Corrective Reading Series

SRA’s Corrective Reading programs are divided Comprehension A

into two strands: Decoding and Comprehension.
Students who place in Comprehension A do
Students can complete the programs in either
not understand the concepts underlying much
a double-strand or a single-strand sequence.
of the material being taught in classrooms.
They do not have well-developed recitation
In the double-strand sequence, students
skills. They cannot repeat sentences they hear,
receive two full periods of instruction per
so they have trouble retaining and answering
day—one period in a Decoding program and
questions about information that is presented.
one period in a Comprehension program.
These students are often unable to comprehend
what they read because they don’t even
In the single-strand sequence, students
understand the material when it is presented
study just one program (Comprehension,
orally.
for example) and receive one full period of
instruction per day.
Comprehension A Fast Cycle
Each Comprehension level is independent Typically, older students who place in
of the others. Students may be placed at the Comprehension A learn the skills presented
beginning of one level and complete all the in the program more quickly than younger
lessons in that level in either a single-strand or students. Comprehension A Fast Cycle is
double-strand sequence. designed to accommodate these older students.
The program consists of 30 lessons (half the
Development of Skills number of lessons in Comprehension A). A
placement test provides procedures and criteria
The development of skills in the Comprehension for placing students in Comprehension A Fast
programs progresses from comprehending oral Cycle. As a rule, older students will do better
language to comprehending written material. in Fast Cycle than in regular Comprehension A.
Skills are first taught in structured exercises
that are tightly controlled by the teacher. Later, Comprehension B1
students are shown how to apply the skills
independently to complex written materials. Students who place in Comprehension B1
exhibit many of the deficiencies observed in
The Corrective Reading series includes six students who place in Comprehension A. They
Comprehension programs: lack some common basic information, such as
how many months are in a year. They are also
■ Comprehension A (65 lessons) deficient in thinking operations. They have
■ Comprehension A Fast Cycle (30 lessons) some trouble identifying how things are the
same and completing deductions that involve
■ Comprehension B1 (60 lessons)
the word maybe.
■ Comprehension B1 Fast Cycle (35 lessons)
■ Comprehension B2 (65 lessons)
■ Comprehension C (140 lessons)

Comprehension A  Teacher’s Guide      

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 Comprehension B1 Fast Cycle Comprehension B1 Fast Cycle, or
Comprehension C. Test 3 requires written
Students who need some of the information
responses and is presented to the entire class
and reviews presented in Comprehension B1
or group.
but are close to placing in Comprehension C do
well in Comprehension B1 Fast Cycle. This
The battery of placement tests also identifies
program presents the same sequence of skills
students who perform either too low
as Comprehension B1, but at an accelerated
or too high for the Corrective Reading
pace (35 lessons, compared to 60).
Comprehension programs.
Comprehension B2
Students can only enter Comprehension B2
Progress Through the
after completing Comprehension B1 or B1 Fast
Comprehension Strand
Cycle. The program continues and expands The Comprehension programs are designed
upon the skills presented in previous levels. with a careful progression of skill development
from level to level. There are five entry points:
Comprehension C
Students who place in Comprehension C
1 Students who begin at Level A should
complete Levels A and B1 during the
have already learned many skills. They school year.

2
can draw conclusions from evidence, Students who begin at Level A Fast Cycle
make inferences, and respond to specific may complete Level A Fast Cycle and
instructions. Their primary deficiency is in Levels B1 and B2 during the school year.
using those skills independently.
3 Students who begin at Level B1 should
complete Levels B1 and B2 during the
Comprehension school year.
Placement Tests
Reproducible copies of the Corrective 4 Students who begin at Level B1 Fast Cycle
should complete Level B1 Fast Cycle and
Reading Comprehension Placement Tests and Level B2 during the school year.
details on how to administer them appear in
Appendix A at the end of this guide. 5 Students who begin at Level C should
complete Level C and additional outside
The placement procedure is designed so that reading during the school year.
students take two tests. The first (Test 1) is a
screening test that requires written responses Features of All
and is administered to the entire class or group. Comprehension Levels
Students who make more than 7 errors Each level of the Comprehension program
on the screening test take another test (Test 2) incorporates features that have been
that places them in Comprehension A, demonstrated through research studies to be
Comprehension A Fast Cycle, or effective in improving student performance.
Comprehension B1. Test 2 is an oral test that
is individually administered. ■ Each level is a core program, not ancillary
material. Each level contains all the material
Students who make 7 or fewer errors on you need and provides students with all the
the screening test take another test (Test 3) practice they need to learn the skills.
that places them in Comprehension B1,
 Corrective Reading

