Real Growth, Real Engagement

Three years into teaching STARI, Natasha has watched something remarkable happen: students who once resisted reading have become genuinely excited about it. They love the books. They love the fluency passages. And they especially love the debates.

One standout moment came during a debate centered on the novel The Skin I'm In. Natasha challenged her students to take a hard look at the bully, Char: was she truly a villain, or was she acting out as a victim of abuse and neglect at home? To prepare, students drew on multiple STARI source materials, fluency passages on vandalism and motivation alongside the novel itself. The debate that followed was so rich, so multi-perspectival, that students began articulating arguments for the opposing side.

The fluency passages, Natasha notes, are doing triple duty throughout every unit. They build the background knowledge students need to engage deeply with both fiction and nonfiction readings. They supply evidence for debate positions. And perhaps most powerfully, they give students a regular, visible record of their own growth, one of the strongest motivators a struggling reader can have.

With three years of STARI teaching experience and a keen eye for what works, Natasha has developed practical advice for anyone facilitating STARI professional learning and for STARI teachers.

For Facilitators:

Provide teachers with a hard copy of the full student binder and a lesson-by-lesson overview for the first unit when they arrive at training, seeing the actual student materials makes everything more concrete.

Natasha herself prints a complete version of the student binder for each unit (workbook, fluency pages, all student materials) so she can reference it alongside her lesson plans. She slides the lesson-by-lesson overview into the front so the daily skills progression is always at a glance.

And because a critical part of STARI is pacing, it is helpful for facilitators to demonstrate with teachers how a lesson flows, for example: starting with a Do Now/seat work, then moving to a timed fluency section, followed up by the student workbook pages, and ending with the Exit Ticket. 

For Teachers:

Have students assemble their own binders for each unit. It gives them a preview of what's coming and helps lessons flow, they'll know exactly where to find things when the time comes.

Before each lesson, preview the workbook pages and read the day's text yourself. Preparation pays off.

Honor the silent, independent reading time the curriculum builds in. If you want to check comprehension on days without a workbook page, pre-read the chapter or passage and prepare one or two written response questions, a light accountability tool that doesn't interrupt the flow.

Express to the student the importance of making text-to-text connections, and using previous material when discussing chapters with their partner or the whole group. These connections, combined with text-to-self and text-to-world allow students to activate prior knowledge and provide great support for debates too!