Establishing a reading intervention program Strategies to use with struggling and/or reluctant readers Does reading intervention work for all ages? Reporting progress Workshop Overview

Reasons for establishing a reading intervention program at SSIS: significant number of students behind grade expectation transient student population high ESL community an established parent volunteer reading program

‘A reader at risk of having difficulty to read tends to operate on a narrow range of weak processes. He may rely on making up the story from some memory of the book and pay only slight detail to the visual details. He may disregard obvious discrepancies between his response and the words on the page. He may be looking so hard for words he knows and guessing words from the first letters that he forgets what the message is about. Such primitive ways of operating on print can easily become established habits if they are practiced day after day, and the habits become resistant to change. For some children this is what happens in the first year of instruction.’ (Clay, M. 2002) Marie Clay observed :

How we structured our program Selected students who were under grade expectations by 3 or more levels, no matter what grade. Six teachers and nine students are currently involved with the program. First, the learning needs of the students were assessed. Then an intensive, individually designed and individually delivered series of lessons for minutes each day.

What are some of the typical issues students with reading challenges have? Group activity

Reading Strategies Prior to reading: Retelling previous days story Prompt questions for elaboration Explaining new or unfamiliar vocab of new book Pre-discussion of new book, predictions and reading the blurb Picture clues or book walk Introducing focused language Introduce names of people in the story before reading Reviewing known sight words

Reading: Locate focus words on each page before reading Teacher modeling - one to one word matching Praising for noticing punctuation Covering the picture when reading Questions throughout reading Focus on relationships in words e.g. prefixes Small white board on hand to write words causing confusion e.g. was/saw skip a word, keep reading then re-read.

Post-reading: Clearly stated questions Inference questions Follow-up activity: Word matching to sentence written in their book Word relationships e.g. make, take, cake; make – made – mate; fly, flies, flew, flown, flying Using words discussed in word relationships. I (flew) to Australia. I have (flown) in a helicopter. Retell the story through writing or if non-fiction, write 3 facts

Matching pictures with text. (cut and paste) Picture from text, write own sentence Dictation – a small section from the book Writing answers to teacher questions Use of multi-strategies (magnetic letter, whiteboard, cut & paste) Repeating what they say to ask if it sounds right Similar routine every day Link to mother tongue High frequency board games (sometimes sent home)

Does reading intervention work? Does intervention only work if it is early, i.e. after one year of formal instruction?

Reading levels assessed before and after 10 weeks of instruction.

Tutor Teacher’s Reflections.Allows continual follow up and flexibility. I have found it very positive. Meets the needs of our community. Can see progress.Time is an issue.Time to play games would extend their learning. Need to consider what else are they pulled out of class for as this can be a problem. The sessions gave us the tools and time to find out what was going on with the children. They don't have to keep up with others in the class so work is totally comfortable and at their level. Other children are not getting it. Feel like the others should not miss out. Tutor Teacher’s Reflections.Allows continual follow up and flexibility. I have found it very positive. Meets the needs of our community. Can see progress.Time is an issue.Time to play games would extend their learning. Need to consider what else are they pulled out of class for as this can be a problem. The sessions gave us the tools and time to find out what was going on with the children. They don't have to keep up with others in the class so work is totally comfortable and at their level. Other children are not getting it. Feel like the others should not miss out. Tutor Teacher’s Reflections. Allows continual follow up and flexibility. I have found it very positive. Meets the needs of our community. Can see progress. Time is an issue. Time to play games would extend their learning.

Need to consider what else are they pulled out of class for as this can be a problem. The sessions gave us the tools and time to find out what was going on with the children. They don't have to keep up with others in the class so work is totally comfortable and at their level. Other children are not getting it. Feel like the others should not miss out.

Has the intervention changed anything for the children involved? Yes - pausing during reading according to the punctuation. My student now understands what was holding her back. Built confidence. Strengthened vocabulary and understanding of vocabulary

In what ways do you think the children have been helped by the intervention? Improved their use and knowledge of punctuation and verbs. The students writing has been helped by the reading program- when they write a summary of the story l can see their writing needs and help them correct it, help them to make it better.

The kid l worked with has a really different way of learning to read. The time l spend with her, has helped her, me and her parents understand more what is happening and why that might be. This program has helped with spoken language and written language. With older kids follow up activities have involved focusing on sentence structure.

Have the children enjoyed the intervention? They are happy to come Needs to be a 30 minutes session, 20 minutes is not long enough. Little things like finding a space that’s quiet. Even with the tricky words we explain in a relaxed way, retell what is happening, so l know if they really understand it.

You can choose interesting books for them. It can be individual to them. The child l worked with enjoyed it at the beginning but then my child was maybe under some pressure at home, then she started to not want to come. She started to enjoy it again when we made progress in seeing what was going on for her.

Have your views of the children you worked with changed over the period of the intervention? Sometimes l start by chatting to them about their lives, now the children tell me lots of things, we are building a really good relationship. This is important I hear them talking and l can see why they might be having trouble in their reading too. One child is now showing much more motivation and he understands why the comprehension questions are important. His prediction and inference has improved.

Do any of the children have any particular diagnosis? No, but that does not mean that they should not have any diagnosis. All children involved are ESL.

Questionnaire for Intervention Students. Describe how you feel about reading. (S1) I feel sometimes excited and sometimes bored. (S2) Happy, because I can know more books. (S5) Good. I like to read by myself. I only read when it’s time to read. I like to read with you; just us. (S8) Fun. If it is a sad story, I feel sad. When you read with me you leave your classroom. Is that: OK (S1) (S5) Great (S2) (S8) Not OK

Questionnaire for Intervention Students (cont) Have you changed how you feel about reading since starting on the program? If so in what way? (S1) Kind of, getting to higher levels is more difficult. It is exciting to read higher books because I can understand. (S2) Yes, first I feel reading is very hard and now I feel it is very easy. (S5) No (S8) Yes. I like reading more then before.

Questionnaire for Intervention Students. (cont) What are some things you do differently now to help you when you are reading? (S1) Looking at the sounds of the words. (S2) Sound the letters out. Look at the word to see if it is similar to other words I know. (S5) Come back to a tricky word. (S8) Use sounds help me reading. I think about that word then read it. Rate your confidence 1 – 10 with reading – (1 being not confident and 10 being very confident.) I am……. (S1) 5 or 6, before I was 1 (S2) 5, before I was 0. (S5) 7 (S8) 9

Reporting

Questions Discussion