LLI is a short-term literacy intervention developed by Fountas and Pinnell to prevent literacy difficulties. It works to bring students to grade-level performance through 30-minute small group lessons 5 times a week that include rereading, phonics, introducing new books, and word work. Students' progress is monitored weekly through running records to determine when they are ready to advance to the next level. LLI is designed to be completed within 12-18 weeks.

1. Leveled Literacy
Intervention
LLI
Developed by:
Irene Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell
All information acquired from the “ Blue Program Guide”
Published by Heinemann © 2009

2. Overview
O “LLI is a scientifically-based system that is
designed to prevent literacy difficulties
rather than correct long-term failure. It
has been highly successful in achieving its
goal of cutting across the path of literacy
failure and bringing children to grade level
performance in hundreds of schools.”
(Blue System Program Guide p. 1)

3. What teachers should know:
O To identify students that may be a good fit
for this type of intervention there are many
reading tests you can utilize.
O In our district we have the DRA 2.
O After a student has been identified, the
next step is to determine class groupings.
***Very important that groups consist of no
more than 3 students to have the
best/quickest results***

4. Continued…
O The next step after groupings have been
made is to determine a time.
O Time is a very important aspect of LLI.
O LLI lessons are 30 minutes long (5 days a
week) with very specific usages of those
minutes.
O 5 minutes of rereading
O 5 minutes of phonics
O 15 minutes of introducing and working with a
new book
O 5 minutes of word work/writing

5. Each level in LLI
O Each level has 10 lessons
O 5 odd
O 5 even
O Every level begins with an odd lesson
because the even lesson days are the
running record days. (students need to
have read the story once in order to
conduct a running record for LLI)

6. LLI Lessons
O There are two types of lessons: Odd & Even
O Odd lessons are the days where there is a
new text introduced at an instructional level
for the group.
O Even lessons are the days where there is a
new text introduced, BUT the text is 2 levels
below their instructional level.
O This type of lesson serves to provide a
confidence boost for students while also
improving their fluency rate.

7. Progress Monitoring
O Each student will have a running record taken
about once a week (depends on the number
in the group)
O Students must reach a certain percentage on
their record in order to move on to the next
level in the system. (% varies by level—ask
your reading teacher)
O LLI also has a continuum of skills students
need to have control of before moving on the
next level.
(This can be found in the lesson manuals)

8. Program Length
O LLI is designed to be a short-term
intervention.
O Example: A student may reach their grade
level expectation in only a matter of 12-18
weeks. However, this depends on how
much below the grade level benchmark he
or she was when beginning the program.

9. Classroom Connections
O There are many record keeping and
communication forms available for the
reading teacher to communicate with the
classroom teacher. (However, in my
experience I find it best to talk directly to
the classroom teacher).
O This way you can determine if you are
seeing a student exhibit similar skills and
strategies as he or she works through a
lesson.

10. Guided Reading
O For there to be fidelity to the LLI program
the classroom teacher must provide 5
guided reading lessons a week. (Normal
school week)
O The intervention still counts if there is a
short week of school (3+ days)

11. Continued…
O There are also what LLI refers to as “fold
sheets.” These are one page sheets
designed to reinforce a skill that was
worked on during the LLI lesson.
O For example, it could be a sort, or reading
sight words, or completing sentences.
O A reading teacher will only send these back
to the classroom if we find them extremely
valuable for the child to complete at school.

12. Home Component
O There is a home component to LLI.
O Each night the student will bring home a
book to read with an adult, the adult
needs to initial the book list, that is kept in
the child’s take home folder, and return
the folder (with the book), to school the
next day.
O On occasion there may be an activity
page for the student to complete at home
after they read to an adult.

13. Student Absences
O If a student is gone during an LLI
lesson, he or she will receive the book, or
books (up to 3), when the student returns
to school.
O If there is time the reading teacher will try
to catch the student up on the missed
skills.

14. Questions
O If you have more questions about LLI you
can find more information at the following
links:
http://www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinne
ll/default.aspx
If you have any further questions see your
corresponding reading teacher

15. Sources
O Again, the sources of information for this
presentation were acquired from:
O the Heinemann website
O the blue system program guide
O and professional development training
provided via CESA 6.