Middle school classrooms are a natural laboratory where the relationships between science, reading, and writing can be developed and strengthened to provide a foundation for students' learning and future career success. Teachers do not need to know "everything" about science and reading to raise student achievement. Rather, they need to know a few things well: (1) which cognitive processes are shared in the building of scientific knowledge and the processes of reading comprehension; (2) how these processes can be transferred; and (3) how to promote deep learning through teaching. The author of this article designed the Science-Cognition-Literacy (SCL) Framework to give science teachers a basis for visualization of the sequencing of cognitive processes and instructional activities for developing science inquiry skills, and applying them to reading (and writing) activities based in science. The SCL Framework is intended to serve as a guide for putting all of the pieces together in a seamless fashion. Rather than treating reading and writing as ancillary activities to support science learning, in this model, the literacy activities are fully embedded into the science curriculum and take on an equally important role to those of hands-on inquiry experiences. A list of inquiry skills and how and when they may be applied to science reading activities is presented. (Contains 2 figures.)