asking patients to jump eight grade levels to understand what was going to happen to them during surgery was a problem—a language arts problem.

To find new ways of solving this problem, researchers recruited actual fourth-graders to take a crack at writing hip-replacement brochures. The students’ brochures—equal parts adorable, strange, and honest—provided a totally new perspective on what hospital literature could look like. Drawing lessons from the fourth-graders, the researchers argued for more honesty and simplicity in patient literature. In other words, the students’ writing was a small but real step toward solving a real problem.

The hospital problem crystallizes what we mean when we say “language arts problem.” For the hospitals, it was a writing problem—a need to communicate to patients in clear language, “Here’s what’s going to happen to you.” For the patients, it was a reading problem—a need to understand what was going to happen to their bodies. I love this example because it shows both sides of a language arts problem: communicating (writing) and understanding (reading).

Any time we’re trying to communicate or understand something by reading, writing, or speaking—and that’s pretty much all the time—we are solving a language arts problem.

But not all language arts problems are created equal. A good language arts problem, like a good math problem, is one that really needs to be solved. In some cases, it literally needs to be solved—patients need to understand their surgeries, you need to know whether you should buy that car or not. In other cases, a good language arts problem is just too enticing to walk away from.  

Think about the last time you read a really good novel. Remember how it felt to need to read on, to not want to put the book down because you just had to know what would happen next? That’s how a good language arts problem feels.

That’s how students should experience language arts, too—and they can.

By building problem-solving into language arts curriculum, we can turn ELA subjects like reading, writing, speaking, interpretation—even grammar—into compelling problems that demand solutions.

Imagine how those fourth-graders must have felt when real researchers approached them and said, “We have these patients who really need to understand the surgeries they’re about to have, but the brochures we wrote are confusing. You’re really good at writing in a way that our patients can understand. Can you help?”

It’s hard to say no to a request like that.

That’s because the proposal doesn’t feel like an assignment—it feels like a mission. Students can clearly see the problem, they can see why they need to solve it, and there isn’t already an obvious solution. Moreover, by solving the problem, students are creating a piece of writing that people actually need. In other words, with problem-solving, students aren’t practicing reading and writing skills for the sake of practice—they’re using reading and writing skills to make something that needs to exist.

Every lesson students encounter in language arts should feel like this. The challenge is to engineer a curriculum that has problem-solving built in at every turn. This is no small task, especially when you consider the breadth of language arts education. How do you build problems that make students need to learn grammar? To master academic writing? To read nonfiction? How do you get students to really, genuinely need to think critically about information they encounter outside of school? In other words:

How do you create truly compelling problems that help students develop skills across the broad spectrum of language arts?

This is a question we’ve been grappling with as we build a language arts curriculum at AoPS. There is no formula for a really great language arts problem. (And, really, part of the fun of problem-solving is figuring out lots of creative approaches—even when the problem you’re trying to solve is how to make a good problem.) But, by working closely with students and teachers, collaborating with our math colleagues, and looking to models like the hospital problem, we have developed a few big ideas that are guiding the curriculum we’re building.

These ideas are the foundation of our Beast Academy Language Arts books, and we think they can help anyone who is interested in engineering good language arts problems for students.  

1. Make it a problem, not a prompt

A prompt is an assignment: Create an informational brochure about a medical topic. Research a sea animal and write an essay that teaches readers about your animal. Write a story about a time you stood up for an idea. A student’s motivation to respond to a prompt comes mainly from outside the prompt itself. You respond to a prompt because it’s required—it’s an assignment. Some prompts are interesting or fun, and many younger students are happy to complete assignments because they want to be good students. That’s great, but it’s incidental to the prompt itself: a prompt starts from the assumption that students are going to do the assignment—it doesn’t do the work of getting students to the table.

A problem, on the other hand, starts from motivation. When you’re designing a problem, the first question you have to ask—and keep asking—is, “What makes a student want to do this?”

There are many ways to create motivation. Motivation could come from the intriguing nature of the problem itself, as with a good word puzzle or a really provocative question. Or, motivation could come from a well-crafted scenario—a writing project that’s built like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, or a grammar lesson framed as an escape room. If you’re working directly with students, you can create motivation by letting your students choose their own problems to solve, as in this compelling case study where 7th-graders took on child labor in their community and developed a range of skills—nonfiction reading, online research, analyzing and synthesizing multiple sources, public speaking, academic writing, and more—in the service of solving a problem they really cared about.

In short, creating motivation means never assuming that students will want to do something just because it’s an assignment. Good language arts problems come from a process of recognizing and rooting out this assumption at every turn.

2. Let reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary work together.

We often think of language arts as a set of subjects, each with its own chunk of class time. In an elementary classroom, students might spend a chunk of time reading independently, another chunk doing online research for a writing project, another chunk reading nonfiction, and another chunk listening to their teacher read an authentic text like a novel or a collection of stories. Often, these separate chunks of time are devoted to separate projects: we’re researching and writing about sea animals, and then we’re reading fables; we’re learning how to read subtitles in an article about weather, and then we’re writing personal narratives. This variety can be a good thing—if you’re not jazzed about weather, at least that’s only one part of what you’re doing that day. But variety can also erase opportunities to create motivation.

Take the student who’s not interested in weather. She might be deeply invested in the other chunks of the day, but there’s little to motivate her to engage with the weather article, so she’s less likely to connect with the lesson about subtitles. What if, instead of treating it as its own chunk, we embedded the weather article in a larger problem that integrated all of the language arts chunks for that day?

Here’s how a problem like that might look in a classroom. Imagine that this is a block of about two hours in a third-grade classroom, with students transitioning between independent work, group work, and class discussion as they move through the problem. The block begins with an independent-reading warm-up, and the problem is introduced in step two:

• Independent reading (15 minutes): In this unit, we’re learning about mythology. Find a reading spot in the classroom, and continue reading the book you have chosen from our mythology and ancient history library.
• Class read-aloud (10 minutes): Gather on the rug to hear the next installment of our adventure story. Today, we find out that Zeus has gone undercover. We need to find him before he hurts someone! He’s hiding out somewhere in North America, but there’s one way to figure out where he is: as the god of lightning, he can’t help but attract unusual weather wherever he goes. Find the weird weather, and you’ll find Zeus.
• Nonfiction text practice (15 minutes): Here are two texts. One is a page from a reference book describing typical weather patterns in North America; the other is a page from a website that shows the weather in North America last week. Go back to your desk, and work with your group to compare both texts to find out where Zeus is hiding. One thing before you go: we need to work quickly to find Zeus before someone gets hurt—here’s how you can use subtitles to efficiently navigate these two texts. Okay, go!
• Share and check (10 minutes): Time’s up! Who figured out where Zeus is hiding? Which group wants to share where you think he is and explain how you figured it out?
• Writing (20 minutes): Now, you’ll work independently. Write a dispatch that will be read on the news in the area where Zeus is hiding. It’s really important to be clear in your dispatch—you’ve got to convince the people who hear it that Zeus is definitely in their region and urge them to get out, fast. If they don’t understand you or if they think you’re wrong, they might not leave, and that could be dangerous for them. Make it really clear in your first sentence that Zeus is in their region, and then give a couple more sentences to show them how you used weather patterns in the two texts you examined to figure this out. One tip: remember how we learned yesterday that “because” and “so” can help us join clauses in a sentence? Those words might be helpful tools for you. Okay, go!
• Share and check (10 minutes): Who wants to volunteer to share what they wrote? Class, imagine if you were the people this student is trying to warn. What in their dispatch would convince you that you need to heed their warning?
• Class read-aloud (15 minutes): Nice work! Come back to the rug and we’ll continue reading our class book, D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths . Today we’re reading about Odin. As we read, let’s think about how Odin compares to Zeus.