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 ■ All words, skills, and strategies are taught ■ Each lesson specifies both teacher talk
through Direct Instruction. This approach and student responses. The lessons are
is the most efficient for communicating scripted. The scripts specify what you say
with students, for evaluating their and do, as well as appropriate student
performance on a moment-to-moment responses. The scripted lessons ensure
basis, and for achieving student mastery. that you will (a) use uniform wording,
Students are not simply exposed to skills. (b) present examples in a manner that
Instead, skills are taught. communicates efficiently and effectively
■ Students are taught everything that is
with students, and (c) be able to complete a
required for what they are to do later. lesson during a class period.
Conversely, they are not taught skills that
are not needed for later skill applications. Poor Comprehenders
The levels concentrate only on the
The Corrective Reading Comprehension
necessary skills.
series is designed to help poor comprehenders.
■ Each level is based on cumulative skill The specific tendencies of poor comprehenders
development. Once a skill or strategy is suggest what a program must do to be effective.
taught, students receive practice in applying
that skill until the end of the level. This Because students who are lacking in
type of cumulative development has been comprehension skills are often poor decoders,
demonstrated by research studies to be the they typically do not follow instructions
most effective method for teaching skills. precisely. They have often been reinforced
■ Because of the cumulative development of for raising their hand and asking the teacher
skills, the difficulty of material increases questions. This strategy has served them in
gradually but steadily. content areas, such as science and social studies,
as well as in reading. As a result, they have not
■ Each level is divided into daily lessons developed precision in following instructions
that can usually be presented during a that are presented orally or in writing.
class period (35 to 55 minutes of teacher-
directed work and independent student Because of the way material they have studied
applications). has been sequenced, poor comprehenders also
■ All five levels of Corrective Reading have a poor memory for information. Typically,
Comprehension contain in-program they have never been required to learn
Mastery Tests. These tests are criterion- information one day and then use it that day
referenced performance measures that and from then on. The usual pattern has been
provide detailed data on student progress. for them to work with vocabulary or facts for
They also show students how their only a lesson or two, after which the material
performance is improving as they progress disappears. The result is a poorly developed
through the program. strategy for remembering information,
particularly systems of information that
■ Each level includes an effective
contain related facts and rules.
management system. Students earn points
for performance on each part of the daily
Poor comprehenders also have weak
lesson. Records of this performance may be
statement-repetition skills, primarily because
used for awarding grades and documenting
they have never practiced these skills. For
progress in specific skill areas.
instance, when they are told to repeat the

Comprehension A  Teacher’s Guide      

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 statement “Some of the people who live in In summary, the knowledge and skills of
America are illiterate,” students may say, poor comprehenders are spotty. While poor
“Some people who live in America are ill,” comprehenders may exhibit intelligent
or some other inaccurate attempt. The lack behaviors when dealing with their peers, they
of statement-repetition skills places these are remarkably naive in dealing with academic
students at a great disadvantage when they try content because they don’t know what to attend
to read and retain information, even if they to, what the content means, how to organize
decode it correctly. the content, how to relate it to other known
facts and remember it, how to apply it to unique
Often, poor comprehenders will vacillate from situations, and how to evaluate it in terms of
being guarded in believing what others tell consistency with other facts and rules.
them, to being gullible, because they lack the
analytical skills required to process arguments. Comprehension Solutions
They may have strong feelings and prejudices,
but they are unable to articulate the evidence The problems of poor comprehenders suggest
that supports their beliefs or the conclusions these solutions:
that derive from the evidence. They are not
practiced with flaws in arguments that present The Corrective Reading Comprehension
false analogies, improper deductions, or programs are designed to provide
appeals that are inappropriate (such as arguing extensive practice in following directions.
about a whole group from information about The various activities presented in the
an individual). Comprehension programs are designed so
that students must attend to the instructions.
Poor comprehenders also have a deficiency in In one lesson, the directions for an activity
vocabulary and common information. This might be “Circle the verbs.” In the next lesson,
deficit preempts them from constructing the instructions for the same activity may be “Make
appropriate schemata when reading about a box around the verbs.” The direct-instruction
situations that assume basic information or activities present directions that students
vocabulary. They may understand the meaning cannot figure out from either the format of the
of the word colonial, for instance, but not know activity or the context. Students, therefore,
the relationship of that word to colony. learn the strategy of reading carefully and
attending to the details of the instructions.
Finally, poor comprehenders are not highly Also, students practice writing instructions
motivated students. For them, reading has been so that they develop an appreciation of what
punishing. They often profess indifference: information is needed to clearly convey the
“I don’t care if I learn that or not.” But their operation they are trying to describe.
actual behavior suggests that they care a great
deal. When they learn to use new words such The programs provide practice in
as regulate and participate, they feel proud. statement repetition. Statement-repetition
practice begins in Level A with tasks that
Poor comprehenders’ ineffective reading don’t involve reading. In later levels of the
strategies and negative attitudes about reading series, statement-repetition activities are
become more ingrained as the students get increasingly related to statements students
older. Overcoming these obstacles requires read. The emphasis on statement repetition
a careful program, one that systematically not only makes students more facile in
replaces failed strategies with new ones and repeating statements (requiring only one or
that provides lots and lots of practice. two attempts, compared to the many attempts

