The research is clear: "performance on complex text is the clearest differentiator in reading between students who are likely to be ready for [life outside of school] and those who are not" (ACT 2006). The ability to comprehend complex text plays a key role in college and career readiness. We want all the opportunities for all of our students, but what do we do when our students don't come to us reading on grade level? We have emergent bilingual students and multilanguage learners? We have students with reading and cognitive disabilities? How do we ensure that in tier 1 instruction, all students have access to complex, grade-level appropriate text and tasks?

We aim to answer this question with research and equip you with knowledge and strategies for differentiated scaffolding in this session. We will explore techniques to scaffold for content, context, and kiddo that will open doors for your students, increase performance, and create a safe and responsive classroom for your students to stretch, productively struggle, and engage in text complexity.  

This session is open to any secondary literacy educator, but will be particularly impactful for teacher teams: inclusion, co-teach, ESL.