When it’s integrated into a larger problem-solving activity like this, the weather text feels a lot more relevant. The problem— We need to find Zeus before someone gets hurt! —provides motivation for deciphering the weather article, and the nonfiction text feature we set out to teach (subtitles) becomes a helpful and necessary tool for solving the problem. The problem also motivates the day’s writing and grammar practice, and the whole lesson is bookended by readings that take students deeper into the world where the problem is rooted.

Put more broadly, integrating multiple language arts skills into a single problem creates motivation: it gives students a reason to need to learn each skill. We need subtitles to find Zeus quickly; we need conjunctions (“because” and “so”) to make our warning clear for the people who are in danger; we need to cite evidence to convince those people to get out of Zeus’s way. Practicing any one of these skills by itself can feel boring and unmoored from how language actually works; practicing all of them together in the context of an engaging problem makes each skill feel relevant and important.

3. Think big.

A lot goes into building a lesson like the Zeus problem. Beyond inventing the problem itself, you have to gather just the right texts for each stage of the problem. Some of those texts need to be authentic literature—for example, the independent reading at the very beginning, and the class reading at the end. You’ll also need two nonfiction texts about weather that will line up in a way that suggests where Zeus is hiding. And those two texts need to lend themselves to teaching subtitles. And they should be engaging. And one should be an online source while the other is a print source. Actually, there’s a good chance you’ll need to write those texts yourself. On top of all this, students need to have been practicing persuasive writing just before you get to this lesson, and they need to have just learned “because” and “so” so that they can apply those skills when they write their dispatches. Oh, you’ll also need to write a story that sets up the whole Zeus-is-hiding-quick-let’s-find-him scenario.

All of this may sound daunting. If you’re knee-deep in teaching your own classroom, pulling off a problem like this might actually be impossible. Building problems that knit together multiple language arts skills in engaging and meaningful ways is like assembling a ten-thousand-piece puzzle: you really need to see the whole picture before you can start putting the individual pieces together. But, with time, resources, expertise, and careful big-picture planning, a team of curriculum developers can build not just one lesson like this but entire grade levels of lessons that have problem solving built-in.

That’s exactly what AoPS’s language arts team is doing right now, as we’re creating our Beast Academy Language Arts curriculum. We are teachers, writers, and problem solvers ourselves, and—just as AoPS has done for math—we are creating the curriculum we wish we’d had when we were in school. We’ve already launched a pilot of our third-grade Beast Academy Language Arts curriculum at AoPS Academy , and we’re hard at work refining this pilot and developing our third-grade guide and practice books (including some new teachers who will be joining the faculty at Beast Academy—that’s Professor Isabella Bird, Beast Academy’s resident archaeologist and librarian, at the top of this article).

Building this curriculum is our own, rather massive language arts problem. Like any good language arts problem, it doesn’t have an obvious solution, so it will take some time for us to produce our books. But, when we do, we are confident that we are making something that really needs to exist.

Problem-solving might not be the first thing you think of when you hear “language arts,” but taking a problem-solving approach to reading and writing can be a powerful way to motivate students to want to learn.

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Writing with artificial intelligence, problem-solving strategies for writers: a review of research.

• © 2023 by Joseph M. Moxley - Professor of English - USF

Traditionally, in U.S. classrooms, the writing process is depicted as a series of linear steps (e.g., prewriting , writing , revising , and editing ). However, since the 1980s the writing process has also been depicted as a problem-solving process. This article traces the evolution of Linda Flower and John Hayes' problem-solving model of the writing process, and it provides you with an opportunity to illustrate your own writing process.

Table of Contents

What are Problem Solving Strategies for Writers?

As an alternative to imagining the writing process to be a series of steps or stages that writers work through in linear manner or as a largely mysterious, creative processes informed by embodied knowledge , felt sense , and inner speech, Linda Flower and John Hayes suggested in 1977 that writing should be thought of as a “thinking problem,” a “problem-solving process,” or “cognitive problem solving process”:

“We frequently talk of writing as if it were a series of independent temporally bounded actions (e.g.,  pre-writing ,  writing ,  rewriting ). It is more accurate to see it as a hierarchical set of subproblems arranged under a goal or set of goals. The process then is an iterative one. For each subproblem along the way — whether it is making a logical connection between hazy ideas, or finding a persuasive tone — the writer may draw on a whole repertoire of procedures and heuristics” (Flower & Hayes, 1977, p. 460-461).

Examples of Problem-Solving Strategies

• Rhetorical analysis , rhetorical reasoning
• Engage in logical reasoning
• Engaging in the information literacy perspectives and practices of educated, critical readers
• Working with others during the writing process , such as brainstorming ideas together, collaborating on a draft , or writing as part of a team .
• Sharing drafts with peers and giving each other constructive feedback . This can help writers see their work from different perspectives and identify areas for improvement that they might have overlooked.
• Seeking guidance from more experienced writers or instructors, such as a teacher, tutor, or writing center consultant. This can involve discussing writing challenges, getting feedback on drafts , or learning new writing strategies .
• Talking through ideas with others before and during the writing process . This can help writers clarify their thoughts, explore different viewpoints, and generate new ideas.
• In group writing projects, members might need to negotiate on various aspects, like the division of tasks, the main argument or focus of the piece, or the style and tone of the writing .
• Considering the needs, expectations, and perspectives of the intended readers. This can influence many aspects of the writing, from the overall structure and argument to the choice of language and examples.
• Defining what one wants to achieve with a piece of writing, be it a specific grade, clarity of argument , or a certain word count.
• Finding ways to stay motivated during the writing process, such as breaking the task into manageable pieces, rewarding oneself after reaching certain milestones, or focusing on the value and relevance of the task.
• Managing feelings of frustration, anxiety, or boredom that may arise during the writing process. This might involve taking breaks, practicing mindfulness, or reframing negative thoughts.
• Organizing one’s time effectively to meet deadlines and avoid last-minute stress. This might involve creating a writing schedule, setting aside specific times for writing, or using tools like timers or apps to stay focused.
• Regularly reflecting on one’s writing process and progress, identifying strengths and areas for improvement, and making adjustments as necessary.
• Critically reviewing one’s own writing to identify potential improvements, before getting feedback from others.
• Thinking about one’s own thinking or writing process involves setting goals, self-monitoring one’s progress, and adjusting tactics as needed.

Review of Research

Initially, in 1977, the problem-solving model was fairly simple: it focused on the writer’s memory, the task environment (aka the rhetorical situation ), prewriting , and reviewing. By 2014, following multiple iterations, the model had become more sophisticated, adding layers of complexity, such as the writer’s motivation, their knowledge of design schemas (given the visual turn in writing ), their intrapersonal and intrapersonal competencies , and their access to production technologies (aka, new writing spaces).

In 1980 Hayes and Flower introduced their cognitive process model in “Identifying the Organization of Writing Processes.” Then, in 1981, they elaborated on that model in “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing,” an article published in College Composition and Communication , a leading journal in writing studies .

As suggested by the above illustration, Flower and Hayes conceptualized the writing process to be composed of three major cognitive activities:

• planning – Writers set goals and establish a plan for writing the document.
• translating – Writers translate thought into words
• reviewing – Writers detect and correct “weaknesses in the text with respect to language conventions and accuracy of meaning” (p. 12).

They also introduced the concept of a “monitor” to account for how writers switch between planning, translating, and reviewing based on the writer’s assessment of the text.

