The Garden of MTSS Reading Pathways
One Mentor Text. Three Tiers. No Extra Planning
How the Garden of MTSS Reading Pathways makes upper elementary comprehension instruction actually work.
If you've ever sat in an MTSS meeting and left feeling like your to-do list just tripled, this is for you.
Tier 1. Tier 2. Tier 3. Three sets of students, three different levels of need, and one teacher trying to plan for all of it without losing her mind. I've been there. I've worked with teachers who are there right now.
Here's what I want you to know: you don't need three separate plans. You need one strong mentor text and a clear framework for how to use it across all three tiers. That's exactly what the Garden of MTSS Reading Pathways is built to do.
What is the Garden of MTSS Reading Pathways?
It's a framework I built specifically for grades 3-5 teachers who want to deliver tiered comprehension instruction without starting from scratch at every level. The anchor for April is We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines — a picture book rich enough to carry a full week of instruction and short enough to use as a read-aloud without losing anyone.
The garden metaphor is intentional. Every student belongs in the garden. The difference is in how much support each bed needs to grow.
Why this works for MTSS
Most MTSS frameworks tell you what to do but don't give you the materials to do it. Teachers are expected to differentiate in three directions with one prep period and no extra budget. That's not a support system — that's just more work with a different label on it.
The Garden framework solves for that. One book. One comprehension skill. Three pathways. The instructional moves shift by tier, but the core text stays the same. That means students aren't separated from the story — they're all in it, just with different levels of support getting them there.
What this looks like in practice
Tier 1 is your whole-group read-aloud with intentional stopping points. You're modeling your thinking out loud, building a class anchor chart, and giving every student a way in.
Tier 2 pulls a small group with the same book and same comprehension target, but adds sentence frames, a scaffolded graphic organizer, and more guided practice time before students work independently.
Tier 3 slows everything down. You model first, every time. Students work with shortened retells, visual supports, and picture-sentence matching. The comprehension goal doesn't change — the route to get there does.
By the end of the week, your whole class has moved through the same story with the level of support they actually needed. That's what MTSS is supposed to look like.
Ready to stop planning this from scratch?
The full Garden of MTSS Reading Pathways unit has everything: Tier 1, 2, and 3 lesson materials, a scaffolded graphic organizer for each level, a student reflection page, and a teacher data tool you can bring straight to your next data meeting.
Grab a Read-Aloud Resource That Does the Planning for You
If you want read-aloud instruction to feel more purposeful and less pieced together, that’s exactly why I create literacy tools for teachers.
My read-aloud resources are designed to help you teach with more structure, stronger comprehension, and less overwhelm.
Because the right picture book can teach a lot, when the plan behind it is strong.
Browse my literacy resources here
A strong literacy block doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from knowing what matters most each week and building around it. That’s what makes read-alouds more than a moment, they become instruction.
