The document discusses principles of intervention and corrective instruction for struggling readers. It emphasizes that prevention is superior to remediation, as it protects self-esteem and saves resources. Successful teaching builds on what students already know and their backgrounds. To foster independence, students should not be done for but rather encouraged to do their best. Personalized and systematic instruction is needed, along with continuous assessment, a full range of literacy experiences, and wide reading materials at appropriate levels. An RTI approach with collaboration among staff can ensure each student receives effective instruction and support.

1. pg 13 Principles of Intervention and Corrective Instruction
The majority of poor readers have problems decoding but there are excellent decoders who
have difficulty understanding what they read.
Prevention versus Correction
Prevention is vastly superior to remediation, it safeguards self-esteem, eliminates ineffective
strategies before they become habits and saves limited corrective resources for those who need
it most.
Importance of Success (Building on the known) pg 14
Teaching for success in reading is building on what the student knows and taking into account
the student's background.
Fostering Independence
"Learned Helplessness" is often the phrase used to describe low achieving readers that have a
history of failure, are unable to cope successfully with reading and writing tasks, lack confidence
in their reading, have lower expectations of success, and gave up more easily. To foster
independence, never do for students what they can do for themselves and never accept
anything but the student's best.
Active Involvement pg 15
Unless the student is actively involved, the most carefully planned program will fail by default.
PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTION
No one intervention package fits all needs. Some students do best with holistic instruction while
others learn best when instruction is parceled out in manageable bits.
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND PROGRESS MONITORING
Initial instruction should be based on an assessment that highlights the students' strengths and
weaknesses and establishes an appropriate level of instruction.
A FULL RANGE OF LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Because low-achieving readers and writers have difficulties with decoding, poor oral reading,
spelling, and handwriting, there is a natural tendency to to remedy these deficiencies by
providing lots of extra practice. As a result, struggling readers may end up working on
fragmented skills.

2. DIRECT SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION
Low achieving readers and writers need a program of direct, intensive, systematic instruction
presented in the context of lots of real reading and writing.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
By providing varied and sustained experience with key concepts or themes, students develop a
depth of understanding. Studying commonalities improves students' cognitive performance.
WIDE READING
In order to develop their capacities fully, poor readers need to make up for lost time. They need
to read more, not less than their higher achieving peers.
PROVIDING MATERIALS AT THE APPROPRIATE CHALLENGE LEVEL
If students are to engage in wide reading, reading should be relatively easy. In instructional
settings, students apparently do best when they know 95 to 98 percent of the words in the
seletion(Berliner, 1981; Gambrell, Wilson, and Gantt, 1981; Nation 2001
USING AN RTI APPROACH
The idea behind RTI is that all staff members will work together to provide each student with
effective instruction.
(Shanon, 2008) RTI tries to make sure that teaching is "up to snuff" and that when a student
does falter, there will be a rich and ultimately, sufficient response to his or her reading needs.