Later, in “Modeling and Remodeling Writing” (2012), provided a more robust, complex model of the writing process. In his revision, Hayes omitted the concept of the monitor and he suggested that composing occurs on three levels:

• Control Level This level addresses (1) the writer’s motivation; (2) their ability to set goals (plan, write, revise); (3) their familiarity with writing schemas; (4) their current plan
• Process Level This level focuses on (1) the task environment and (2) the writing process itself, detailing the interactions between the writer, the task, and the context in which writing occurs. Writing Processes: 1. The Evaluator (e.g., a teacher, boss, or client); 2. The Proposer; 3. The Translator; 4. The Transcriber. Task Environment: 1. Collaborators & Critics; 2. Transcribing Technology; 3. Task Materials, Written Plans; 4. Text Written So Far
• working memory, which is responsible for temporarily storing and manipulating information during the writing process
• long-term memory, which stores knowledge about language, genre conventions, and prior experiences with writing tasks
• attention, which allows writers to focus on specific aspects of the task while filtering out irrelevant information
• reading, which references the writer’s literary history, what they’ve read and how conversant they are with ongoing scholarly conversations about the topic.

Some key differences and improvements in the 2012 model include:

• The 2012 model introduces additional cognitive components, such as working memory and motivation , which were not explicitly addressed in the original model.
• The 2012 model endeavors to account for the social aspects of writing, including collaboration and communication with others during the writing process.
• The original Hayes-Flower model presented the writing subprocesses (planning, translating, and reviewing) in a linear fashion. However, the 2012 model emphasizes that these processes are recursive and iterative, meaning that writers continually move back and forth between these stages as they write, revise, and refine their work.
• The updated model aims to addresses the impact of digital technologies on the writing process, acknowledging that the use of computers, word processing software, and online resources can significantly influence how writers plan, compose, and revise their texts.

In 2014, Hayes, in collaboration with three other colleagues (Leijten et al. 2014), once again revised his model of the composing processes. Leijten et al. argue that writing processes have changed significantly since Hayes’ 2012 revision thanks to the development and adoption of new digital technologies. They were especially interested in online collaboration tools used in the work place.

As illustrated below, in the revised model, Leijten et al. added “design schemas” (e.g., graphics, drawings, photographs, and other visuals) to the control level. At the process level, they added graphics to the text the writer had produced thus far. They also included motivation management at the resource level to address the fatigue and conflicts that can set in during long projects involving many steps and people. Perhaps most importantly, they added a searcher to the writing process to account for how open the writer is to strategic searching or how open they are to new information that contradicts previous information .

A Fun Exercise

One of the takeaways from research on writer’s composing processes is that we’re all special snowflakes: we each have our unique processes for generating, research, and writing.

To gain some insight into your own writing processes, why not draw it?

• Get your crayons out or whatever writing tools you use to draw.
• Draft your own vision of the writing process.
• Write a narrative that explains your drawing.

Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. (1980). Identifying the Organization of Writing Processes. In L. W. Gregg, & E. R. Steinberg (Eds.), Cognitive Processes in Writing: An Interdisciplinary Approach (pp. 3-30). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.  

Hayes, J. R. (2012). Modeling and remodeling writing. Written Communication, 29(3), 369-388. https://doi: 10.1177/0741088312451260

Hayes, J. R., & Flower, L. S. (1986). Writing research and the writer. American Psychologist, 41(10), 1106-1113. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.41.10.1106

Leijten, Van Waes, L., Schriver, K., & Hayes, J. R. (2014). Writing in the workplace: Constructing documents using multiple digital sources. Journal of Writing Research, 5(3), 285–337. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2014.05.03.3

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• School Psychologists Should Embrace Telecounseling as an Option in the Post COVID-19 World
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• Social Media and Crisis Intervention: Opportunity and Danger
• Self-Care Lessons From the Field
• Thinking Versus Knowing: The Key to Measuring Intelligence
• Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)
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• Promoting School Psychological Service Delivery Through Active Self-Care

Problem-Solving the Complexities of Reading Comprehension

Being able to comprehend written text is an essential life skill. Consider all the ways in which one uses reading comprehension skills in everyday life. Everything from reading the comics in the newspaper and social media online to reading the voter's pamphlet or a job application are impacted by one's comprehension skills. Because of its importance, school psychologists need to understand which reading and language skills are critical to the development of reading comprehension.

It probably won't come as a surprise that reading comprehension is a complex construct consisting of several component skills and processes that work together in an integrated, and often synergistic, fashion. As such, when it comes to understanding reading comprehension problems, we may need to untangle the variety of reasons why a student might struggle.

The Complex Nature of Reading Comprehension Problems

Some of the reasons students experience reading comprehension difficulties include poor basic skills in phonemic awareness and decoding. While these basic skills may impede reading development, students may exhibit reading comprehension problems for reasons beyond these basic skills, for example, vocabulary and higher order language skills (e.g., figurative language). In what follows, I describe how several skills beyond phonemic awareness and decoding contribute to comprehension development as well as difficulties with comprehension.

Reading fluency. A student's reading fluency must be sufficient to support comprehension and focus their attention on understanding the meaning of text, rather than on decoding words. Fluent readers not only read words accurately and effortlessly, they simultaneously integrate understanding of vocabulary and background knowledge and attend to prosodic cues (i.e., they read with expression) when reading connected text. As such, reading fluency is not merely about speed, but rather the quality of reading.

Vocabulary and word knowledge. Vocabulary impacts comprehension directly with respect to the understanding of text and indirectly because knowing a word's meaning impacts word recognition fluency. A strong vocabulary makes it easier for students to understand text and become fluent while reading. Breadth of vocabulary knowledge is related to background knowledge. Greater background knowledge helps students comprehend more challenging text. Notably, vocabulary is one of the largest contributors to reading comprehension skill. Work by Stahl and Nagy (2006) suggests that vocabulary knowledge contributes 50–60% of the variance in reading comprehension outcomes. Students with more poorly developed vocabulary show declining comprehension skills later on in elementary and middle school. Oral language is a fundamental building block for learning. Students who come from a rich spoken language environment often have less difficulty comprehending text.

Syntax and grammar. Students with comprehension difficulties tend to have more difficulty with word order (Mokhtari & Thompson, 2006) as well as difficulties in correcting sentences or grammatical errors (Cain & Oakhill, 2007). Knowledge of syntax and grammar aids student comprehension by providing greater ease with:

• chunking sentences into meaningful units,
• making sure decoding is accurate so they can fix decoding errors quickly and not disrupt the flow of their reading,
• verifying the meaning of unfamiliar words, and
• clarifying meaning of ambiguous words, or words with multiple meanings.

Morphological awareness. Ways in which knowledge of morphology aids student comprehension include:

• increased vocabulary as students make connections between root words and the new words created by adding prefixes and suffixes (e.g., act + ion = action; re + act = react; re + act + ion = reaction);
• increased knowledge of syntax and grammatical understanding; and
• increased fluency in reading connected text, which frees up cognitive resources that can then be allocated for comprehension.

Story coherence/text structure awareness. These elements involve a student's skill in following the organization of a passage, as well as identification of antecedents and referents in text. Story coherence is related to the quality of a story, the structural elements of it, and how these elements relate to one another in a meaningful way. This skill is logically connected to a student’s standard of coherence, which is related to the expectation that text should make sense (Perfetti & Adlof, 2012) and the extent to which the reader notices when it does not and makes efforts to maintain coherence (van den Broek, 2012). Students who struggle with comprehension tend to have difficulty producing a well-structured and integrated story, identifying the main event or main point (Yuill & Oakhill, 1991), as well as correctly sequencing stories (Cain & Oakhill, 2006). Inferences made about what will happens next in a story (i.e, prediction) also should support story coherence (Perfetti & Adlof, 2012).

