How STARI Works

In STARI, students:

• Engage in discussion every day
  

• Compare perspectives with a partner during fluency practice and partner reading
  

• Discuss ideas with a larger group during guided reading
  

Discussion supports reading development because: 

• Talk about text builds understanding

• Discussion boosts memory of what is read

• Talk supports academic language development

• Contrasting perspectives with peers pushes students past surface-level understandings of texts 

• Hearing peers’ perspectives increases students’ ability to consider the perspectives of others, in literature and in life

• Discussion is motivating and engaging

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During STARI fluency routines, students:

• Improve their reading rate, accuracy, phrasing and expression
  

• Engage in repeated readings of short texts (the research-based way to improve fluency)
  

• Read texts written at four different levels of difficulty, so every student is matched with their just-right level
  

• Practice academic language patterns
  

• Build background knowledge to support comprehension of unit texts
  

• Practice decoding skills they have been taught
  

• Discuss passages with a partner
  

Discussion supports reading development because: 

• Poor fluency can hold students back from comprehending what they read

• Poor fluency can negatively affect reading engagement
  

• Fluency supports reading stamina; more fluent students can read more text in less time

• Fluency builds confidence

• Students practice reading progressively more challenging text over the course of the school year

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During decoding instruction in STARI, students:

• Focus on just a few skills per unit
  

• Learn decoding skills through brief teacher-led mini-lessons
  

• Work with a partner to practice decoding skills using meaningful, engaging text 
  

• Focus on chunking multisyllable words using meaning chunks (bases and affixes) and sound chunks (syllables)
  

Decoding instruction supports reading development because:

• Poor decoding skills can interfere with fluency and comprehension

• Improved decoding increases reading confidence and engagement 

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During comprehension strategy instruction, students:

• Use the Reciprocal Teaching model of instruction
  

• Learn four comprehension strategies over the course of the school year (summarizing, clarifying, predicting and questioning)
  

• Learn each strategy (1-2 per unit) through a brief teacher-led mini-lesson
  

• Learn how, when and why to use each strategy 
  

• Work with a partner to practice each strategy using core unit texts
  

Comprehension strategy instruction supports reading development because:

• Reciprocal Teaching is a research-based approach that has proved effective with general education students, special education students and English learners, across both fiction and nonfiction texts 

• Students develop the habits of skilled readers, such as monitoring for comprehension and using fix-up strategies when comprehension breaks down

• Students build up a repertoire of strategies over time, as each strategy is introduced and then reinforced in later units

• Students develop the ability to use these strategies with increasing independence and with increasingly complex texts

• Students practice comprehension strategies in partners as a scaffold between teacher-led use of strategies and independent use of strategies 

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During partner reading, students: 

• Silently read unit novels and nonfiction texts
  

• Pause after reading each small chunk of text to discuss what they read with a partner
  

• Use prompts in the student workbook to guide partner discussion 
  

Partner reading supports reading development because:

• It serves as a scaffold between teacher-led guided reading and independent reading

• It gives every student more air time to discuss thoughts about the text

• It builds engagement and motivation 

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In guided reading, students:

• Silently read short chunks of text
  

• Pause after each chunk to discuss questions posed by the teacher 
  

• Respond to classmates’ ideas and perspectives 
  

Guided reading supports reading development because:

• Silent, independent reading builds students’ decoding, fluency and comprehension skills

• Reading in small chunks, which increase in size over the course of the school year, builds students’ reading stamina 

• Students receive support from the teacher in making sense of the text

• Students are supported in applying comprehension and decoding strategies while they read 

• Hearing classmates’ perspectives leads to deeper understanding of what is read

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In debate in STARI, students:

• Engage in frequent mini-debates with a partner during fluency practice and partner reading
  

• Engage in at least one whole-class debate per unit
  

Debate supports reading development because:

• Debate offers a motivating context to craft an argument

• Forming an argument about a text is a crucial 21st-century skill

• Students practice making a claim and selecting the best evidence to support their claim 

• Students evaluate (and often attempt to rebut) their peers’ arguments, an important skill in reading and in life 

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