What is the Reading Rope & How Does It Apply to Me?

Introduction to the Reading Rope

My first exposure to the Reading Rope was at a workshop where we were supposed to “build it” with pipe cleaners. Did a bunch of teachers act like kids and not follow the directions? YES! Did it help me understand the Reading Rope? Well… no. It wasn’t until I learned how the Reading Rope and the Simple View of Reading work hand-in-hand that it all clicked for me.

Here’s the bottom line: the ultimate goal of reading is comprehension. Makes sense, right? But to get there, students must first master phonological awareness, decoding, and sight word recognition. Read on to find out more about each of these key components and how they fit into the bigger picture of reading success. Look at the Reading Rope as a Road Map to Reading.

What Do Pipe Cleaners Have to Do With Learning to Read?

Back in the late 1990s, Dr. Hollis Scarborough, a reading and literacy expert, grabbed some pipe cleaners to create a hands-on model showing how reading skills work together. This simple demo turned into something much bigger—the Reading Rope. Today, this visual tool helps us understand the different skills that come together to make reading happen.

In this post, we’ll break down what the Reading Rope is all about, how it connects to the Science of Reading, and how it ties in with the Five Pillars of Reading.

What Is the Reading Rope?

Did you know that our brains are not naturally wired to read? Our brains are naturally wired to do many things, but reading isn’t one of them. Unlike talking or walking, reading doesn’t just “click” on its own. We have to teach it step by step, showing how letters and words translate into sounds and meanings.

That’s where the Reading Rope comes in. It’s a visual that shows how different skills—represented as strands of a rope—are woven together to create a strong, capable reader. Amazingly enough, through direct (explicit and systematic) instruction, the brain can wire itself to start recognizing and understanding letters, syllables, and words.

Why Is the Reading Rope Important?

The Reading Rope reminds us that reading is more than just one skill. It’s a bunch of different skills that all need attention. When we understand each of these skills, or strands, we can better help kids become strong readers. The Reading Rope helps teachers plan lessons that target each specific area, making sure no strand is left behind.

How Does the Simple View of Reading Connect to the Reading Rope?

The Simple View of Reading is a framework that boils down reading into two main components: word recognition and language comprehension.

These two components work together to create reading comprehension. If one is missing or weak, overall reading ability suffers. The Reading Rope builds on this idea by breaking down these two main skills into smaller, more specific strands.

Individual Strands: Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Skilled Reading

Here’s a closer look at the strands that make up the Reading Rope, each containing its own set of skills:

Word Recognition: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, & Sight Word Recognition

Phonological Awareness:

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with the sounds in words. It includes recognizing rhymes, breaking words into syllables, and manipulating sounds within words. This skill is the foundation for learning phonics. Many of these activities can be done orally, but current research states that using letters is more beneficial for children. Here are some easy ideas to use with preschoolers to get them ready for reading.

Phonics:

Phonics involves the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent, like “A says /a/.” It includes understanding letter-sound correspondences, decoding unfamiliar words by applying sound-symbol relationships, and blending sounds to form words. Once learned, kids can tackle unfamiliar words and blend sounds to make words. Phonics instruction gives students the tools to decode (read) printed words.

Sight Word Recognition:

Sight word recognition is the ability to recognize words by sight. This is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Reading Rope and deserves its own post. Click here to learn more. Bottom line: some words don’t follow the usual phonics rules and need to be explicitly taught. With direct phonics instruction, repetition, and spiraling instruction, students can learn to recognize them quickly to read more smoothly. Building a bank of sight words boosts fluency.

Language Comprehension

Background Knowledge

Having a broad background knowledge has proven to be one of the biggest predictors of reading comprehension. “Knowledge is like velcro, it sticks to other related knowledge,” said Natalie Wexler. Students need to have a broad background knowledge of facts, concepts, and relationships in order to understand text and the world around them.

Vocabulary:

Students must have a wide range of word meanings, each one connects to a web of other word meanings. This includes all the words a person knows and understands, both spoken and written. In addition to understanding morphology or word parts. The more words a child knows, the better they can understand what they read and communicate. One tip: check out audiobooks and learn how they boost vocabulary skills.

Language Structure:

A student should be able to extract ideas from sentences using syntax, vocabulary, figures of speech, and background knowledge. These are the rules that help us understand and form sentences. Knowing grammar helps kids make sense of how words fit together, which is key for understanding what they read and making meaning from it.

Verbal Reasoning

Make connections between ideas across sentences, creating a web of ideas for a passage.

Literacy Knowledge

Build a big picture model of the situation described in the text and use it across text.

How Do All of the Strands Work Together?

The strands of the Reading Rope don’t work alone—they support each other. When students get better at recognizing words, they can focus more on understanding what they’re reading. As their understanding of language grows, they can dive deeper into texts and pick up on more subtle meanings. For too many years some reading programs only focused on the Language Comprehension portion of the Reading Rope and dismissed the Word Recognition strands and all of the important roles they play.

Here’s how the Reading Rope works:

Word Recognition: At first, kids focus on sounding out words, using their phonological awareness and phonics skills. With practice and systematic instruction, they start recognizing words automatically, which makes reading easier and faster.
Language Comprehension: As they read, kids learn to engage with the text by asking questions, making connections, and keeping track of what’s happening. Good readers use comprehension strategies like summarizing, visualizing, and questioning to better understand the story. These strategies are all used simultaneously during reading, not in isolation.

Word recognition and language comprehension are interdependent. As these skills develop, kids start reading more fluently and can handle more challenging texts with confidence.

How Does the Rope Connect to the Five Pillars of Reading?

The Reading Rope covers more than just five skills, but it lines up nicely with the Five Pillars of Reading:

Phonological Awareness (and Phonemic Awareness): This is part of the Reading Rope’s word recognition strand.
Phonics: A key component of word recognition.
Fluency: While not its own strand, fluency is closely tied to word recognition. As students get better at recognizing words, they read more fluently. It’s a combination of accuracy, rate, and prosody.
Vocabulary: This aligns with the language comprehension strand of the Reading Rope.
Comprehension: Built into the language comprehension strand, this skill involves understanding sentences, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and connecting the text to what the reader already knows (background knowledge).

The Reading Rope is a powerful tool that helps break down the complicated process of learning to read. By visualizing how different skills come together, it gives teachers a clear roadmap for guiding students toward reading success. When these strands are woven together, they form a strong foundation that supports kids as they grow into confident, capable readers.