Important Characteristics of Reading Comprehension Diagnostic Measures

So how might we pinpoint student difficulties in these critical component skill areas? One way to do so is by using diagnostic tools that directly assess them and can be linked to targeted intervention. Pinpointing instructional needs in these critical areas can provide students the keys to unlocking the power of reading comprehension. In addition, assessment should be as time efficient as possible, so that more time may be allocated to intervention. Furthermore, assessment is most informative when it provides an opportunity to directly observe the student performing the skill of interest and affords opportunities to examine what prompting and teaching procedures elicit correct responding. Finally, the assessment should be valid and reliable for the decisions that the results will be used to make. One example of an assessment that fits these characteristics is Acadience Reading Diagnostic Comprehension, Fluency, and Oral Language (CFOL). [1]

Resources for Reading Comprehension Instruction and Intervention

Several free resources address reading interventions by essential skill (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary). Examples of these sources include the Florida Center for Reading Research (see Student Center Activities ), Free Reading (see Find Activities ), Reading Rockets (see Target the Problem ), and the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts (see Materials ).

An additional free resource for improving language and reading comprehension is called Let's Know! , which is available from the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) at Ohio State University. This 25-week curriculum supplement is available for free download from their website and is available in both English and Spanish (see https://larrc.ehe.osu.edu/curriculum/ ).

Beyond these material resources, freely available webinars and trainings on these topics exist. Examples include the following:

• Video series containing from Nancy Lewis Hennessy on the Comprehension Construction Zone: A Blueprint for Instruction posted at Middle Tennessee State University, available here .
• IDA conference recording – Reading Comprehension Strategies for Students With Dyslexia , available here .
• IDA sponsored webinar on Supporting Comprehension Through Writing About Reading: Instructional Suggestions, available here .

Related Webinar:  Problem-Solving the Complexities of Reading Comprehension

Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. (2006). Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76 (4), 683–696.

Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. (2007). Reading comprehension difficulties: Correlates, causes, and consequences. In K. Cain & J. Oakhill (Eds.), Children’s comprehension problems in oral and written language: A cognitive perspective (pp. 41–75). Guilford.

Mokhtari, K. & Thompson, H. B. (2006). How problems of reading fluency and comprehension are related to difficulties in syntactic awareness skills among fifth graders. Reading Research Quarterly, 46 (1), 73–94.

Perfetti, C. A., & Adlof, S. M. (2012). Reading comprehension: A conceptual framework from word meaning to text meaning. In J. P. Sabatini, E. Albro, & T. O’Reilly (Eds.), Measuring up: Advances in how we assess reading ability (pp. 3–20). Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Stahl, S. A., & Nagy, W. E. (2006). Teaching word meanings. Erlbaum.

van den Broek, P. (2012). Individual and developmental differences in reading comprehension: Assessing cognitive processes and outcomes. In J. P. Sabatini, E. R. Albro, & T. O’Reilly (Eds), Measuring up: Advances in how to assess reading ability (pp. 39–58). Rowman & Littlefield.

Yuill, N. M, & Oakhill, J. V. (1991). Children’s problems in text comprehension: An experimental invesitigation. Cambridge University Press.

[1] Information about Acadience Reading Diagnostic CFOL is available through emailing [email protected] or going to the Acadience Learning website: www.acadiencelearning.org

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Literacy and Problem Solving

Problem-solving skills are closely tied to literacy. Literacy reaches beyond the process of reading to comprehension, critical thinking and decision making, which result in better problem-solving skills. These skills are highly valued not only in the workplace, but in many aspects of our lives. We use problem solving to make difficult situations better and find new ways of doing things.

“Reading is essentially a problem-solving task. Comprehending what is read, like problem solving, requires effort, planning, self-monitoring, strategy selection, and reflection.” – Q.E.D. Foundation

Models for Problem Solving

There are many problem-solving models and strategies to help teach critical thinking. They provide step-by-step processes we can use to address a challenge. One example is the ladder of inference. Developed by two Harvard professors in the 1970s, the ladder of inference explains the process of our assumptions and ultimately how we make our decisions. The video below offers a good explanation.

Understanding how the ladder of inference works allows us to back-up and reinterpret the data we’re receiving. By examining our own ladders, we can check our assumptions and help solve disagreements and other problems we encounter day to day.

Another problem-solving and decision-making model is the SODAS method. This stands for Situation, Options, Disadvantages, Advantages, and Select the best option. This method can be used with learners by presenting different real-life scenarios and by using role-playing. Students are presented with a problem situation, identify possible options to solve the problem and weigh the disadvantages and advantages of each option before coming to a solution. This method has been found to be particularly helpful in social situations.

We know that literacy includes much more than reading and writing. Problem solving is a life skill that assists us at home, at work and in the community. It is an essential component of the modern definition of literacy. For more problem-solving strategies and methods, check out the resources below.

• Integrating Digital Literacy and Problem Solving into Instruction
• Introduction to Problem Solving Skills
• The Ladder of Inference
• Problem solved! A guide for employees and learners
• Problem Solving with SODAS
• Reading as Problem Solving/Impact of Higher Order Thinking
• UP Skills for Work – Problem Solving

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Reading, Writing, Math: Developing Confident Problem Solvers

In the Athlos Academics curriculum, when it comes to reading, writing, and math, it’s more than what students learn, but how they learn, comprehend, and apply their newfound knowledge to real-world problems.

How Important are Reading, Writing, and Math?

For years, reading, writing, and math have been viewed as indicators on how well a young student is performing in school. A recent study shows most Americans still place reading, math, and writing as among the top skills required to succeed in life. At Athlos, these skills better serve as tools than as indicators of academic success, because simply performing a skill is different than knowing where, when, and how to use it in the real world.

Supporting research  behind the Athlos curriculum shows that students who sharpen these skills are more likely to become more adept in basic social communication skills as well. Whether children are speaking face-to-face, texting, vlogging, or creating a visual product that demonstrates their knowledge, being able to read, write, and perform everyday math only enhances the student’s ability to operate at school and at home.

Reading, writing, and math are paramount skills to a student’s education, but useless if the student doesn’t know what to do with them or care to practice them.

Because students often view these skills as two-dimensional topics, Athlos takes them a step further by helping students learn how they work together, support other facets of their education, and can be used in real-world problems.

How Athlos Brings Real-World Experiences into The Classroom

Just as students who learn piano music theory immediately practice applying their new-found knowledge using simple scales and short songs, so do Athlos students who learn reading, writing, and math. Here’s how each topic is explored:

• Like traditional teaching methods, reading is often taught alongside English in Athlos classrooms. Things like incentives, tracking reading levels, and constant communication and updates with parents are just a few of the tactics Athlos uses to help students move from learning to read, to reading to learn. Athlos school leaders also strive to incorporate new tactics, involving local reading groups and book clubs, and parent involvement at home. Ultimately, the goal is to help students love to read to learn.

• In math, we practice the best methods taught at top U.S. universities and institutions. Through these methods, we teach students for the sake of understanding instead of just knowing the material. Students are not only taught to know how to perform the calculations, but why. Knowing “how” not only enables students to flexibly use procedures, but to understand the relationships of these procedures within the structure of mathematics. Knowing “why” enable students to use concepts flexibly, extend their knowledge to new situations, and connect them to life outside of school.

Prepared Minds, Prepared Students

Athlos recognizes that students today aren’t just preparing to solve real-world problems, but to solve problems that don’t exist yet, using tools and techniques that are not yet invented. As Athlos students work through reading, writing, and math, alongside their other subjects, they are expected to challenge the status quo and think outside the box.

When students connect these skills in the classroom to what they experience outside the school, they feel the same emotions they would when solving a puzzle. They grow a desire to apply their knowledge, ask questions, and make real world differences.

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Reading Texts & Writing Problems to Improve Problem Solving

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Students who are struggling readers represent a challenge for teachers of any content area. However, even if students are proficient readers, that does not mean they have the skills to read and learn from science materials. This chapter describes how science teachers can help their students become confident and effective readers and learners in the science classroom.

