Scarborough’s Reading Rope Explained

Scarborough’s Reading Rope was created by Dr. Hollis Scarborough, an American psychologist and literacy expert. Scarborough’s model shows the interconnectedness and interdependency of language comprehension and word recognition skills and how those skills weave together to create increasingly strategic and automatic skilled reading. 

Fluent reading and comprehension result when all strands remain strong and tightly woven. A student’s reading ability is impaired when damaged or missing strands weaken the reading rope.

Language Comprehension 

The top set of strands focuses on language comprehension skills that grow increasingly strategic into adulthood. The strands in language comprehension include:

• Background Knowledge: Background knowledge represents what a student already knows about a topic. Studies show that the more a student knows about the topic, the easier the text is to read and ultimately comprehend. Teachers can help students build background knowledge before diving into a text. Background knowledge acts like a “hook” that students can use as a place to “hang” their new knowledge and increases the likelihood of retaining information.
• Vocabulary: Vocabulary is fundamental to reading. Knowing what words mean while reading or listening, and then being able to use those words while speaking and writing, is vital to student success. To enhance students’ ability to comprehend texts, educators should teach words that are important for comprehension along with strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Language Structures: Syntax and semantics are language structures. Syntax refers to the rules of the English language (grammar), and semantics refers to how a writer uses words to create meaning. Understanding syntax and semantics helps students better make meaning from texts.
• Verbal Reasoning: Verbal reasoning refers to a student’s ability to make inferences. It also refers to the ability to understand that words and phrases can be used both literally and figuratively. Students use verbal reasoning to determine the meaning of figurative language such as metaphors, similes, and idioms, which aids text comprehension. A student’s ability to make inferences allows them to analyze texts.
• Literacy Knowledge: Literacy knowledge includes print concepts and genres. Print concepts include knowing the parts of a book (covers, table of contents, etc.) and reading from left to right, following lines down the page, and turning pages to continue. Students should also learn the difference between different genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, etc. Knowing the foundational mechanics of how to read, as well as what types of texts they can read, helps students have the basic tools to start reading and comprehending.

Word Recognition

The bottom three strands of the rope focus on the word-level foundational skills that become increasingly automatic as students become better readers. Most word recognition instruction happens in early elementary school (K-3). It is most effective when explicit and research-based.

• Phonological Awareness: Phonological awareness develops as students begin to understand that spoken words consist of sounds. To be successful readers, students need to be able to associate certain sounds with letters or letter combinations. Phonological awareness is the first step in this process.
• Decoding: Phonics is the ability to understand the connection between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes). Students use sound-letter correspondence to decode, or read, words. Phonics also includes encoding, or spelling, skills.
• Sight Recognition- Sight Recognition refers to the ability to use orthographic mapping to quickly retrieve a word’s spelling, meaning, and pronunciation. High-frequency word instruction helps increase the number of words students have mapped. The more words that are mapped and that a student doesn’t have to decode, the more efficient and fluent a reader they are. This frees up a reader’s brain capacity for higher-order tasks like inferencing.

How does Scarborough’s Reading Rope help educators?

Scarborough’s Reading Rope provides educators with an easy-to-understand visual of the complex process of reading and how all the different strands weave together to create skilled readers. When a student struggles to read, educators can assess which strand or strands are the source of the issue and intervene accordingly. Educators can also use Scarborough’s Reading Rope to determine whether their curriculum and classroom give students the full foundation they need to be skilled readers and, if not, pull in necessary resources. 

Check out Edmentum’s free Science of Reading Toolkit for a set of videos, webinars, articles, and other resources, including an Early Literacy Needs Analysis, to support a strong, evidence-based foundation for literacy instruction. 

About the author

Elizabeth Tricquet has over two decades of experience in education. In her current role as Lead Learning Designer at Edmentum, Elizabeth is passionate about developing effective, high-quality resources for students and teachers.  

Elizabeth has worked at Edmentum since 2016 in a variety of positions including Content Designer, Assessment Specialist, and Learning Designer. She has worked on a variety of products including Exact Path, Study Island, and Benchmark Assessments.  

Prior to working at Edmentum, Elizabeth had nearly 10 years of experience in the classroom teaching grades 1, 3 and 4 with a focus on helping struggling readers and students with learning difficulties. While teaching, Elizabeth earned her National Board Certification for Early and Middle Grades Literacy. She then worked at the Florida Department of Education's Test Development Center as an ELA Content Specialist. During that time, Elizabeth worked on state-wide summative assessments.