 Corrective Reading

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 required early in the program), but repetition To compensate for the deficiencies in
also helps reinforce the general strategy that vocabulary and common information,
students must be precise when dealing with the series introduces many new
statements they read or hear. vocabulary words and “fact systems.”
To compensate for students’ deficiencies in
The Corrective Reading series is designed common vocabulary and information, the
so that whatever is taught is used. In the Comprehension programs introduce many new
Comprehension series, nothing goes away. vocabulary words and “fact systems” (groups
Vocabulary that is introduced in vocabulary of related facts). For example, students
activities is integrated into other activities, learn facts about body systems (skeletal,
such as following instructions, making digestive, muscular, circulatory, respiratory);
analogies, completing deductions, and calendar information; animal classification
identifying flaws in arguments. Similarly, facts (fish, amphibian, reptile, mammal, bird); and
that are learned are integrated and applied to economics (supply and demand). These fact
a wide range of tasks. This nonspiral approach systems also provide a vehicle for teaching
to instruction demonstrates to students that vocabulary. In addition, other new vocabulary
they must develop strategies for retaining the is introduced in all levels. In levels B1 and
information that is taught, and for relating B2, for instance, vocabulary is introduced in
it to other information. The format ensures connection with parts of speech. Students
that students will be able to learn, organize, first learn a verb, such as select, then its
and process whatever is taught. Mastery Tests noun (selection) and adjective (selective). In
within the series document to both teacher Level C, students are taught how to infer the
and students that the skills and information meanings of words from context. Note that
presented in the program are mastered. all words, once introduced, appear in a range
of activities—from following instructions to
The series presents various analytical identifying contradictions.
skills that can be applied to higher-
order thinking tasks. The Comprehension The series addresses the poor
programs teach students how analogies work, comprehender’s low self-image. The
how logical reasoning is applied to arguments, Comprehension programs also address
how conclusions depend on evidence, and the problem reader’s poor self-image. The
how evidence can be evaluated for adequacy. series is designed so that students can
Deductions are emphasized because basic succeed in learning sophisticated skills (such
arguments that affect everyday life are usually as identifying the missing premise in an
presented as deductions. The series also argument). Furthermore, a point system
presents specific common fallacies (arguing that is based on realistic performance goals
from part to whole, arguing from whole to ensures that the student who tries will succeed
part, arguing from a false cause, arguing from and will receive reinforcement for improved
limited choices). In addition, students learn performance.
how to identify contradictions, from simple
ones to those that are inferred from facts In summary, the Comprehension series
students have learned. The focus of the series, uses a two-pronged approach. Each level
in other words, is not simply on narrowly teaches specific skills to replace the student’s
defined logical-reasoning skills, but on logical- ineffective approach to comprehension. Each
reasoning skills as they apply to all aspects of level also contains an effective management
reading. system that turns students on to reading. The
approach works.
Comprehension A  Teacher’s Guide      

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