Reading in Science (Grades K-12)

109 core topics + 63 prerequisite topics taught as needed · approximately 51 hours of instruction including spaced review

How the course runs

An adaptive diagnostic (up to 40 questions) places the student on the course's knowledge graph - topics already known are credited, and instruction begins exactly at the learning frontier. Every topic is taught with a worked-example lesson and auto-graded practice; a topic is mastered at 75%+ and then maintained through spaced reviews on an expanding schedule. Mixed checks follow every 6 lessons; each unit ends with a 12-item quiz, and course-wide assessments appear at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% mastery. Prerequisite gaps below the course are detected and taught rather than skipped, so completion certifies the whole tower, not just the top.

Core curriculum

Main Idea & Supporting Details · 7 topics

Topic or Main Idea? [M]	Tell what a text is about from what it says about it.
Finding the Main Idea [M]	Say in one sentence what a whole text is telling you.
Main Ideas That Are Not Written Down [H]	Work out the main idea when no sentence states it.
Details That Back It Up [M]	Find the fact in a text that supports a particular idea.
Choosing the Best Title [M]	Pick a title that names the main idea rather than one detail.
Writing a Summary [H]	Retell a text keeping only what matters.
Telling a Detail from the Main Idea [M]	Spot the sentence that is only a detail.

Text Structure in Nonfiction · 8 topics

Words That Give the Shape Away [M]	Spot the words and sentences that tell you how a nonfiction text is organized.
Description: Groups, Parts and Kinds [M]	Recognize a text that describes one thing closely or sorts things into kinds.
Sequence: Time Order and Steps [M]	Follow a text built on the order things happen or the order they are done.
Compare and Contrast [M]	Read a text that sets two things side by side and says how they are alike and different.
Cause and Effect [M]	Trace a text where each thing described makes the next thing happen.
Problem and Solution [M]	Read a text that states a difficulty and then what was done about it.
Naming the Structure of a Whole Text [H]	Decide which structure a whole passage is built on, and notice when it uses more than one.
Why the Writer Chose That Shape [H]	Explain what a text's structure does for the reader, and what would be lost in another shape.

Inference, Evidence & Summarizing · 8 topics

Stated or Implied? [H]	Tell what a text says outright from what it only lets you conclude.
What One Detail Tells You [H]	Draw the conclusion a single detail supports, and stop there.
The Line That Proves It [H]	Given a claim, find the sentence in the text that actually supports it.
Putting Two Details Together [H]	Reach a conclusion that no single sentence in the text states.
An Objective Summary [H]	Say what a text argued, in its own terms, without taking a side.
Deciding What to Leave Out [H]	Cut the details a summary can lose, and keep the ones it cannot.
Which Evidence Is Strongest [H]	Choose between two relevant details by asking which one settles it.
Inference or Guess? [H]	Spot the step that goes past what the text can carry.

Reading in Science: Life Science (Grades 2-4) · 7 topics

The Main Idea of a Science Text [M]	Find what a science passage is really explaining.
Science Words Defined in Place [M]	Work out a technical word from the sentence that introduces it.
Following a Process in Order [M]	Track the steps of a life cycle or a process.
Cause and Effect in Science [M]	Say why something happens, using the text.
Comparing Two Living Things [M]	Say how two organisms or processes differ, and why.
Finding the Evidence [M]	Point to the sentence that proves a claim.
What the Science Actually Says [H]	Use what the passage taught you to answer a real science question.

Reading in Science: Life Science (Grades 5-6) · 8 topics

Technical Words: Parts and Context [M]	Work out a science word from its parts and from the sentence around it.
How a Science Text Is Built [M]	Name the shape a science passage is built in, and use it to find the point.
Reading the Numbers in a Science Text [M]	Read a figure in prose for its unit, its size and how sure it is.
Models and Where They Break [H]	Judge a scientific model by what it predicts and by what it leaves out.
Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning [H]	Separate what a science text asserts from what it shows, and the link between.
Reading an Investigation [H]	Read a described experiment for what it changed, held steady and can show.
Cause, Correlation, and Coincidence [H]	Tell a cause from two things that merely happen together.
What the Science Actually Says [H]	Use what a passage taught you to answer a real life-science question.

