CSI turns your students into reading "detextives"!

CSI Benefits Teachers
CSI benefits teachers in the following areas:

• Saves time! 80 engaging, short texts per grade level are linked with strategies and ready-to-go
• Provides model lessons for effective instruction
• Makes integrating technology with instruction easy
• Provides support for struggling readers and English language learners

CSI Benefits Students
CSI benefits students in the following areas:

• Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Content-Area Literacy
• Fluency

Comprehension
CSI provides teachers with everything they need to scaffold students through the process of reading by using key comprehension strategies:

	Proficient readers make connections to: the text they are reading and their own experiences (text-to-text), the other texts they have experienced (text-to-text), and what they know about the world, their community, and what has happened to others (text-to-world).
	Good readers ask questions constantly – prior to reading, while interacting with the text, and when reflecting on what they’ve read. Asking questions promotes engagement, invites prediction, creates reasons to read, and fosters comprehension.
	As proficient readers read or listen to a text, they can “see” what is happening, almost as if they are running a movie in their mind. They utilize all of their senses to create mental images of what they read.
	Making inferences helps readers grasp the deeper essence of texts they read. When making inferences, readers are “reading between the lines” and “getting below the surface” as they find meaning that is not directly stated by the author.
	Determining-important ideas is sometimes referred to as finding the main idea and supporting details in the text and as such is an important part of reading competence. It is closely related to the skill of summarizing and depends on the reader’s purpose for reading.
	Synthesizing enables the reader to integrate their thinking with the content of the text to get a “personal take” on what they read. Synthesizing is the process of deriving insight from reading – of thinking your way through a text.
	Proficient readers monitor themselves as they read, checking for accuracy and checking that the text makes sense to them. Students will receive explicit instruction in CSI to become aware of their thinking, detect obstacles that derail understanding, and to understand how strategies will help them repair meaning when it breaks down.

Download CSI’s standards grid with strategies and texts for Grades 3-8.

10 Comprehension Tips from CSI author and literacy expert, Neale Pitches.

Vocabulary
CSI’s approach to vocabulary instruction is modeled on the National Reading Panel Report, which states that vocabulary should be taught both directly and indirectly, with an emphasis on repetition and seeing vocabulary words several times. The Panel stressed, “Learning in rich contexts, incidental learning, and the use of computer technology all help children develop larger vocabularies. A combination of methods, rather than a single teaching method, leads to the best learning.” (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000)

CSI supports this approach by providing support to teachers and students both indirectly and directly, with repetition of key terms and the use of computer technology and traditional hardcopy glossaries.

This chart shows an example of CSI’s use of vocabulary:

Content-area Literacy
CSI offers 80 texts per grade level, 32 of which are for English language arts (16 fiction and 16 nonfiction), 16 for math literacy, 16 for science literacy, and 16 for social studies literacy.

Texts include:

• persuasive, recount, report, essay, narrative, explanation, procedure, article, and autobiography/biography.
• Compare/contrast, sequential, cause/effect, problem/solution, enumerative, and descriptive text structures and features. Each piece in CSI has been specifically linked to national content standards.

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English Language Arts: Fiction/Nonfiction
CSI is designed to teach students how to recognize and implement specific strategies to improve their own reading comprehension. Through this emphasis on reading comprehension and metacognition, CSI meets a broad range of literacy standards for elementary and middle school students. Standards written by the NCTE and the IRA have been adapted and incorporated into CSI, to help classroom teachers implement these standards or goals in their everyday teaching.

The following bullet points are quoted directly from the Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches. They apply equally to elementary classrooms:

• “distinguishing informational text from narrative text in order to guide students to use the right strategies
• distinguishing fact from opinion and the words that signal opinions and judgments in persuasive essays
• the technical nature of the vocabulary demands that require preteaching, thinking critically (for example, drawing inferences, or conclusions from text, analyzing author’s point of view, evaluating author’s argument and evidence, synthesizing information from more than one text)
• how to use visual aids such as charts and diagrams that clarify the particular lesson
• how to use other aids such as glossaries and appendixes that pertain to reading, writing, and English language conventions.” (IRA, 2006, pp.20-21)

Science
CSI helps science teachers develop active and competent readers within the discipline of science and to then reinforce the use of comprehension strategies, vocabulary, and writing in regular science classes and with science textbooks. Standards written by the NSTA and the IRA have been adapted and incorporated into CSI. CSI helps science teachers assess the literacy demands of a given science lesson and assist all students to:

• “access content from textbooks, the Internet, and other science materials
• work with struggling or second-language learners for whom science language and discourse may produce additional reading and writing challenges.” (IRA, 2006, pp.27-28)
• how to related what is read to relevant prior knowledge
• the technical nature of science requires continuing review of what has been previously learned
• distinguishing between facts based on empirical/scientific findings and opinion
• ability to use scientific knowledge to draw inferences or conclusions from facts
• following instructions to perform laboratory activities
• explaining diagrams and graphs in text in terms of scientific content/meaning

Social Studies
CSI helps social studies teachers and students to know and understand multiple reading comprehension strategies. Standards written by the NCSS and IRA have been adapted and incorporated into CSI.

