RtI Day #3“Deepening

the Tool Box”Monroe #1 BOCES

December 8 & 11, 2008Kelly Endres, SETRCChristina Ecklund,

Professional Development

Coordinator/Instructional Specialist

Why are Strategies Used?

• Reading makes more sense for struggling readers when strategies are taught explicitly, allowing students to apply the strategies in a structured setting and they are provided immediate corrective feedback.

Good readers use strategies naturally and strategies become effortless skills.

Why are Strategies Used?

• The use of strategies provides struggling readers tools to utilize in order to become proficient readers.

• Strategies make reading more fun.

How Do I Teach a Strategy?

The Steps for Teaching Explicitly

1. Clear explanation of the task.

2. Breaks the task into small, sequenced steps.

3. Embedded practice with each step for mastery.

4. Explicit, immediate, corrective feedback.

Scaffolding Instruction

1. Break the skill down into a series of developmental steps.

2. Each step is taught, practiced, and applied.

3. Makes complex tasks manageable.

4. Systematic instruction follows a sequence from the basic element and progresses to more advanced elements.

Simple Complex

Easy Difficult

Scaffolding

Teacher Occurs across the curriculum. More support for new concepts, tasks, and

strategies.

Content Simpler concepts and skills to more

challenging concepts and skills.

Scaffolding, cont.

Task Student proceeds from easier to more difficult.

Material Variety of materials to guide student thinking.

What is an Intervention?

“Interventions are specific strategies adopted to help students make progress toward academic or behavioral goals.”

- Jim Wright, RTI Toolkit, p. 89

Increasing the Odds of Successful Interventions

• Identifying the underlying reasons for poor school performance.

• Selecting one or more research-based strategies.

• Creating teacher friendly scripts.• Assessing the intensity of the intervention.• Selecting one method to measure the

quality of the teacher’s intervention follow-through.

credit Jim Wright, RTI Toolkit, p. 90

RtI and Literacy…

Reading Readiness skills help prepare learners for the task of reading. The particular skills they need to learn will depend on their previous experience with and exposure to reading. Reading readiness skills need to be taught in a context which gives the expectation that reading is for meaning. The learners need to

hear stories read aloud and observe that reading and

writing are useful and meaningful.

Connections

“The structure of oral language is the basis of phonological awareness. The structure of written language is based on oral language. A reciprocal relationship exists among all three areas: as one area develops, there is a general increase in the other areas.”

“Building Early Literacy and Language Skills” p. 5

Literacy Development

Oral Language

Phonological Awareness

Written Language

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Building Fluency– Reading like you talk – Rereading a familiar story

• See the handout in FCRR fluency packet on the table re graphing “cold and hot reads.”

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Echo Reading– The teacher reads one sentence of text aloud

with appropriate intonation and phrasing. – The student then tries to imitate this oral

reading model. – This continues until the student can imitate

more than one sentence at a time.

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Neurological Impress Method– Select a short passage that is easy for the student to

read. – Sit slightly behind the student holding the book in front

of the child so that you speak toward his/her dominant ear.

– Read together as in "one voice" with the teacher moving along the line of print.

-The passage should be read slightly beyond the student's normal rate so attention is paid

to whole words and sentences.

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Whisper Phones– Students read text quietly into “whisper

phones” to help build fluency: word reading or connected text.

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Whisper Phones…

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Choral Reading– Students read aloud poems and verse using

choral reading – Poem is read several times by the teacher and

students at natural speed, pronouncing words carefully

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Variations of Choral Reading– Echo Reading

• Leader reads each line and the group repeats it

– Leader and Chorus Reading• Leader read the main part of poem and the chorus reads

the refrain in unison

– Small Group Reading• Class divides into 2 or more groups and each group reads

a part of the poem aloud

- Cumulative ReadingOne student or group reads

the first line or stanza and another student or group joins in each line or stanza

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

• Repeated Readings– Encourage students to reread featured

book several times during literature focus units

– Encourage students to reread favorite books

– Do Repeated Readings In Class

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

In their landmark book, Classrooms That Work (Addison-Wesley, 1998), Patricia Cunningham and Richard Allington stress the importance of repeated readings as a way to help students recognize high-frequency words more easily, thereby strengthening their ease of reading. Having students practice reading by rereading short passages aloud is one of the best ways to promote fluency.

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Reader’s Theater– A dramatic production of a script by a

group of readers• Can use scripts in trade books or create their

own• Each student assumes a role and reads the

character’s lines in the script

Readers theater allows for individuals, pairs or

groups to work together

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

Partner Reading– Students practice reading decodable text

with a partner– Each student takes turns reading a

sentence from the text– They continue to read alternating text until

the entire text is read

- Students reverse roles and reread

Tool Box Additions: Strategies for Fluency

• Singing/repetition patterns.

• See the handout in FCRR table packet, “Songs for Fluency.”

Fluency Thoughts to Ponder…

Fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

Fluency is a requisite for and an outcome of comprehension.

Fluency allows the reader to focus attention on constructing meaning and making connections among ideas in the

text and between the text and prior knowledge.

Fluency Thoughts to Ponder…

The most beneficial fluency practice occurs when the text is at the student’s independent reading level.

Students should spend 20-30 minutes reading aloud each day.

Read Aloud Math...

References/Credit

• Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn. (2000). Teaching Reading Sourcebook. Arena Press, Novato, CA.

• Kame’enu, E., Harn, B., Chard, D., Simmons, D., and Coyne, M. (2003). Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction in Core Reading Instruction. © 2003.

• Montgomery, J. K. (2007). Evidence based practices influencing vocabulary interventions. Rochester, NY.

• Montgomery, J. K. (2007). The Bridge of vocabulary. Bloomington, MN: AGS Pearson Assessments.

• Kuhn, M. (2005). Helping students become accurate, expressive readers: Fluency instruction for small groups. The Reading Teacher, 58(4), 338-345.

References/Credit

• Montgomery, J. K. (2007). The Bridge of vocabulary. Bloomington, MN: AGS Pearson Assessments.

• Paulson, L., Noble, L., Jepson, S., van den Pol, R. (2001). Building early literacy and language skills. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

• Pikulski, J.J., & Chard, D.J. (2005). Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 58,(6), 510-519.

• Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. New York: Scholastic.