Reading in Science: Earth & Space (Grades 2-4) · 8 topics

The Main Idea of an Earth Science Text [M]	Find what an Earth or space passage is really explaining.
Science Words Defined Right There [M]	Work out an Earth or space term from the sentence that introduces it.
Following a Cycle in Order [M]	Track the steps of an Earth or space process in the right order.
Cause and Effect in Earth Science [M]	Say why something on Earth or in space happens, using the text.
Comparing Two Things in Space and on Earth [M]	Say how two places, bodies, or processes differ, and why it matters.
Numbers in a Science Text [M]	Read the measurements in a science passage and reason with them.
Finding the Evidence [M]	Point to the detail that actually proves a claim about Earth or space.
What the Science Actually Says [H]	Use what a passage taught you to answer a real Earth or space question.

Reading in Science: Earth & Space (Grades 5-6) · 8 topics

Words Earth Science Redefines [M]	Read an earth science term for its exact meaning, not its everyday one.
Numbers Too Big to Picture [H]	Handle the huge distances, slow rates and long times an earth science text reports.
Diagrams That Cannot Be to Scale [H]	Judge an earth science model or diagram by what it is built to show.
Loops, Not Lines [H]	Follow a cause around a loop instead of straight down a list.
What Can and Cannot Be Predicted [H]	Tell a real prediction from a question no method can answer.
How We Know What Nobody Watched [H]	Name the measurement that supports a claim about something nobody saw happen.
What the Science Actually Says [H]	Use what a passage taught you to answer a real earth or space science question.
When Science Changes Its Mind [H]	Trace how new evidence overturned an idea scientists had accepted.

Reading in Science: Physical Science & Engineering · 8 topics

Physical Science Words, Defined in Place [M]	Work out a physical science term from the sentence that introduces it.
The Point of a Physical Science Text [M]	Find the mechanism a physical science passage is really explaining.
Running the Mechanism Forward [M]	Say why something physical happens, and follow the chain past one step.
Reading the Measurements [M]	Read numbers in a science passage for size, unit and what they compare.
Which Sentence Actually Proves It [H]	Point to the detail in a science text that settles a particular claim.
Reading a Fair Test [H]	Find what an investigation changed and what it deliberately held still.
What the Better Design Costs [H]	Name what an engineering choice gives up in exchange for what it gains.
Using the Physics on a New Case [H]	Apply a mechanism from the passage to a situation the passage never named.

Reading in Science & Technical Subjects (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

Words Science Uses Narrowly [H]	Read a technical term in its narrow sense instead of importing the everyday one.
Definitions That Are Really Instructions [H]	Find the sentence that says how something was measured, and see what it fixes.
What a Step Depends On [H]	Follow a technical procedure closely enough to say why a step is where it is.
The Table Inside the Prose [H]	Pull a quantitative pattern out of numbers that are printed in sentences.
Measurement or Inference [H]	Separate what a study observed from what it concluded, and name what the step between them rests on.
What a Control Rules Out [H]	Say which rival explanation a control eliminates, and which ones survive it.
What a Result Does Not License [H]	Hold a finding to the conditions, the range and the group it actually came from.
How a Technical Account Is Built [H]	Use the shape of a technical text to tell what each part is for.

Reading in Science: Life & Health Sciences (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

The Paragraph That Says Why [H]	Match a stated result to the passage that explains how it came about, and see what that explanation predicts.
Following the Pathway [H]	Track a multi-step biological pathway across paragraphs and work out what a break at one step would do to the rest.
What the Comparison Was Built to Show [H]	Read a described study for its comparison group and say what the design can and cannot establish.
Who the Result Is About [H]	Find the group a result was measured in and judge how far it can travel from there.
Relative Change and Actual Size [H]	Read a reported change against the baseline it is a change from, and tell a ratio apart from a difference.
Settled, Likely, Contested [H]	Sort the claims in a science text by how firmly the author is willing to stand behind each one.
What Stands In for What [H]	Spot a measurement standing in for something else and name what the substitution leaves out.
The Cost Named Beside the Benefit [H]	Read how a health text sets a benefit against a harm, and tell weighing apart from arguing.

