Reading Interventions in a Three Tier Model Catherine Christo California State University, Sacramento

Questions to Consider What do successful interventions look like? –In general –Within each tier What can we expect from these interventions? How do we know who to serve at each tier?

National Reading Panel Identified Five Component Skills Three are critical to the development of automatic word identification –Phonemic Awareness –Phonics –Fluency Two are critical to reading comprehension –Vocabulary –Comprehension strategies There is interaction/additive effects among these five skills

Learning Is Training the Brain Recognizing printed words with fluency Keep brain-based principles of learning in mind when designing interventions Accurate practice is critical “Signature” neural characteristics of dyslexia Neural plasticity indicates that it is easier to create new connections than reconfigure old ones Learning requires novelty

Reading Interventions Explicit, systematic instruction –Currently adopted California curriculums Target areas of need (five components of skilled reading) Provide intense intervention Opportunities for guided practice of new skills in context Skill development

Group Size and Composition Same ability grouping Small groups within classrooms Small groups equal to or better than one on one Up to three to four students

Three Tiered Model Assessment by response to intervention Tier 1 –Provide classroom support Tier 2 –Provide more intensive support Tier 3 –Consider special education Monitor and evaluate at all stages Dual Discrepancy

Tier I Interventions Within classroom May target groups of students Measurable goals for all Instituted early for identified and at-risk students Individualized and flexible grouping Base on ongoing assessment Will be extensions of curriculum

Tier II: Supplemental Reading Instruction May go beyond classroom instruction Provided in small group or one to one Systematic, integrated program Provided by trained persons Frequent, intense Measuring progress related to curriculum

Basic RLA/ELD Programs – Adopted by CDE SRA/Open Court Reading--Grades K-6 Reading: A Legacy of Literacy--Grades K-6

Early Intervention Makes a Difference Can significantly reduce number of children performing below criterion (Foorman, 2003) –Tier 1 interventions can result in reducing at risk readers from 25% of population to 6% –Tier 2 interventions can further reduce to 3 to 4% Increase scores on standardized tests Results are long lasting for most children Largest gains are made in first part of intervention Brain functioning more normalized

Who Does It Most Readily Help? Those without underlying processing disorders (phonological and naming speed) Those who respond quickest Those whose reading problems are a result of limited exposure Those with better foundational literacy skills IQ does not differentiate those who will be helped

Why Is Early Intervention Important? Establishes basic early skills Puts children on growth trajectory Response to early intervention shows growth curve in basic skills to be greater than normal for those receiving intervention

Tier III Interventions Intensive Targeted with thorough assessment Generally given later than first and second tier Special education or “special-education”like Problems in reading rate remain for most children who require this level of intervention

Reading Intervention Programs Adopted Grades Language! A Literacy Intervention Curriculum High Point Read 180 SRA/Reach Program Fast Track Reading Program

Adopted Reading Programs - English Language Learners Hampton Brown, High Point, Grades 4-8

Upper Grade Interventions Often lack intensity Little direct instruction or guided practice in phonics Lack of comprehension strategy instruction Typical special education during 4 th and 5 th grade increases reading by only.04 SD over what would occur in classroom Issues of language ability

Successful Upper Grade Interventions Teach phonemic decoding explicitly Provide opportunities for supervised practice Intensive Small group Related to entry level skills Provide all NRP elements of reading instruction Teach morphology as need more than phonics at upper grades to read words

Questions to Consider What do successful interventions look like? –In general –Within each tier What can we expect from these interventions? How do we know who to serve at each tier?

Expected Growth in Fluency Typical students in first grade 2 words per week in oral reading fluency (ORF) Grade two students gain about 1.66 decreasing to about.6 in fifth and sixth grade Special education students is about ½ that of regular education students High quality interventions was about 1.5 Benchmark for interventions –2 words per week to level of 30 CWM –Approximately 1 word per week thereafter

How Long Does It Take? Rate of progress in intervention predicts future reading Three types of responses to intervention –Rapid responders –Responders: Meet rate goals with more prolonged intervention –Need intensive intervention beyond traditional Both word reading and comprehension are low Word reading lower than comprehension

