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Language for Thinking

Language for Thinking builds upon the concepts and vocabulary introduced in Language for Learning, emphasising reasoning and critical-thinking skills through sequence activities, vocabulary development, extensive practice, retelling exercises, and inference activities, ultimately preparing for reading comprehension and grammatical analysis.

About the program

Features:

  • Thoughtfully structured exercises, such as Classification, True/False, Analogies, and Absurdity, are designed to enhance reasoning and critical thinking skills.

  • Significant focus is placed on expanding vocabulary through activities involving homonyms, synonyms, opposites, and definitions.

  • Students have ample opportunities to apply newly learned vocabulary and concepts within sentence contexts.

  • There is extensive practice in word usage, including forming contractions and untangling sentences with double negatives.

  • Sequencing and retelling exercises challenge students to recall important details.

  • Inference activities encourage students to draw conclusions and articulate their reasoning.

  • The Placement Test and 15 Program Assessments ensure that students are engaged with concepts appropriate to their ability levels.

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About the strands

The Language Arts Strand:

  • Teaches the oral language skills necessary to understand what is said, written, and read in the classroom.
  • Helps students to effectively communicate ideas and information.
  • Develops students’ ability to successfully use writing strategies and process

The Literature Strand:

  • Supports the reading strand by offering a wide range of literary forms and text structures.
  • Provides multiple opportunities for students to practice vocabulary and comprehension strategies and write for authentic purposes.
  • Gives students the opportunity to read at their own ability level.

The Reading Strand:

  • Addresses all five essential components of reading as identified by Reading First—phonemic awareness, phonics and word analysis, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
  • Provides spelling instruction to help students make the connection between decoding and spelling patterns.
  • Develops decoding, word recognition, and comprehension skills that transfer to other subject areas.

    Each strand can be used as a supplement to the core curriculum for targeted intervention, or combined for use as a comprehensive, stand-alone literacy program.

Program Components & Resources

Research Base

Direct Instruction and Teaching of Early Reading
This report summarises some of the research supporting the use of Direct Instruction to teach early reading skills. It also discusses some of the barriers educators face when attempting to implement Direct Instruction, specifically proponents of whole language teaching. Lastly, researchers describe schools and teachers in Wisconsin, USA, that have achieved excellent results with Direct Instruction and how this is changing the minds of many critics.


Special Education and Direct Instruction
Research shows strong evidence of success when Direct Instruction programs are used with students with special needs. In fact, Direct Instruction is one of only seven interventions proven effective (Forness, Kavale, Blum & Lloyd, 1997). With its research-supported design and systematic delivery, Direct Instruction is often referred to as a program for special education or at-risk students.


The Research Base and Validation of Direct Instruction Language Programs
This report shows the seventeen studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals, 16 of which were group design studies (pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, experimental) and one of which was single case (A-B). All examined the effectiveness of one or more of the Direct Instruction language programs across a wide variety of settings and populations. All studies are described in the narrative.

Evidence of Success

 

Delano, California ELL Students Outscore District
ELL students at Fremont Elementary outperformed district comparisons in Reading scores after adopting McGraw-Hill direct instruction.


Milwaukee Elementary Nearly Doubles Reading Scores
This report shows drastic improvement in Reading assessment scores of students at Honey Creek Elementary School who use McGraw-Hill direct instruction in the classroom


Direct Instruction Helps Milwaukee Schools Increase Reading Scores
This report shows drastic improvement in Reading assessment scores of students in Milwaukee Public Schools who use McGraw-Hill direct instruction in the classroom


Old West End Academy Grade 3 Students Score 100% on Ohio Reading Test
Students at Old West Academy attained a 100% proficiency level in Reading after adopting McGraw-Hill's direct instruction program.


California Reading First School Uses Direct Instruction as an Intervention Tool
This report shows the positive gains in using McGraw-Hill direct instruction as an intervention tool. Students at Santa Lucia Elementary School show a significant increase in English Language Development scores.


Horizons and Language for Learning Close Achievement Gap
This report shows how the achievement gap at Vallivue School District was closed among students with limited English proficiency after using Horizons and Language for Learning.


Direct Instruction Drives Success for Bilingual Students at Houston Elementary School
This report shows the improved assessment scores of bilingual students at Houston Elementary School who use Language for Learning in the classroom