Reading in Science: Earth, Climate & Environment (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

What a Proxy Record Stands For [H]	Separate the quantity an earth science record actually contains from the quantity the author is claiming.
How the Record Was Made [H]	Read the method well enough to say what a choice of instrument, site or procedure fixes about the result.
What a Record Can Resolve [H]	Judge what a record is too coarse to show, and stop reading its silences as evidence of nothing happening.
Reading a Range Instead of a Number [H]	Use a stated uncertainty to decide what a result does and does not settle.
Observed Trend, Attributed Cause [H]	Find the exact place where a text stops reporting what was measured and starts explaining why.
What the Model Was Asked [H]	Say what a model produces, what it assumed, and which questions it was never built to answer.
Words Earth Science Uses Narrowly [H]	Read a technical term in the narrow sense the field gives it rather than the everyday sense it looks like.
How Far a Result Travels [H]	State the boundary of a study in place, time and quantity, and refuse conclusions that cross it.

Reading Technical & Procedural Texts (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

What Has to Be True First [H]	Find the condition a document requires before a step, including the ones that are never printed as a step.
Which Branch You Are On [H]	Match a symptom to the one branch of a troubleshooting tree the document sends it to, and act on that branch only.
What a Specification Leaves Out [H]	Hold a rating, a range or a coverage term to the conditions it names, and read its silence as silence rather than as permission.
What the Warning Covers [H]	Read a hazard statement for the exact hazard it names and for what it leaves standing.
Must, Should, and May [H]	Tell a requirement from a recommendation from a permission, and say whose duty each one is.
Words the Document Defines for Itself [H]	Carry a document's own definition of a term to every later sentence that uses it, even where the ordinary sense would read smoothly.
Where the Wording Could Go Two Ways [H]	Locate the sentence two careful readers would carry out two different ways, and say what each reading would do.
How a Manual Is Put Together [H]	Use a document's architecture - sections, notes, cross-references and precedence rules - to find what governs and where it lives.

Reading in Science: Technology, Computing & Engineering (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

Tracing a Rule Written in Prose [H]	Follow a decision rule stated in sentences and say what it does with a particular case, including the cases it settles quietly.
What the Trade Costs [H]	Name what an engineering choice buys, what it pays with, and which of the two the text has left unstated.
The Constraint That Rules It Out [H]	Find the stated limit that eliminates a candidate, and say why nothing the candidate is good at brings it back.
Requirement or Preference [H]	Tell a line that can disqualify a candidate from a line that can only rank the candidates left, and use each for what it can do.
What a Failure Analysis Establishes [H]	Separate what a failure investigation proved from what it merely failed to rule out, and tell a cause from a condition.
What a Part Promises [H]	Hold a component's promise to exactly what it covers, and name what it deliberately leaves to something else.
What Changes When It Gets Bigger [H]	Say which quantity is fixed, which grows, and how fast, when a described design is made larger or busier.
Which Number Was Measured [H]	Read a quoted figure for the quantity it measures and the conditions it was measured under, before reading it as a claim about performance.

Reading in Science: Looking at the World (Grades K-1) · 7 topics

What This Text Is About [E]	Say what a science text is mostly about.
Finding a Fact [E]	Point to a fact the science text actually gives.
A New Science Word [E]	Work out a science word from the sentence that gives it.
Putting Things in Groups [M]	Sort things by what the text says they are like.
Alike and Different [M]	Tell how two things in a science text are different.
What Happens First [M]	Follow the steps of a science process in order.
Saying Why It Happens [M]	Use the text to say why something happens.

Prerequisite material - taught automatically when the diagnostic finds gaps

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness · 5 topics

Counting Syllables	Break a word into its beats.
Hearing the First Sound	Tell which sound a word starts with.
Hearing the Last Sound	Tell which sound a word ends with.
Hearing the Middle Vowel Sound	Find the vowel sound in the middle of a short word.
Blending Sounds into Words	Push separate sounds together to make a word.

Phonics: Letters, Sounds & Short Vowels · 5 topics

Capital and Lowercase Letters	Match every capital letter to its lowercase partner.
Letter Sounds	Say the sound each letter stands for.
Short Vowel Sounds	Hear and write the five short vowel sounds.
Reading Short Words	Sound out and read consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Word Families	Read a whole set of words by learning one ending.

High-Frequency Words & Sight Vocabulary · 2 topics

Recognizing High-Frequency Words	Know the most common words on sight, instantly.
High-Frequency Words in Sentences	Use common words correctly inside a real sentence.

Print Concepts & Early Comprehension · 3 topics

How Books and Print Work	Know the parts of a book and which way print goes.
Listening Comprehension	Understand a story that is read out loud to you.
What Happened First, Next, Last	Put the events of a story in the order they happened.