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Mathematical Reading: Investigating the Reading Comprehension Strategies Implemented by Middle School Students

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Mathematical literacy is a keystone of contemporary mathematics education research. We collectively, thoroughly explore this set of literacy practices from the perspectives of mathematical writing and mathematical discussion. Mathematical literacy practices, of course, include a third component—reading—which takes a number of forms. This document explores the mathematical reading processes of 22 middle school students, identifying the strategies most and least used by these students, and the ways in which strategy implementation aids their reading process. From this study, we can begin to identify how this knowledge can be used by teachers, curriculum designers, and educational researchers in an effort to aid their students.

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Texas Education Agency (2016). Grade-level retention and student performance in Texas public schools, 2014–15 (Document No. GE17 601 09).  http://tea.texas.gov/acctres/retention_student_performance_2014-15.pdf

Todd, J. (2020, February 20). Sadlier’s math blog: math test-taking strategies for elementary students . Sadlier School. https://www.sadlier.com/school/sadlier-math-blog/math-test-taking-strategies-for-elementary-students-math-multiple-choice-test-taking-strategies

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Appendix 1 – Three-page reading passage from enVision Mathematics Gr. 7.

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Beaudine, G. Mathematical Reading: Investigating the Reading Comprehension Strategies Implemented by Middle School Students. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 20 (Suppl 1), 187–213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10287-1

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Research in 60 Seconds: Using Tech to Improve Readability

Whether it’s solving the world’s biggest problems or investigating the potential of novel discoveries, researchers at UCF are on the edge scientific breakthroughs that aim to make an impact. Through the  Research in 60 Seconds series , student and faculty researchers condense their complex studies into bite-sized summaries so you can know how and why Knights plan to improve our world.

Name:  Ben Sawyer

Position(s):  Associate professor of industrial engineering and director of The Readability Consortium

Why are you interested in this research? My mother was a children’s librarian focused on building collections, and my father was a high school teacher, and then a professor of education. My own early work was focused on attention and distraction, and I became fascinated by how people get information out of machine systems, and into their minds. My present research centers around human performance in reading: how can we best move information into your awareness, so you can do something with it.

Who inspires you to conduct your research? I’m inspired by people working hard to understand [information, including] children, soldiers, analysts, physicians, and older adults all looking to find the information they need to get them to their goal and keep them safe on the way. My father worked with children with dyslexia, and it’s amazing how much parity I see between the struggles of those kids and the struggle of a physician trying to move through a 60-year medical history in a clunky interface in time to make a good decision for an anxious patient. I’m inspired by that struggle, which all of us face to a greater degree every day.

How does UCF empower you to do your research? UCF provides access to a brilliant community of students and collaborators. Industrial engineering is a friendly and collaborative faculty. I’ve met so many fascinating students in my classes and have been privileged to have some of them join my research group. I have graduated a few of these as scientists and engineers. I love the diversity at UCF: people from every imaginable walk of life are on this campus, and the perspectives they bring to this research make it possible. Moreover, I like the people I get to work with, and I wake up every day happy to see them and excited to move our work forward. I feel very lucky in this.

What major grants and honors have you earned to support your research? My readability research is primarily funded by industry. The consortium’s founding members Adobe and nonprofit Readability Matters provided the initial foundation for a community that now notably includes Google and Monotype. We also are beginning to work with these companies to attract state funding directly, including a 2023-24 $1 million appropriation from the State of Florida.

Why is this research important? Billions of readers have too much to read. The information age is only as miraculous as our individual abilities to access infinite information. The written word, one of the great engineering accomplishments of human history, was literally developed on reeds and animal hide. This research is founded in the idea that writing and reading, is due for an update. Rebuilding the written word to help humans of the information age is also an opportunity for languages that have not benefited so strongly from the digital revolution. Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali and other scripts are underserved by modern Latin alphabet centered digital infrastructure but are receiving large investments as billions of these readers move online. Our readability research provides an opportunity to build equity in these languages, while working from evidence-based first principles of readability.

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The Importance of Creativity in Children's Education

Many of us are guilty of focusing on logical skills when teaching children how to read, write and even interact with others. While these are needed in order for them to have a better understanding of the world, encouraging creativity can have a huge positive impact on your child’s development.

There are a multitude of benefits linked to inspiring creativity in young children. Here are some of them:

Mental health and self-confidence

Encouraging your child to be creative from a young age can have a significant impact on their mental health and well-being. Fun creative activities such as pretend play and storytelling can offer them some escapism from the real world, and can help young children process their feelings, thoughts, opinions and emotions in a more efficient and productive way.

When children engage in creative expression, they not only have fun but also subconsciously work on emotional development, which is essential for their own mental growth. Creating something from scratch or adding their own creative flair to something that already exists fosters a sense of pride and self-worth, which is a great way to teach your child about self-awareness, self-esteem and self-confidence.

Problem-solving and critical thinking skills

When children face a problem, they tend to use their creative thinking skills to solve it. For instance, if two children want to play basketball but don't have a ball, they might think of using a crumpled piece of paper and an empty box as a makeshift ball and hoop. In this scenario, they are not just finding a solution; they are actively using their problem-solving skills and critical thinking to create an entirely new way to play the game.

Creative thinking allows children to come up with different solutions to a problem, improving their critical thinking skills and brainstorming abilities. Additionally, creativity helps children become more adaptive by teaching them to change their approach when facing obstacles. This flexibility in thinking is crucial for their development and will serve them well as they grow into more capable and resilient people.

Academic and cognitive skills

Creativity is more than an outlet for self-expression, as it can also boost children's academic and cognitive skills, laying a strong foundation for their future success. The creative process allows children to become better thinkers and learners, which can lead to improved performance in key areas like reading and writing . For example, when children participate in creative writing activities , they use their imagination and think outside the box, making the learning process more enjoyable and self-directed.

In early childhood education, fostering creativity has a huge impact on cognitive skills. Activities that promote creative thinking, such as problem-solving tasks and imaginative play, help children develop their memory and critical thinking. These skills are crucial for academic success and are foundational to quality education.

Young learners who have honed their creative abilities early on tend to exhibit better concentration, advanced language development, and better listening skills. These skills are essential for thriving in higher education.

By integrating creativity into children's education, we set them on a path towards achieving quality education and long-term academic success.

Motor skills

Creativity is not just about thinking outside the box; it also plays a significant role in boosting children's motor skills , which are a key part of their physical development. Engaging in hands-on creative activities can greatly improve fine motor skills. Art activities that involve manipulating materials, like molding playdough or painting with small brushes, are particularly effective for encouraging the development of these motor skills. Shaping playdough into different forms or painting requires children to use their hands in coordinated ways, improving their dexterity and hand-eye coordination.

These fine motor skills are crucial for child development, as they lay the foundation for more complex tasks such as writing, buttoning clothes, and using utensils.

Communication skills

Creativity is not only a gateway to imaginative play but also a powerful tool for boosting children's communication skills. When children engage in creative activities, whether it's storytelling, role-playing, or collaborative art projects, they naturally develop their social skills. These activities encourage them to express their ideas, listen to others and work together, which are essential parts of effective communication. By integrating creativity into their daily routines, children in their early years learn how to show their thoughts and feelings more clearly, laying a strong foundation for their communication abilities as they grow.

In early childhood, creative activities are particularly beneficial for helping children make sense of their surroundings and interact with others. Through imaginative play, for example, children experiment with different roles and scenarios, which helps them get a better understanding of the world and how they fit into it. This in turn inspires them to ask questions, share their perspectives and even build a broader vocabulary !

How to boost creativity

If you’re looking for ways to spark your child's creativity , there are plenty of simple yet effective strategies you can incorporate into their daily routine!

Encouraging creative play at home or in a homeschooling environment is one of the most powerful ways to boost your child’s creativity. Start by creating a fun and supportive environment filled with different materials that inspire imaginative play. Whether it’s a variety of art supplies like crayons, markers, and paper, or building blocks and costumes for pretend play, having these readily available allows young children to express their ideas freely and creatively.

