How Storyworks and Scope Support Consistently High-Quality Reading and Writing Instruction

About a decade ago, the Audubon Public School District in Camden County, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, was searching for a supplementary literacy program that could support teachers in improving the reading and writing abilities of the students at Mansion Avenue Elementary School. Scores on the statewide assessment revealed that Audubon was performing below demographically similar districts in the state. They were not using a basal reading program and sought a high-quality, unifying resource that could help ensure consistency across teachers and grades. Reading specialist Lisa McGilloway noted that the district wanted to provide standards-based instruction “authentically.” They had a hard-working and quality teaching staff. Still, each teacher spent too much preparation time searching for appropriate texts and instructional resources to teach and meet state standards and not enough time on effective instructional strategies they could implement consistently. Shamus Burke, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, was also concerned about teacher burnout.

In her ongoing search for supplemental literacy resources that might meet the district’s needs, McGilloway reviewed Storyworks and Scope magazines and shared samples with several experienced teachers for their feedback. She became convinced that these programs were “what we needed.” Mansion Avenue Elementary was using lots of novels and longer narrative texts, but Storyworks and Scope provided a library of exemplary shorter texts, especially informational texts, needed “to teach the standards thoroughly and deeply.” Quality authors write authentic articles on topics of high interest to children and are written in an engaging, age-appropriate style. The program’s online system enables teachers to search for articles according to the standard or skill they plan to teach. The system was also designed for seamless integration with Google Classroom, making it easy for teachers to disseminate the texts and other instructional resources. McGilloway shared Storyworks and Scope with Mansion Avenue Elementary’s principal, Bonnie Smeltzer, and Director Shamus Burke, and together they decided to implement the programs schoolwide.

Since then, over the many years of integrating these Scholastic magazine programs into the ELA curriculum, the district’s literacy program has demonstrated solid performance gains on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment, especially compared to the state’s demographically similar districts. School leaders and teachers have come to view the magazines as “must-have” resources. They attribute their success with the magazines to the extensive collection of highly engaging articles that motivate students to learn and the variety of supporting resources aligned to each reading and writing standard, enabling teachers to meet the rigor of the standards consistently across Grades 3–6. (See Outcomes from Implementing Storyworks and Scope below for details.)

At the beginning of the first semester of use, the teachers were given time to explore Storyworks and Scope, supported by staff with prior experience using Scholastic resources. As the teachers began to use the articles in class, they came up with questions about how the system works. In October of that school year, a Scholastic professional development specialist provided a formal training session, and the teachers’ questions helped drive the session. The PD specialist introduced the teachers to various supporting digital resources included in the Storyworks and Scope programs.

Since the rollout, McGilloway has provided coaching on integrating Storyworks and Scope into standards-based instruction, as needed. During weekly grade-level meetings, teachers share their successes using articles and resources to teach specific literacy skills and strategies. Once a month, there is an all-staff planning meeting, where Grades 3–6 teachers share ideas for using Storyworks and Scope effectively.

McGilloway stressed another important aspect of the program: ongoing support. Scholastic invited her to email with any questions or needs related to using Storyworks and Scope, and she always receives a thoughtful response within 24 hours.

When teachers first heard about the plan to begin using Storyworks and Scope as their main sources of texts for ELA instruction, they liked the engaging articles and stories they sampled—but it was when the Scholastic PD specialist introduced the teachers to the online system and its array of teacher tools and instructional resources that the teachers started to get really excited about the programs. They appreciated the teacher tools for making Storyworks and Scope easy to implement, including the searchable archives, the online teacher communities for sharing ideas about how to use the programs and the seamless integration with Google Classroom.

Sixth-grade teacher Maddy Meehan is impressed that all the genres teachers need to teach are well represented in the Scope archives, including informational, narrative, and argumentative texts. She also values the paired texts for lessons on analyzing texts to make comparisons, the slide decks for introducing ELA skills, the introductory videos for building background knowledge, the audio read-aloud option, the embedded focus on grammar and usage, the graphic organizers for structuring students’ thinking and writing, and the podcasts as a “different way to engage students.” She also noted that students are really attracted to the multimedia components.

Third-grade teacher Kelly Angelone especially appreciates how engaging and current the Storyworks articles are. “A lot of times, the kids are like, can I read this? Can we read that?” She appreciates the vocabulary slide decks that help prepare students to read the articles. She finds the Text-to-Speech feature valuable for a student with a physical disability. She values the different question types, including interspersed Pause and Think questions focused on basic comprehension and critical-thinking questions that help develop higher-level thinking.

