Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (Skill): A Narrative Intervention
Narration, or storytelling, is a foundational language and literacy skill that underpins reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and classroom communication. SKILL is the proven, evidence-based intervention program schools need to strengthen this often-overlooked skill "and improve reading scores and outcomes for students who struggle with language and literacy.
Developed by today (TM)s leading experts on narrative assessment and intervention, the SKILL program helps SLPs, reading specialists, and special educators boost educational achievement for students in Grades 1-4 who have language and reading difficulties. Through 50+ lessons built around engaging stories children love, SKILL explicitly teaches students to use complex language and vocabulary, make inferences, build coherent mental representations of text, and monitor their own understanding of narratives.
Why SKILL?
Helps your school meet literacy standards. SKILL targets narrative comprehension and production, both objectives for language and literacy in state standards.Addresses the upper part of The Reading Rope and improves comprehension. SKILL (TM)s explicit instruction builds language comprehension, moving students from reading words to understanding, integrating, and communicating what they mean.Proven to improve outcomes. Developed over a decade of research, SKILL was rigorously tested in a large randomized controlled trial. Students receiving SKILL showed significant narrative and comprehension gains.Strengthens multiple language and literacy skills at once. SKILL does more than improve storytelling. It enhances vocabulary and comprehension, proficiencies every student needs to be a successful reader, writer, and communicator.Works for a wide range of students. SKILL helps any student struggling with literacy, including learners with developmental language disorder (DLD), dyslexia, and autism. It also supports multilingual learners navigating the demands of two language systems.Efficient and flexible. SKILL can be used in a one-on-one intervention setting, in small groups, or with an entire classroom. Lessons take just 15 "20 minutes, and timing and duration can be varied to match student abilities.Help students master key language and comprehension skills:
Identifying story elementsAsking and answering factual and inferential questionsRetelling and summarizing stories with detailComparing and contrasting stories and different versions of storiesUnderstanding and using different types of words: prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and moreMaking connections to background knowledge and between textsMonitoring understanding and repairing comprehension when meaning breaks downInside SKILL
SKILL consists of three phases of lessons:
Phase I: Teaching Story Structure and Causal Connections: Lessons teach students the main elements of a story "Characters, Setting, Take-Off, Feelings, Plan, Actions, and Complications "and how these elements are connected to form a coherent story.Phase II: Building and Elaborating Story Connections: Lessons teach the linguistic structures, concepts, and vocabulary students need to connect and elaborate story elements, helping them understand and create increasingly complex and coherent stories.Phase III: Integrating, Evaluating, and Revising Stories: Lessons provide practice using metacognitive and metalinguistic strategies to independently construct, evaluate, and revise the connections among story elements. Students gradually create and tell coherent stories with less reliance on icons and graphic organizers.The manual includes all the lessons, links to demonstration videos, and access to a complete kit of printable digital support materials: storyboards, lesson cards, wordless picture books, icon cards, parent letters, progress monitoring rubrics, and exit testing checklists.
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