Role-play is an effective way to boost children's creativity. For example, setting up a “restaurant” at home where your child can be the chef or server not only makes playtime more engaging but also helps them develop their storytelling and problem-solving skills. Pretend play scenarios like this allow children to step into different roles and explore new ideas, all while having fun!

Reading is another powerful tool for inspiring your child to be creative and encourage them to use their imagination. When children read, they’re introduced to new worlds, characters , and ideas that can inspire their own imaginative play. Encourage them to create their own stories based on what they’ve read, or ask them to draw pictures of their favorite settings or characters. This not only reinforces what they’ve learned but also allows them to explore different ways to express their thoughts and ideas creatively.

By integrating these creative experiences into your child’s routine, you’re helping them develop a strong foundation for creative thinking that will benefit their academic success and beyond!

How Night Zookeeper can help

One of the most effective ways to boost creativity while ensuring that your child is also getting the academic support they need is by using an educational program.

Night Zookeeper is a reading & writing program for children aged 6 to 12 that puts creativity at the forefront of education. It transforms reading & writing into a game that encourages children’s imaginations by letting them learn through play and encouraging them to build their on Night Zoo by completing lessons, challenges and games. This gamified approach makes learning fantastically fun, engaging and entertaining.

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Reading a Problem-Solution Paragraph and Essay

Now that you've warmed up your thinking about problems and solutions, you can read a sample paragraph and essay. Note how each writer explains a problem and argues for a specific solution.

Reading a Problem-Solution Paragraph

A problem-solution paragraph has three main parts. The topic sentence introduces the solution to a problem. The body sentences explain the problem and solution. The ending sentence calls readers to action.

Listen to "Helping New Students Fit In"

Sample Paragraph

Helping new students fit in.

Topic Sentence Coming to a new school is hard, so we should figure out how to make new students feel welcome. New students have to fit in with new classmates in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar rules. Body Sentences This problem can make them feel lonely. Instead of just expecting new students to make all the effort, we can help them fit in. One of us can volunteer to show the new student around and sit with him or her at lunch. The rest of us can introduce ourselves, learn the new student’s name, and share something about our school or ourselves. Ending Sentence Together, let’s make our school a friendlier place to be.

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Our mission is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement that disproportionately impact students who are the most underserved, with a particular focus on Black and Latino/a students and students from low-income backgrounds.

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EdTrust-Tennessee advocates for equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Tennessee students and families as we work alongside them for the future they deserve.

EdTrust–West is committed to dismantling the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. Through our research and advocacy, EdTrust-West engages diverse communities dedicated to education equity and justice and increases political and public will to build an education system where students of color and multilingual learners, especially those experiencing poverty, will thrive.

The Education Trust in Louisiana works to promote educational equity for historically underserved students in the Louisiana’s schools. We work alongside students, families, and communities to build urgency and collective will for educational equity and justice.

EdTrust in Texas advocates for an equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Texas students and families as we work alongside them for the better future they deserve.

EdTrust in Washington advocates for an equitable education for historically-underserved students across the state. We believe in centering the voices of Washington students and families as we work alongside them for the better future they deserve.

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Home – Blog – The Literacy Crisis in the U.S. is Deeply Concerning—and Totally Preventable

The Literacy Crisis in the U.S. is Deeply Concerning—and Totally Preventable

Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time. Our children’s future—and our nation’s democracy—depends on us addressing this crisis now.

Frederick Douglass said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” This was true in the 19 th  century, when he was decrying the notion that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as American citizens, and that statement still carries weight today.  There is currently a literacy crisis happening in the U.S., one that disproportionately affects students of color, and that cannot be ignored. Literacy is one of the major civil rights issues of our time, and our children’s future — and our nation’s democracy — depends on us addressing it now.

There is overwhelming evidence that nearly all children can learn to read. But in schools across the country, many students — especially students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities — are not yet skillful readers. Last year, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), “the nation’s report card,” showed that not even half (43%) of fourth graders in the U.S. scored at or above a proficient level in reading. And for marginalized students, the numbers are much worse: just 17% of Black students, 21% of Latino students, 11% of student with disabilities, and 10% of multilingual learners can read proficiently by fourth grade.

That any child, let alone the majority of children, goes to school without being taught to read is deeply concerning — and also completely preventable. There are five widely accepted components that are essential to reading:  phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Decades of research shows that when students receive explicit and systematic instruction across all of these domains, they will learn to read. And when students are given access to texts with  rich, diverse characters and cultures , seeing people like themselves fully represented in school materials, they will become more engaged readers.

So why do we see staggering numbers of children, especially children of color and children from low-income backgrounds, without fundamental literacy skills?

In many districts and schools, outdated teaching methods and curricula that have been proven ineffective, and even harmful, are still being used. Adding to this problem is that too many teachers enter the profession without any  training in evidence-based reading instruction, which means they lack the knowledge to effectively teach their students how to read. Plus, there are unfounded and deeply entrenched ideas about how children learn to read that have had a reverberating and far-reaching impact — which have been expertly documented in Emily Hanford’s podcast,  Sold a Story  and the documentary,  Right to Read ,  executive produced by  Reading Rainbow  legend Levar Burton. To make things worse, the wave of states and districts taking steps to restrict the teaching of so-called critical race theory (CRT), ban books, and censor the ways race can be discussed in schools is curtailing the already limited degree of curricula diversity that is essential in opening students’ hearts and minds, and fuel their engagement and love of reading.

This phenomenon of denying people, particularly Black people, the right to read is part of a long, troubled history in our country.  Anti-literacy laws  in the U.S. prohibited enslaved, and sometimes free, Black Americans from learning to read or write, although many enslaved people defied those laws at great personal risk. When Black communities created freedpeople’s schools after the abolition of slavery in 1865, White Southerners responded by using violence to attack or destroy more than 600 schoolhouses. For nearly 100 years after emancipation,  literacy tests  prevented poor, immigrant, and formerly enslaved Black Americans from registering to vote. We’ve come a long way — yet still have much further to go.

As fiercely as Douglass fought for abolition and the right to literacy two centuries ago, we must now push education leaders at every level to adopt policies and practices  to ensure that every child learns to read and has access to diverse texts. Only then will children be completely free  live the lives of their choosing, and our democracy will be free from the consequences that come from illiteracy, ignorance, and intolerance.

What Happens When You Start Reading Every Day

The best habit you can develop to improve all aspects of your life is reading. But in this highly distracted age of ubiquitous social media, particularly video culture, who has time to curl up with a book? Almost two to three hours a day are spent watching television and using smartphones by adults. Check your screen time before reading this article. You’ll be shocked to see how much time you squander every day lazily browsing through your smartphone. How about devoting a portion of that time to reading? What if you started reading every day?

Expansion of Vocabulary

Reading more books will undoubtedly expose you to new vocabulary. Speaking clearly and concisely is a need for almost all professions. It is far simpler to pick up new words while reading than it is to memorize them blindly from a dictionary. New words can gradually find their way into your everyday talks if you are constantly exposed to them. Reading enhances focus and concentration.

Increased Concentration

One habit you can start practically right now to help with concentration is reading. Reading is an ACTIVE action that demands complete concentration on deciding which passages to read first and which to skip. You’ll be astounded at how much reading every day can improve your focus in just 20 minutes a day.

Read More:  Malawian Teen Taught Himself How To Build A Windmill From Junk, Brought Power To His Village, ALL Learned From Library Books!

Better At Solving Problems

Books have the power to inspire you and lead you into new experiences. Reading is not boring because there are so many books available. It just requires you to make reading a habit. You might get fresh ideas from reading various genres that you can use in your personal or professional life. It can improve your capacity for problem-solving. Books about self-help can assist you in clearing your mind. Your true potential can be unlocked by books if you make it a habit to act.