McGilloway and the teachers at Mansion Avenue Elementary have used Storyworks and Scope in various ways.

McGilloway discussed using the programs for whole-group, small-group, and individual work. The school uses the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) as a universal screener, and Storyworks and Scope articles are correlated to DRA levels. This simplifies assigning appropriate texts to small groups and individual students, whether they are reading below, on, or above grade level. When working as a whole group, students at different reading levels can be assigned the same article but at different levels.

Angelone described a lesson on character traits. She searched the Storyworks archive and found a “really great article.” The class watched the introductory video and then discussed the new vocabulary in the article. Next, the students were divided into small groups by reading ability, and each group read a different version of the same article written at the appropriate level for that group. “Sometimes they’re reading with me. Sometimes, they’re reading with their small group.” Then, they worked in their groups to complete an activity in Storyworks on how the character changes throughout the story. Angelone and her academic support teacher would “check in with each group and see how they work.” They also used the story for writing, as each story has a related writing prompt.

Small groups are sometimes organized by interest, and the online system allows for searching by topic to support these groups. Meehan likes to give her students a choice of Scope articles to read for a specific instructional purpose, as preteens tend to feel empowered by having choices based on their interests. She described this aspect of her unit on argument: “Anytime you make it interest-based, you have more engagement. When we’re doing debates in this unit, those debates are better based on what their interest is.”

McGilloway explained that teachers often have students read an article multiple times. Initially, the students read or listen to the article “to take it in, and then they go back and read it closely so they can work on deeper understanding.” Teachers take advantage of the various question types provided in Storyworks and Scope, “incorporating the Pause and Think questions, the Close Reading questions, and then asking students to write about what they’ve read.” Meehan often has students complete a read-through of Scope articles where they “read with their writer’s eyes,” paying attention to the author’s strategies to draw the reader in. In that way, the articles become “mentor texts for writing.”

When teaching about informational texts, Meehan builds students’ awareness of text features, which are prominent in Scope informational articles. She has her students create collages based on a particular article. “They can cut it up and use those different pieces” in their collages.

To support vocabulary development, Angelone has her students highlight the vocabulary words in Storyworks articles they are “not sure about” and has them “make a prediction based on what we’ve read so far. And they’re able to write their prediction right in the text.” Similarly, to support comprehension development, she asks her students to “stop and think about the main idea of the section they just read, and they can highlight [it]. They’ll write down the main idea in the article and then highlight the evidence to support that.”

Meehan brings the subheadings interspersed throughout Scope articles to her students’ attention and has them tie the subheadings to the introductory section of the article. She also has her students relate the main idea of each section to its subheading.

The school implements common assessments that help identify students struggling with specific literacy skills, and the Storyworks and Scope search system makes it easy to find articles and supporting resources that are on topic and at the right level. McGilloway gave the example of arranging a group of third graders across multiple classrooms and finding appropriate articles to teach identifying the main idea and supporting details during dedicated RTI periods. She also used a Storyworks slideshow that taught the strategy of finding the main idea.

In Grades 3–5, the teachers teach all subjects in the same classroom, so they use Storyworks for science, social studies, and ELA. In Grade 6, the school organizes teachers by subject, and the ELA teachers have shared Scope articles that have a science or social studies focus with the content-area teachers, who then use these with their students.

Principal Bonnie Smetzer said writing was a systemic challenge for the school. She noted that writing kits built into Storyworks and Scope have enabled the students to shift from primarily free writing “just for fun” to writing based on articles they’ve read. The kits support teachers as they guide students step-by-step through the writing process for a specific genre.

When asked about the various digital resources included with Storyworks and Scope, McGilloway replied, “I can’t think of anything that our teachers don’t utilize.” Angelone and Meehan said they use Storyworks and Scope across all genres and for all standards and skills they teach.

For Director Burke, the most meaningful trend data pointing to improved student ELA performance is based on state assessment scores comparing the Audubon Public School District to its District Factor Group of New Jersey districts with similar demographic characteristics. In 2017, 53% of Audubon students met or exceeded expectations for ELA, with the same percentage of students in the District Factor Group meeting or exceeding expectations. However, by 2023, 60% of Audubon students met or exceeded expectations for ELA, but only 47% of students in the District Factor Group met or exceeded expectations. Over the six years, Audubon evidenced a net change of 13% compared to the District Factor Group.