Supplemental and Intervention Reading Programs Georgia Reading First Supplemental and Intervention Reading Programs Eastern Regional Center for Reading First Technical Assistance Florida State University Dr. Joseph K. Torgesen Dr. Marcia Grek Stuart Greenberg March 25, 2004

Three Definitions of Schools A series of autonomous classrooms that are connected by a common parking lot. A place where the relatively young watch the relatively old work. A complex organization that is built upon relationships that require individuals to work interdependently.

The demands of phonologic, alphabetic, semantic, and syntactic systems of written language require a careful schedule and sequence of prioritized objectives, explicit strategies, and scaffolds that support students’ initial learning and transfer of knowledge and skills to other contexts.

Curriculum instruction and instructional design that effectively moves children through the “learning to read” stage to the “reading to learn” stage is simply too important to leave to chance.

Supplemental Curriculum This refers to the materials and strategies used to meet the various instructional needs within a classroom – differentiated instruction The same rigorous criteria used for core curriculum should be applied to the selection of supplemental materials Instructionally this may include programs that are specific to the Fab 5 for students with a need for more practice and time on task as well as smaller groups and more teacher time.

Intervention Reading Programs Purpose: to provide additional instruction to students performing below grade level Examples: stand-alone intervention programs in-program intervention programs Notes: The term “intervention” can be used in many ways. For example, a reading intervention could involve providing summer school for struggling readers. The term intervention as used here refers to specific programs designed to provide additional assistance for those students performing below grade level. Stand-alone intervention programs are remedial programs that can be used by themselves or in conjunction with other reading programs. They are designed to address one or more reading skills. In-program intervention programs are components of comprehensive reading programs. The in-program intervention programs contain lessons that are coordinated with comprehensive programs. In their most recent reading curriculum adoption, California required all comprehensive reading programs to include an intervention component.

Immediate Intensive Intervention (iii) iii should be implemented with children as soon as we notice they are falling behind in the development of critical reading skills. iii involves children in receiving instruction in reading that is more intensive than what they have been receiving. This can be accomplished by: reducing the student/teacher ratio providing more instructional time Both include providing more supports (instructional opportunity, time, resources, materials and/or personnel) Slide 2. There have been many questions about iii. One thing that may be helpful is to consider iii as a ‘thing’ (determined by data) NOT a ‘time’ or a ‘place’. 3. All Reading Coaches should read their district’s Reading First grant proposal. There is a plan for iii outlined in the proposal. This would be the best place to start when organizing for iii.

The consensus view of most important instructional features for interventions Interventions are more effective when they: Provide systematic and explicit instruction on whatever component skills are deficient: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies Provide a significant increase in intensity of instruction Provide ample opportunities for guided practice of new skills Here is a brief overview of the consensus about the most important features of effective interventions for children who are lagging behind. Provide systematic cueing of appropriate strategies in context Provide appropriate levels of scaffolding as children learn to apply new skills

The most direct way to increase learning rate is by increasing the number of positive, or successful, instructional interactions (pii) per school day. There are a variety of ways to increase the number of positive instructional interactions per school day This is a brief over view of why we need to find a way to work more intensively with those who are lagging behind

Professional Development What, How Much, Who? Core Curriculum 3-5 days (Publishers should provide the bulk of this). Teachers should have opportunity to practice lessons from the beginning, middle and end of the program during their training. Intensive Intervention 2-3 days Supplemental 1 1/2 to 2 days