Reading Intervention Updates Big for Digital and Common Core

• By Stephen Noonoo
• 08/20/14

Passport Reading Journeys, a literacy intervention for middle and high schoolers, is getting an overhaul in order to focus more on digital capabilities and states’ beefed up ELA standards.

A blended program combining both print and digital materials, the program helps move students toward grade-level reading through text and analytical, inferential questions coupled with background materials like videos to help explain concepts to students.

According to Voyager Sopris Learning, the company behind the program, many of the updates deal with aligning the materials to more rigorous standards—like Common Core—and making them more college and career ready. Updates include:

• Interactive ebooks that let students highlight passages, write responses, and submit assignments to teachers;
• Added  inferential questioning, deep text analysis, and assessments that, according to the company, "mirror high-stakes exams;"
• An online library of multimedia reading selections, called ReadingScape; and
• The ability to search content by Common Core or TEKS standards.

The curriculum also integrates with the previously individualized online programs VocabJourney and SOLO, and includes scaffolded instruction and online data management features for teachers.