Sentence & Capitalization Basics · 2 topics

What Makes a Sentence	Tell a complete sentence from a group of words.
Naming Part and Telling Part	Split a sentence into who it is about and what happens.

Prefixes & Suffixes · 6 topics

Finding the Base Word	Strip the extra parts off a word to find the word underneath.
What a Prefix Means	Know what the common prefixes do to a word.
Using a Prefix to Read a Word	Work out what a prefixed word means without being told.
What a Suffix Means	Know what the common suffixes add to a word.
Using a Suffix to Read a Word	Work out what a word with a suffix means.
Reading a Word You Have Never Seen	Work out an unfamiliar word from its prefix, base, and suffix.

Context Clues (Grades 2-3) · 5 topics

When the Sentence Just Tells You	Find a word's meaning written into the sentence itself.
A Nearby Word That Means the Same	Use a synonym elsewhere in the passage to unlock a word.
When a Contrast Points the Other Way	Use a contrast word to work out the opposite meaning.
Working Back From Examples	Use a list of examples to work out the category.
When There Is No Clue Word	Work out a meaning from the whole situation.

Retelling, Sequence & Summary · 7 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the character a story follows.
First, Next, and Last	Say what happened first, what came in between, and what came last.
Putting the Whole Story in Order	Arrange all the events of a story from beginning to end.
Finding the Problem	Name what goes wrong in a story.
Finding the Solution	Say how a story's problem gets resolved.
Summarizing a Story	Retell a story keeping only what matters.
Knowing What to Leave Out	Spot the detail a summary does not need.

Nonfiction Basics: Topic & Key Details · 2 topics

What the Whole Text Is About	Say in a few words what a whole true text is about.
Key Details You Can Point To	Find a fact the text really states, and point to where it says so.

Text Features & Graphics · 1 topics

What a Heading Promises

Use a title or a heading to say what a part of a page will be about.

Integrating Multiple Sources · 3 topics

What Your Sources Are Really About	State the one question a set of sources is answering, precisely enough to compare them.
Where Sources Agree	Find the ground two sources share before you look at where they split.
Where Sources Disagree	Locate the exact sentence where two sources stop agreeing.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (2-4) · 3 topics

The Main Idea of a History Text	Find what a history passage is really about.
Evidence in a History Text	Point to the detail that actually proves a claim.
Whose Story Is Being Told	Notice whose point of view a history text takes, and who is missing.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (5-6) · 3 topics

Reading a Source Like a Historian	Ask who made a source, when, and what they wanted it to do.
Claims and the Evidence Under Them	Separate what a history text asserts from what it shows.
When Sources Disagree	Compare accounts of the same event instead of trusting one.

Sentence Types, Fragments & Run-Ons · 1 topics

Spotting a Fragment

Tell when a group of words stops before it is a sentence.

Writing Strong Sentences · 2 topics

Knowing When You Have a Sentence	Tell a finished sentence from a piece of one.
Saying More Than the Bare Fact	Add detail that answers a question a reader would ask.

Paragraphs & Topic Sentences · 2 topics

The Sentence the Others Are About	Find or choose the sentence a paragraph is built on.
Details That Actually Support	Choose detail that backs the claim you made.

Opinion & Argument Writing · 5 topics

A Claim or a Fact?	Tell a position someone could argue with from a fact they could check.
The Reason Under a Claim	Find the sentence that says why a position holds.
A Reason That Just Says It Again	Spot a reason that goes in a circle instead of forward.
Evidence That Actually Proves It	Tell measured evidence from a stronger way of repeating an opinion.
Claims You Cannot Defend	Recognize a claim pushed past what any evidence could support.

Argument: Claim, Evidence & Reasoning · 3 topics

What the Evidence Can Carry	Judge evidence by relevance, sufficiency and where it came from, not by how impressive it sounds.
How Far the Claim Reaches	Match the size of a claim to the size of the evidence behind it.
What Would Settle It	Compare two arguments by asking what evidence would decide between them.

Logical Fallacies & Flawed Reasoning · 3 topics

Attacking the Arguer	Separate an attack on the person from a fair reason to check their evidence.
The Position Nobody Took	Tell a reply that answers the stated position from one that answers an invented version of it.
The Word That Changed Sides	Track a key word through an argument and catch it changing meaning partway.

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