Expectations for Upper Grades Older children around 30 th percentile can bring phonemic decoding, text reading accuracy and fluency into average range (60 hours) Those around 10 th percentile can bring phonemic decoding, accuracy and comprehension into average range. Fluency increases but still low (100 hours) Those at 2 nd percentile can bring phonemic decoding into average and increase accuracy and comprehension but little relative change in fluency

Projected growth in “sight vocabulary” of normal readers and disabled children before and after remediation. Torgeson, Orton Lecture, International Dyslexia Association Annual Meeting Normal Intervention Size of “sight vocabulary Grade in School Dyslexic 2nd Year follow-up

Persistent Fluency Deficits As children learn to read they increase their store of “sight words” Average readers are doing so from 1 st grade on and continue to do so Delayed readers fall behind early Gap continues to widen without intervention Effects of early delay are both direct and indirect –Text support –Vocabulary

Difficulties For Older Children Low entering word reading scores reflect underlying deficits Deficit makes it impossible to close the gap May have additional deficit in ability to form orthographic representations

Questions to Consider What do successful interventions look like? –In general –Within each tier What can we expect from these interventions? How do we know who to serve at each tier?

Criteria to Determine Need for Tier I Intervention Poor performance on screening tests Bottom portion of students Mid K screening Response to instruction Identify those not at risk

DIBELS Progression

Oral Fluency Rates

Criteria To Determine Need for Tier II Intervention Advancing toward benchmarks –District developed benchmarks Within curriculum –Prepared benchmarks (e.g. DIBELS) Set at-risk or not at risk criteria Monitoring progress –Those not making adequate progress are referred on

Curriculum Based Measurement Fluency based measures Have capacity for providing growth trajectory Easy, quick to administer Psychometrically sound

Guidelines for Monitoring Progress “10 week” rule How much progress is enough? –Expected amount of growth –Expected trajectory Benchmarks

Measuring Progress

Growth in Correct Words per Minute

Sample Interventions Auditory Discrimination in Depth (LIPS) Proactive Beginning Reading Optimize Intervention Spell, Read P.A.T. Read Write Type Berninger PAL aligned Phono-Graphix

Sample Interventions contin. Wilson Reading System Reading Mastery Words (Marcia Henry) Corrective Reading

Swanson Meta-analysis Large analysis of studies on interventions for LD students Considered multiple characteristics of instruction For reading looked primarily at word recognition and comprehension

Word Recognition Direct instruction with drill, repetition and practice Sequencing Segmentation Advance organizers Orienting to task Small groups

Fluency Good indicator of reading skill Correlates highly with comprehension measures Multiple reading processes may become automatic

Fluency Importance of prosody as well as rate Repeated silent readings –No consistent results –Perhaps some value in using higher level text Assisted reading –With another person –With tape –May have more promise than repeated readings Guided repeated oral reading Pronouncing word aloud helps create neural representation

Fluency continued Tend to improve comprehension and prosody but not word recognition Increasing word recognition –Preteaching vocabulary aids comprehension Segmenting text –Augmented text may be particularly useful for slow readers Increases in fluency lead to increases in comprehension Important to assure that component skills are in place Importance of motivation

Reading Comprehension Greater number of components than for word recognition Direct instruction Strategy instruction Directed response Sequencing Elaboration Teacher modeling

Vocabulary More words ready to develop neural representations Get to understanding of words in multiple ways –Contextualize –Morphology Vocabulary increase of 3,000 words per year

Swanson’s Conclusions Growth doesn’t always mean significant effect sizes Phonics instruction alone doesn’t always generalize to real word reading LD students need more than just phonics in order to transfer their skills to real words General language deficit (higher order) and its effect on learning to read

References Foorman, B. R Preventing and remediating reading difficulties; Bringing science to scale. York Press, Baltimore. Kame'enui, E., Simmons, D., Good III, R., & Harn, B The use of fluency based measures in early identification and evaluation of intervention efficacy in the schools. In M. Wolf (ed.), Dyslexia,Fluency and the Brain. York Press, Timonium, MD. National Research Council on Learning Disabilities, Responsiveness to Intervention Synposium. Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Report of the National Reading Panel: Teachin Children to Read. Swanson, L Interventions for students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis of outcomes. Guilford, New York.