• Distinguishing between primary and secondary sources
• thinking critically
• navigating a wealth of factual information
• using and interpreting maps, globes, and other nonlinguistic or graphic tools such as timelines, photographs, charts, statistical tables, and political cartoons
• recognizing fact and opinion and the words that signal opinions and judgments

Math
CSI provides math teachers with critical tools to engage students actively in learning and problem solving through dialogue, discussions, and group projects (for example, think, pair, share, and cooperative group activities). Standards written by the NCTM and IRA have been adapted and incorporated into CSI.

CSI provides texts for whole-group and cooperative-group student that allow math teachers to improve students’ understanding of the text structures commonly encountered in mathematics, including:

• “description or main idea and detail text structure
• definition text structure
• understanding and working with ‘applied mathematics problems that are usually presented in oral or written formats, including multiple-meaning vocabulary words and sometimes complicated syntax.” (IRA, 2006, p. 25)

Fluency

The audio texts in CSI as well as the whole-group texts (when read aloud) provide fluent models for students. Recognized and accepted research evidence supports the practice of having students listen to a fluent model of English as they read a text. Although audio-assisted reading benefits all readers, this practice especially improves the reading performance of ELLs and struggling readers (see Rasinski, 203, pp. 1-4-115).

Listening to a correct, fluent model of text improves the decoding skills of ELLs and struggling readers, allowing them access to difficult text. Audio support helps to develop their fluency and frees their attention so they can give maximum concentration to comprehension rather than just decoding the words.

The three-step model used in CSI follows the research-based ‘gradual release’ model:

1. Whole-Group Instruction – Explicit teaching of the strategy
   
   Materials used: strategy lesson folders, overhead transparencies or digital texts CD-ROM, 45 lessons total
   Time per lesson: approximately 25 minutes (more for struggling readers)
   • The teacher models and scaffolds students in the effective use of comprehension strategies using a range of highly engaging, authentic content-area texts and varied text types.
   • Students read, think, and engage in meaningful discussions as they learn the comprehension strategies.
   • Whole-group texts are included as digital files on the Interactive CD-ROM for teachers to access during instruction either with a data projector with a screen or monitor, or an interactive whiteboard.


2. Cooperative Learning – Practice of the strategy in small group or pairs (teacher observes and supports cooperative learning groups)
   
   Materials used: cooperative learning activity books, audio CD, graphic organizers, 40 cooperative sessions total
   Time per lesson: approximately 25 minutes (more for struggling readers)
   • In small groups or pairs, students apply comprehension strategies with different texts, in the same content area, engaging in discussion and writing response activities (graphic organizers)
   • Students interact with text and their peers as they reinforce the learning from the whole-group lesson
   • Every text is supported with an audio text so students reading below grade level can access on-grade-level text.


3. Independent Learning – Reflection and Application
   
   Materials used: student reflection journals, independent reading materials (could be selections from textbooks or other curriculum materials, or books from classroom or school library, or newspaper articles, magazines, Internet articles, etc.)
   Time per lesson: approximately 25 minutes (more for struggling readers)
   • Students reinforce, respond, record, and assess their use of comprehension strategies, helping them to become independent thinkers and learners.
   • Students learn to integrate the comprehension strategies.
   • Strategies are applied to content-area curriculum or independent reading.

CSI’s Interactive Technology
CSI includes a Whole Group Interactive Texts CD-ROM, which provides digital files in the form of UMAJIN, an easy to use, attractive interfacewith embedded functions that aid instruction and support students during reading.

About the UMAJIN tools: View PDF.

CSI’s CD-ROMs may be used with any computer and LCD projector. Whether you are projecting on a whiteboard, a screen, a wall, or a monitor, you can use CSI by controlling it from your computer. If you have any brand of interactive whiteboard you can use CSI along with it by inserting the CD-ROM into your computer and then using the touch-screen as you would with your interactive whiteboard.

System Requirements for CSI Whole Group Interactive CD-ROMs:
PC - CPU:800 MHz minimum; RAM:256MB minimum, recommend 512MB;Graphics RAM:32 MB,Requires Windows Vista/XP/2003/2000
Mac - Any Mac computer capable of running Mac OS version 10.4 and above.

Choosing a level of CSI
Each grade level box of CSI contains texts at that grade-appropriate reading level. Supports such as audio, picture and hypertext glossaries, video clips, photos, graphic organizers, and more are built in to help scaffold students through this on-grade-level text so that even if some students in your class may be reading one or two levels below grade level, they can still access and be exposed to this on-grade-level text.

Exposing your students to grade-level texts while teaching the strategies will help build their confidence and comprehension when facing challenging texts. If your students are reading significantly below grade level (more than 2 grade levels below) you may wish to choose a lower level of CSI. View the sample texts at each grade level on the CSI Sampler download to determine which level will be right for your students. Remember that challenging them while teaching the strategies is important… it will encourage more thinking and problem-solving!

CSI Sampler Download
Try out CSI! Download our new sampler, which includes sample lesson plans and interactive, digital texts.

Full Digital Sampler:

• PC Version (100MB)
• MAC Version (104MB)
• PC Zip File (if above link not working) (80MB)

Digital Texts Only:

• PC Files (20MB)
• MAC Files (20MB)

Please visit our Video Archive for additional short video clips, presentations, and downloads.