Better Imagination

Those that have read seriously are the ones who come up with all of the best ideas. Additionally, Albert Einstein thought that readers with a regular reading habits were more imaginative and could learn more than the average person with little reading experience. According to scientists, reading activates the right side of the brain and expands one’s thinking. Reading children’s fairy tales—literally, anything that is pure fiction—can activate their left hemispheres.

Maintain Mental Acuity

Reading every day facilitates comprehension of spoken cues. It helps in understanding the scenario and forming an image in your mind. First of all, you might have to try to recall where you put your car keys. However, it doesn’t take long for you to begin forgetting names and dates. Your brain’s overall health will improve over time from all those little words. According to a study, reading extensively throughout your life significantly reduces your risk of developing mental illnesses like dementia or Alzheimer’s. Isn’t that a great habit to get into in order to eventually bid memory loss farewell? Even in older life, those who are intellectually engaged in obtaining a formal education exhibit a reduced rate of cognitive deterioration.

Better Stress-Handling

How well do you perform under stress? One of the finest ways to manage stress is to read. When your thoughts are occupied with other urgent matters, it’s an excellent method to prevent them. According to TalkingCharge , reading for at least half an hour every day can significantly lower stress levels. It affects your brain in the same way as laughing does.

Read More:  7 Habits That Affect Your Health More Than You Think

Helps in Socializing

Everyone desires to befriend more people. Your best companions maybe books. In actuality, books make the best friends. More information allows you to voice your opinions on a wide range of subjects. It goes without saying that your captivating personality will draw others to you. You won’t have to provide justifications for ending a discussion. As an alternative, you’ll constantly be able to improve it. It will be possible for you to make acquaintances with a wide range of interests. For introverts in particular, this can be very significant. In the long term, reading might assist you in developing the personality of your dreams. One can satiate their want for human interaction by reading. They can still lead satisfying social lives, so they don’t feel excluded.

Decrease Blue Light Exposure

The blue light emitted by the screen increases brain activity. For this reason, according to studies , using screens right before bed is the worst habit. Create a sleep-inducing habit that you may follow gradually. Read before you go to bed every day as a habit. Even ten to twenty minutes will do. It can help you forget about your problems.

Broadened Perspectives

Some people might think children should only read fiction. According to a study, those who read more fiction performed better when displaying social empathy. Tales have the ability to open the hidden passages in your heart and delicately insert those new characters. You merge with the narrative. You begin to perceive the world from the perspectives of the characters. The best combination to read should be fiction and non-fiction.

Improve Writing

Try reading even if becoming a writer isn’t your greatest ambition. You can hone your writing style by reading other authors’ varied styles. Your writing will become increasingly reflective of what you read. Every writer enjoys reading a lot. It aids in giving their mental processes direction.

Better Mental Health and Increase Longevity

Everyone wants to live longer, right? We believe that the only approaches to attain it are through exercise and eating the healthiest possible. But it’s not just that. Reading can be an enjoyable method to live a long life. Regular readers live longer than their contemporaries, according to studies. Therefore, you can start this habit now and there is always time to do so. You must feed your body the correct foods if you want to live a long life.

Read More:  You Destroy Your Brain Health Rapidly With These 10 Stupid Daily Habits

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How To Use the RACE Writing Strategy (Plus Free Printables)

Plus, how is the RACES writing strategy different?

In today’s world, it’s more important than ever for students to be able to articulate their thoughts clearly and concisely through the written word. One easy way to help them strengthen their skills is by using the RACE writing strategy. This structured method guides writers through creating a strong response to reading comprehension and other short-answer questions, including those found on standardized tests. Here’s how it works and how to teach it.

Don’t forget to grab our free printable set of graphic organizers. We’ve included options for both RACE and RACES, in color and black-and-white. Plus, get printable images for an easy RACE/RACES anchor chart!

What is the RACE writing strategy?

How is the races writing strategy different, how to teach the race/races writing strategy.

• What’s included in the RACES Printable Bundle?

This simple method is one of many writing strategies educators use to help students ensure they’re answering questions and writing prompts clearly, concisely, and thoroughly. It’s most commonly used with reading comprehension short-answer essay questions, but it works for any situation where students need to provide a written response in paragraph form.

The easy-to-remember acronym breaks the process into four parts, and the best way to explain it is to see it in action. To explore how the strategy works, we’ll use this passage about penguins:

“Penguins have special ways to live in their cold environments. Their smooth bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch fish, squid, and krill. Their thick, waterproof feathers keep them warm and dry, and a layer of fat, called blubber, gives them extra warmth and helps them float. Penguins have special behaviors too, like huddling together to stay warm and protect their eggs and babies from the cold. Their black-and-white feathers help them hide from predators by blending in with the ocean. All these things help penguins survive and do well in very cold places.”

Question: How do penguins’ bodies help them survive their environment?

First, students turn the question into a statement, to ensure they fully understand what’s being asked. The statement is usually open-ended, because they’ll complete the sentence in the second step.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “Penguins’ bodies help them survive their environment because they …”

Then, students answer the question with a clear, succinct response. Essentially, they complete the sentence they began in the “Restate” step with a direct answer. ADVERTISEMENT

RACE Writing Strategy Example: ” … help them swim fast, protect them against the cold, and hide them from predators.”

In this key step, students back up their answers by pointing to evidence from the text itself. They may quote or paraphrase what’s written to prove their point.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “For instance, penguins have smooth bodies and flippers, along with thick black-and-white feathers and blubber.”

Now, students expand on their citation in their own words, so they’re not just parroting back what they’ve read. They explain how the facts they’ve cited help to answer the question.

RACE Writing Strategy Example: “Their bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch their favorite foods, and their waterproof feathers and blubber keep them warm in the cold weather. Predators have a hard time seeing them because their black-and-white feathers blend into the landscape.”

Some teachers add an S to the RACE strategy, which stands for “Summarize.” This is the conclusion sentence at the end of the response that reinforces the main points in the answer. A complete answer using the RACES strategy might look like this:

“Penguin bodies help them survive their environment because they help them swim fast, protect them against the cold, and hide them from predators. For instance, penguins have smooth bodies and flippers, along with thick black-and-white feathers and blubber. Their bodies and flippers help them swim fast to catch their favorite foods, and their waterproof feathers and blubber keep them warm in the cold weather. Predators have a hard time seeing them because their black-and-white feathers blend into the landscape. All of these body parts help penguins survive in cold and dangerous environments.”

Most teachers begin introducing this method in the mid-elementary years, often around third grade. Continue to use and reinforce it throughout the rest of the elementary years and into the middle grades. By high school, students should be very comfortable with RACE/RACES and consider it an important part of their writing strategies toolbox .

Try these activities and teaching methods to introduce and use this valuable strategy with your students.

Anchor Chart

Create and hang an anchor chart students can refer back to throughout the school year. Make things even easier on yourself by using our free printables to create your chart in no time flat!

Modeling and Guided Practice

As with nearly any strategy, it helps to model the correct behavior for your students first. Use the paragraph above about penguins, or choose any other reading passage you like. Then, walk through the steps together, demonstrating the thinking process and writing out the responses.

Next, provide students with another reading passage ( AI can be a real help here , and short stories work too ) and a comprehension question. Ask them to work in groups to try out the RACE/RACES model. Share each group’s response with the class, then work together to evaluate, correct, and strengthen them as needed.

Graphic Organizers

This organizational tool is ideal for RACE/RACES. Use our free printables (see below), or encourage kids to draw their own simple chart. They can use these organizers to make notes and sketch out their responses before finalizing their answer in paragraph form.

Color Coding

Pull out your highlighters! After students write their responses using the RACE/RACES method, ask them to highlight the various sections that match each letter of the model (e.g., orange for Restate, yellow for Answer, etc.). This ensures they don’t miss any of the steps in writing a complete response. We’ve included color-coded versions in our graphic organizer set to make the process even easier.

