A summary of how a research-informed literacy strategy can be used to locate resources efficiently in a secondary school setting.

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Research-Based Literacy Strategy
researchED London
9 September 2017

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Effective Literacy Provision for All Students
• Screening systems and tools
• Three tiers of strategies
• Strategies and intervention programmes

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Screening Systems
• Reactive vs Pro-active
• Survey level
• Fine-grain
• Diagnostic

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Survey-Level Assessment
• Identifying potential candidates for intervention
• Ensuring resources are not misdirected to students who do
not need the extra support
• NB cannot provide diagnostic data for individuals with a
high degree of confidence

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Survey-Level Assessment
NGRT Who? Possibly
TOWRE Who? Probably

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Making sense of the data
• Standardised assessments
• Confidence intervals
• Validity
• Reliability
• Sensitivity

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Fine-Grain Assessment
• Checks whether low survey-level results are due to a lack
of knowledge or skills.
• Determines the extent of decoding and comprehension
needs.
• Enables prioritisation on the basis of need.
• Allows close observation of testing behaviour / motivation.

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Fine-Grain Assessment
NGRT Who? Possibly
TOWRE Who? Probably
Individual diagnostic assessments?
Definitely

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Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for
adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Characteristics of Adolescent Readers: Decoding

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Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for
adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Characteristics of Adolescent Readers: Fluency

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Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for
adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Characteristics of Adolescent Readers: Vocabulary

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Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for
adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Characteristics of Adolescent Readers: Comprehension

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Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich, M. (2008). Effective instruction for
adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Characteristics of Adolescent Readers: Motivation

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Response to Intervention
• Tier 1: Classroom
• Tier 2: Small groups
• Tier 3: One-to-one
Vaughn, S. & Fletcher, J. (2012) Response to Intervention With Secondary School Students With Reading Difficulties.
Journal of Learning Disabilities. May ; 45(3): 244–256

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Tier 1: Classroom
• Vocabulary: additive, generative, academic (Beck)
• Comprehension strategies (Hattie, Willingham)
• Background knowledge (Willingham)
• Oral language (Beck, McGuiness)
• Systematic spelling practice (Joshi, Moats, Heward)

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Tier 2: small group
• Paired reading (Decoding and Comprehension)
• Corrective Reading (Decoding & Comprehension)
• Reading Success (Comprehension, main idea)
• Expressive Writing (Sentence building)
• Essentials for Writing (Language conventions)

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Tier 3: one-to-one
• Motivational and emotional aspects
• Phonics (sound-letter knowledge)
• Spelling
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Word study (morphology and etymology)

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Tier 3: one-to-one
• Assessment in detail.
• Make small steps explicit and track progress daily.
• Adjust the programme to the student.
• Expect fast progress (at least 3x the usual rate).

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Summary
• Collect reliable, valid data on your students
• Deploy resources to target the range of needs.
• Invest in staff expertise.
• Deliver at three levels of intensity.
• Monitor and evaluate rigorously, make adjustments.

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QUESTIONS

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James Murphy
jmurphy@thinkingtreading.net
Dianne Murphy
dmurphy@thinkingreading.net