1. Focused Reading Instruction and Student Achievement Presentation at CEC Conference Boston – April 5, 2008 Dr. Richard Evans, PhD evansra@jmu.edu evansra@jmu.edu Taryn Goodwin MEd goodwitm@jmu.edu goodwitm@jmu.edu Allison Moriarty MEd moriaram@gmail.com moriaram@gmail.com Lauren Martina MEd laurenmartina@gmail.com laurenmartina@gmail.com Molly-Armine Manwaring manwarmx@jmu.edu manwarmx@jmu.edu James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA 22807

2. The study Evaluated the effectiveness of intensive remedial reading tutoring for students with disabilities or high-risk of reading failure in a rural area of Virginia. The study explored focused reading skills instruction on struggling readers to identify instructional practices that might be used in a Response to Instruction (RtI) school model for elementary students with and without emotional and behavioral disorders.

3. Exploring outcomes of focused reading instruction Pilot study for potential RtI strategy subjects (individuals) in third and fourth grade in a rural elementary school Outcomes based on student achievement in reading Outcomes based on change between pre- test and post-test data

4. Changing the Way We Educate Struggling Students Catch them before they fall (fail) The majority of sped students have reading problems Reading is a basic building block of education Research suggests all but a few children can be taught reading Early intervention catalyst for change NCLB Act stresses funding of successful public education instead of continuing to fund a failing system

5. Research Supports To be good readers, children must possess: –Phonemic awareness - Chard & Dickson, 1999 –Phonics skills - National Reading Panel, 2000; Vaughn et al., 1998 –Fluency - Chard & Dickson, 1999; National Reading Panel, 2000 –Comprehension - Chard & Dickson, 1999; National Reading Panel, 2000; Vaughn et al., 1998 –Vocabulary - Kueker, 1990; Nagy, 1988; Nagy et al., 1985 Explicit instruction in decoding with practice on stories that “fit” a child’s reading level as the most effective way to teach all students to read

6. Professional Training is Part of the JMU SPED M.Ed. Program Instruction is an essential components of effective reading instruction Phonological awareness –Word study / word analysis –Letter-sound correspondence Phonics Fluency –Reading speed –Prosody Comprehension Vocabulary Establish Progress Monitoring –In-class training Modeling –Modeling of specific components of reading program

7. Study Individualized sessions (10-16) with students with reading difficulty (n=8) –Referred by teacher –Discussion with teacher about students Progress / Problems –IEP and work sample review when available Control group of students with reading difficulty (n=8) –Referred by teacher Focused systematic reading instruction based on –Informal assessments –IEP goals –Teacher recommendation

8. Student Characteristics Gender –5 males experimental group and 3 males in the control group –4 females experimental group and 4 in the control group Ages 8 to 10 Grades 3 to 4 All students were eligible for special education services Exhibited a variety of reading difficulties

9. Student Outcomes Student academic outcomes were evaluated with four informal reading measures Phonological awareness – Quick Screener Phonics - Quick Screener Fluency – Timed Readings Comprehension – Commercial Screeners (QRI)

10. Rhyme: Sentence Segmentation: Blending: Addition/Substation: Deletion: Phoneme Isolation: Syllable Segmentation Activity 1: Name/sound Activity 2A: CVC Activity 2B: Context Activity 3A: CVCC & CCVC Activity 3B: Context Activity 4A: Silent E Activity 4B: Context Activity 5A: R-Control Activity 5B: Context Activity 6A: th, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk Activity 6B: th-, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk Activity 7A: oa, ea, oo, ee, ai, ol, ay, ou, oi, oy, au, aw, oe, ew, ow Activity 8A: dis-, non-, in-, re-, -tion, -ous, - ness, -ion, -able, -est, -le, -ful, -ic, be-, de- Activity 9A: 2-Syllable Activity 9B: 3-Syllable Activity 9C: 3-Syllable PA Phonics Skill Areas for Focused Instruction

11. PAPhonics

12. PAPhonics

13. Net Change Fluency Average Net ChangeEXPCONTROL Fluency: Accuracy17%3% Words Per Minute (WPM):17.4-5.37 Comprehension:5%1%

14. Variable Posttest average Per-test averagem1-m2=SD d = (effect size) Rhyme:0.933 0.0000.103 0.000 Sentence Segmentation:0.9330.9000.0330.110 0.304 Blending:1.0080.9000.1080.110 0.989 Addition/Substation:0.8330.7670.0670.197 0.339 Deletion:0.8330.8170.0170.223 0.075 Phoneme Isolation:0.9670.9000.0670.110 0.609 Syllable Segmentation0.7330.367 0.266 1.379 Activity 1: Name/sound0.9740.9230.0510.044 1.169 Activity 2A:CVC0.9330.950-0.0170.055 -0.304 Activity 2B: Context0.9750.9020.0730.111 0.658 Activity 3A: CVCC & CCVC0.8830.7000.1830.141 1.296 Activity 3B: Context0.9830.9170.0670.117 0.570 Activity 4A: Silent E0.8770.6170.2600.204 1.274 Activity 4B: Context0.8670.8000.0670.141 0.471 Activity 5A: R-Control0.9500.7670.1830.186 0.985 Activity 5B: Context0.9000.8170.0830.172 0.484 Activity 6A: th, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk0.8580.5500.3080.327 0.943 Activity 6B: th-, ing, sh, wh, ch, igh, ck, kn, wr, nk0.8000.6170.1830.313 0.587 Activity 7A: oa, ea, oo, ee, ai, ol, ay, ou, oi, oy, au, aw, oe, ew, ow0.7220.5940.1280.310 0.412 Activity 8A: dis-, non-, in-, re-, -tion, -ous, -ness, -ion, -able, -est, -le, -ful, -ic, be-, de-0.4170.4000.0170.318 0.052 Activity 9A: 2-Syllable0.4170.2330.1830.367 0.500 Activity 9B: 3-Syllable0.3830.1000.2830.245 1.157 Activity 9C: 3-Syllable0.3170.0830.2330.204 1.143 Accuracy0.9370.9160.0210.074 0.289 wpm72.95251.73821.21324.742 0.857 Comprehension0.9330.8000.1330.179 0.745