Sentence Starters

Jump-start the process by providing a list of sentence stems and starters . These are especially helpful for the Cite, Explain, and Summarize sections. Try these examples:

• The passage says …
• As noted in the text …
• The writer tells us that …
• According to the author …
• As mentioned in the article …
• This shows that …
• The author means …
• This example demonstrates …
• This is how we know that …
• The evidence supports the idea because …
• In summary …
• In conclusion …
• Based on these facts …
• For these reasons …

Find more conclusion sentence starters here.

RACE Writing Strategy Free Printables Bundle

RACE Graphic Organizer

Use the color-coded version of this organizer along with highlighters to help kids create strong short answers. There’s a black-and-white version too.

RACES Graphic Organizer

These organizers include a Summarize section to help students wrap up their answers neatly. Get a color-coded or black-and-white version.

RACE or RACES Anchor Chart

Use these free printables to create an easy anchor chart. You can use all the pages for a RACES chart, or leave off the Summarize pages for the traditional RACE writing strategy chart. We’ve even included some fun race-car-themed graphics to jazz things up!

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How do you use the race writing strategy with your students come share your thoughts and ask for advice in the we are teachers helpline facebook group ., you might also like.

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From Quick, Draw! and DALL·E to Stretch AI, these tools provide fodder for idea generating, problem solving, and more.

I began exploring artificial intelligence (AI) years ago and quickly understood that it could one day revolutionize how we teach and learn. AI offers myriad innovative tools that can empower students to become critical thinkers, problem solvers, and lifelong learners. From personalized learning to interactive storytelling, there’s a wide range of possibilities in education. Here are five of my favorite ways to use it in my classes.  

1. To teach how AI works There are several fun and engaging tools that are safe for students and allow them to get a better understanding of machine learning. My favorite is Google’s Quick, Draw! The game is like playing Pictionary with Google's AI. Students are given six things to draw, and the computer AI needs to guess what they are drawing. Playing the game is fun, but the real learning occurs after it’s completed. The tool gives you access to the entire database of drawings it has collected from every user. It shows you how it recognizes what is being drawn based on previous input from others. Students leave the lesson understanding the basics of machine learning and how AI requires enormous amounts of data to function correctly. They also learn how AI may be biased based on the input even if it isn’t intentional. The takeaway is that AI only knows what you teach it. When good data is input, AI can be a very useful tool. But if there are biases or errors in the data, it can lead to problems.

2 . For creative  visualization and design Creating or enhancing visuals with text-to-image AI has been a fun activity to collaborate on with students. As an art and media teacher, I never want students to create visuals with AI alone. But using it to pre-visualize ideas and enhance images has been very useful. We’ve tried AI image tools such as Adobe Express , Microsoft Designer , DALL·E , and Canva to add AI elements to drawings and photographs students have taken, create realistic backgrounds for animations students have created, and render images of products that the students invent for marketing campaigns. Adobe Express has added a group of AI tools, some of which can also be found in MagicSchool . A favorite is the 3-D text tool. My students used it to create their own fonts textured with any AI image to introduce ourselves at the start of school with a digital “Hello, my name is… ” sticker as part of an Adobe education challenge. Once students were familiar with the tools, we remixed the project and created AI name tags for famous artists, authors, and characters in their style.

3. For brainstorming and storytelling This is my favorite use of AI with students because it has expedited and deepened the process of ideation. We use it to generate visual elements based on student writing that can expand on initial ideas and approaches in ways students may not have considered. For storytelling use, AI can generate story starters, visual prompts, and discussion questions students can use for inspiration. This is also helpful when paired with collaborative improv games in which the AI is a partner in creating scenes and stories.

4. To foster co-collaborating It may sound like science fiction, but the reality is that many students will likely have an AI coworker in their future careers, so it’s important to prepare them in class today. We experiment with co-creating with AI chatbots when writing and using AI image tools such as Google’s Magic Sketchpad  and Scribble Diffusion . The process is interesting, and like any collaboration, it offers a lesson in communicating clearly and being flexible and open to different ideas and perspectives. This is also useful when creating code, as many AI tools can now compose code for apps and games fairly well. It’s always important to teach students the foundations and syntax of how code works. Once they have that basic understanding, they can collaborate with AI tools to expedite the process and create code together.

5. For research, review, and personalized learning Since AI can manage large amounts of data quickly, it has become an amazing resource for research. But an AI literacy teaching element is key, as all AI is not the same and some tools do not always return accurate information. Tools like ISTE’s Stretch AI  have been developed specifically for educators and add footnotes to its information. This is an improved path forward, but it’s still important to always confirm the sources of the research.

AI is also a fantastic tool to help students review what they have learned, so we use chatbots to provide exit tickets and review questions as a class. Many tools, including educational apps such as Quizizz  and MagicSchool, along with chatbots, can easily generate study questions for students or even assessments based on PDFs, websites, or videos. In terms of supporting students with personalized learning and tutoring, tools like SchoolAI allow students to expand on student learning by naturally following their own curiosities while being monitored by a teacher. (For example, students can "chat" with historical figures about their lives.) Tools like Class Companion  offer data-driven support for each student’s studying based on their strengths and weaknesses.

As new AI tools are coming out all the time, I work collaboratively with my amazing library team and research online to stay knowledgeable. I’m very careful to protect students’ privacy and personal information. Since AI remembers all the data you input, I never have students use it in class without guidance. This technology will likely revolutionize education and other industries. It’s vital to let students experience it in school so they can understand the basics in college and beyond.

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PARAPROFESSIONAL General Ed (TK 5.5hrs) - Jack Franscioni Elementary - 2024/2025 School Year (POS#1061) at Soledad Unified School District

Application Deadline

9/5/2024 5:00 PM Pacific

Date Posted

Number of openings, add'l salary info, length of work year, employment type, work location, requirements / qualifications.

MATERIALS QUALIFICATIONS Knowledge of: Basic English skills (speaking, reading and writing). Mathematical computations and problem solving skills, as certified by passing scores on exam issued by the designated agency. Knowledge of child growth and development is also required. Bilingual instructional aides must posses basic Spanish skills (speaking, reading and writing) as certified by a passing score on a district mandated exam. Ability to: Provide successful reinforcement activities for pupils to increase academic abilities and basic skills development. Maintain a positive attitude toward the learning needs and behavior of children. Actively participate in planned parent and student involvement activities. Follow lesson plans, as developed by the classroom teacher. Be positive and active in professional growth and district adopted staff development plans. Establish and maintain cooperative and effective working relationships with pupils, staff and parents. Give fair, firm and consistent supervision of pupils, in accordance with the adopted district discipline policy. Bilingual instructional aides must be able to translate in bilingual and bicultural seEDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE High School diploma or equivalent and must meet any one of the following requirements: (1) complete 48 semester units through an accredited college or university, verified by official transcripts; (2) obtain an associates degree from an accredited college/university or higher, verified by official transcripts; (3) demonstrate knowledge of, and ability to assist in instructing reading, writing, and math, as certified by passing score on exam issued by the designated agency. Licenses and Certifications: *Possession of an appropriate valid California Driver's License with evidence of insurability *First Aid Certification within six(6) months of employment *CPR Certification within six(6) months of employment

TB Test Clearance and Official Transcripts required upon hire

• Certification (AA Degree or 48 college units or Paraeducator Assessment Test (may provide upon hire))
• Letter of Introduction
• Letter(s) of Recommendation (3)
• Proof of HS Graduation (High School Diploma/GED (may provide upon hire))
• TB Screening Result (May provide upon hire)

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• Soledad Visitors' Center
• Pinnacles National Park (West Entrance - Soledad)
• Soledad Unified School District
• City of Soledad
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