2. WHY DO WE NEED READING INTERVENTION?
Reading intervention begins with a child’s response to a given classroom reading program. As
this week’s readings point out, greater attention is now being paid to how and what
students are being taught in classrooms when considering a child’s “struggle” with learning
how to read and write.
RTI reflects this change in perspective, with it’s emphasis on classroom instruction that meets
students’ needs, tiered approach to providing assistance, and targeted support based on
assessment. The hope is that we can meet the needs of most, if not all, students in the
classroom. Yet even with excellent, exemplary classroom practices in place, some children
will undoubtedly still need more help with learning how to read and write.
Our readings this week helped me to remember that a great deal of differentiated instruction
can take place in the classroom during literacy instruction if the right program and practices
are selected and executed. I will talk more about this in the next slide. The readings also
helped me to understand the structures that are most effective for literacy intervention
whether it is push in or pull out.
Whether you are providing intervention within your literacy program or implementing something
outside of the classroom, you will have to consider what program you will use and how it
will be delivered. Will you modify your classroom curriculum? Will you purchase an
intervention program? Will you pick and choose activities from a variety of sources?
These are just some of the questions you will have to ask and answer.
3. QUALITIES OF A GOOD READING PROGRAM
I enjoyed the article, Teaching struggling readers in elementary school classrooms: A
review of classroom reading programs and principles for instruction, because it
placed the issue of reading intervention first and foremost in the classroom literacy
program and looked at how quality literacy instruction can help teachers meet the needs of
struggling readers in classrooms.
This kind of thinking about intervention is in line with the RTI approach, and supports a
teaching philosophy that believes good curriculum should be designed to meet students
where they are and provide ongoing opportunities to individualize instruction. This is what
intervention does, but on a much smaller, intensive, and even more individualized scale,
based on demonstrated need.
Creating and executing classroom literacy programs that meet the needs of all students is our
end goal, yet as Ann M. Duffy-Hester points out, this is “not easy to accomplish” (Duffy-
Hester 1999). Our readings this week suggest that while we may not be able to meet the
needs of all students during regular classroom instruction, the same principles, knowledge
and qualities that go into planning excellent classroom literacy instruction, should also be
applied when designing and implementing a quality intervention program. If teacher
preparation programs can effectively address this area of professional development, more
teachers will be better equipped to meet the diverse needs of the students they will teach.
The qualities of a good intervention program will be discussed next.
4. QUALITIES OF GOOD INTERVENTION
Unsurprisingly the qualities of a good intervention structure are similar to the qualities of good teaching in
general.
Any intervention session should have a lesson plan. All lesson plans should have an objective, an overall
structure, and activities chosen to meet the objective (Caldwell & Lesley, 29).
As was discussed in chapter three of, Intervention Strategies to Follow Informal Reading Inventory
Assessment: So What Do I Do Now?, the structure of reading intervention should be balanced in its
approach the same way that we take a balanced approach to reading instruction in the classroom. All
areas of reading development (word identification, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) should be
addressed in intervention, however more time and focus will be given to areas of need as
demonstrated by students assessments (Caldwell & Lesley, 29 ).
It is also suggested that intervention sessions have a consistent and predictable lesson structure to
increase student comfort, develop predictability, optimize time, and allow the teacher to be more
present and responsive to student performance in the moment. This is true of good classroom
teaching as well. A large and important decision to make when structuring intervention is selecting the
program(s) and/or approaches you will use. It is also important to consider how this intervention will
support what is being taught in the classroom and how you can work with the classroom teacher to
plan accordingly.
There are also important practical decisions regarding structures of intervention that have to be made such
as: group size, frequency of meeting, length of session times, and push in or pull out models.
Many decisions about how the intervention will go will be based on the needs and experiences of your
students at that given time, as they should be. Any good intervention program should be flexible and
responsive to student needs.
An example of an intervention session might be: rereading of known text (fluency), guided reading
introduction to new text (vocabulary, comprehension, fluency), word work with words/spelling patterns
from new text (word identification), guided reading of new text (word identification, fluency,
5. READING INTERVENTION PROGRAMS
It is dizzying how many reading intervention programs are out there and it is worth
looking at what each has to offer. It is important to choose a program that is
proven to be effective, matches your instructional style and goals, and meets
student needs. I don’t think it is worth discussing all of the programs presented
in this week’s readings. However I do think it is important to know what you are
looking for in a program and to choose one that reflects your beliefs and your
students’ needs.
In my experience. I have never used a program in its entirety, mostly because as a
classroom teacher I have never had the luxury of that much time. I have,
however, found it effective to use parts of programs and practices that I know are
effective as supplements to classroom instruction during my literacy blocks. This
has included guided reading, word study, skill/strategy building small groups, and
the Wilson Fundations program. I do Fundations small groups for repetition and
also have a literacy block dedicated to Fundations whole group. I believe in a
balance of direct explicit phonics instruction and rich authentic literacy instruction.
In my experience, all kids learn best with both, and strugglers in particular need
this approach.
When I taught an afterschool literacy enrichment for struggling readers in my
classroom (which was essentially small group intervention) our schedule went
something like this: shared rereading of known text or kids rereading known
books, introduction to new book in a guided reading structure, guided reading,
word work.
