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Addressing Reading Difficulties in the Classroom using Research-Based

Intervention StrategiesApril Turner, M.A.

Melissa Andersen, M.A.Sara Kupzyk, M.A.

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Characteristics of a Functional Approach to Reading Intervention Student performance assessed directly in the

curriculum

Intervention targets student performance in important curricular tasks

Intervention focuses on the components of instruction

Criterion for successful intervention: observable and measurable improvement in student learning over time

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The Master Plan for Effective Intervention Must start with strong curriculum Guide decision-making with frequent, on-

going assessment Use research-based practices Tailor intervention to student’s actual need Develop and implement manageable plan Monitor plan implementation and student

progress regularly

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General Approaches to Intervention Selection

Standard Protocol Problem-solving

Regardless of the approach, selection of intervention must be based on the student’s actual need indicated by assessment data

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Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM)

Assessing basic indicators of educational performance

Correct Read Words (CRW) Per Minute is reliable and valid indicator of reading competence

Measures accurate and fluent performance across materials and time (generalization)

Frequent, repeated measurement improves decision-making

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What Type of Problem?

Problem Indicator What to target

Reading words in isolation

High error rate Reads fewer than 20 words per minute

Blending soundsReading sight wordsReading phonetically

regular words

Reading connected text

Slow and labored text reading

Reading fewer than 100 minutes per minute

Accurate and fluent text reading

Interpreting text Difficulty answering questions and recall

Comprehension

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Instructional HierarchyStage of learning Instructional Strategy

Acquisition Modeling, prompting, error correction, feedback for every response

Fluency Practice, incentives for improvement & feedback for performance

Generalization Practice with diverse items/problems, using the skill with other skills, using the skill in natural settings

Haring, Lovitt, Eaton, & Hansen, 1978

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Matching Instruction to Need

Accuracy Fluency Generalization

RW in isolation

Modeling, prompting, error correction and feedback for

every response

Practice, incentives for improvement, and feedback for a collection of responses

Practice with diverse

items/problems, using the skill

with other skills, using the skill in natural settings

RW in text

Interpret text

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Interventions for Reading Words in Isolation

Prerequisite skills for text reading Letter Sounds and Letter Names Segmenting and blending sounds (phonemes) Decoding phonetically regular words Reading sight words

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Phoneme Blending InterventionSkill: Segmenting and blending sounds Materials: 4 Instructional words on flashcards, one blank

flashcard Instructional Words: error words chosen from the student’s

reading text Decodable words with predictable and not unusual sounds

Appropriate: ship, soap, quick Inappropriate: what (“a” sounds like “u”), these (silent “e”)

Procedure/Demonstration: First three times through the cards consists of sounding out each

phoneme (expose one at a time using the blank card until student can see whole word), then blending them into each Instructional Word

Last time through consists of student reading each Instructional Word

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Phonics Intervention Skill: Decoding phonetically regular words

Materials: Word list, instructional passage Procedure/Demonstration:

Teach a phonics lesson Train phonics words in isolation: model + prompt

responses Have students practice phonics words in passage

Model, repeated readings, error correction, performance feedback

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Flashcard InterventionSkills: Letter Sounds and Letter Names, Reading sight words

Builds accuracy for unknown sounds, letters, and words Materials: Flashcards with letters or sight words Procedure/Demonstration (sight words):

Identify unknown words Model the first two words and have the student repeat Have the student say the words on their own If student says all of the words correctly, shuffle the cards, model

a new word and continue through remaining words. If student does not say a word correctly or doesn’t respond,

model the word and have student repeat, shuffle the cards, and repeat (do not add a new word until the student gets all of the words correct the first time)

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Flashcard Intervention Example Nick- a 1st grade student Weak sight word vocabulary

Nick

0

5

10

15

20

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Assessment

Tot

al W

ords

Rea

d C

orre

ctly

MaintenanceWord Set 1 Word Set 2

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Reading Words in Connected Text Fluency:

Those who read words in text Accurately Quickly With less effort

Fluent Readers Enjoy reading more More confident in reading skills Have higher levels of comprehension Are more likely to choose to read

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Connected Text Interventions Listening Passage Preview

Repeated Reading

Error Correction Phase Drill Syllable Segmentation

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Listening Passage Preview

Materials Two copies of the designated text

Procedure/Demonstration Read the story aloud to the student at an age-

appropriate pace Have the student follow along on the student copy

as you read the text aloud

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Repeated Readings Materials

Two copies of the selected reading text Student copy Examiner copy

Procedure/Demonstration Have the student read the text aloud three to four times Each time the student reads the passage aloud, follow on

the examiner copy If the student hesitates on a word for more than 3 seconds,

say the word and have the student read the word correctly

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Enhancing Repeated Reading

Choice of Reading Material Give the student options of what to read

Limit the length and amount of material Keep the materials brief so student have multiple

opportunities to read and re-read the same material

Provide Encouragement Discuss material with the student

Graph student progress!

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Error Correction: Phase Drill

Materials Two copies of the reading passage

Student copy, Examiner copy Highlighter Stopwatch

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Error Correction: Phase Drill Procedure/Demonstration

Have the student read the story aloud While the student is reading the passage aloud, follow along on

the Examiner Copy highlighting/underlining errors If the student hesitates on a word for more than 3 seconds, sat

the word and highlight/underline it Show him/her your copy with the underline/highlighted errors Read each error word to the student Have the student read the phrase/sentence containing the word

aloud three times Have the student read the passage aloud again using the

standard CBM error correction procedures

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Error Correction: Syllable Segmentation

Materials Two copies of the reading passage

Examiner copy, student copy

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Error Correction: Syllable Segmentation Procedure/Demonstration

Identify error words using standard CBM procedures The examiner uses an index card to cover each error word,

uncovering and modeling the correct pronunciation of one syllable at a time

The student repeats the correct pronunciation of each syllable as the examiner uncovers them

The student then independently reads each syllable and blends the syllables together to pronounce the word

If mistakes are made, the previous steps are repeated

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Component Rationale Procedural Steps

Listening

Passage Preview

(LPP)

Provides modeling to increase the

student’s reading accuracy and

fluency (Daly & Martens, 1994).

The examiner reads the instructional passage to the student at a comfortable pace

while simultaneously monitoring the student to ensure that he or she is correctly

following along with his or her finger.

Repeated

Readings (RR)

Designed to provide a student with

multiple opportunities to respond by

having the student re-read a passage

repeatedly (Rashotte & Torgensen,

1985)

The examiner has the student re-read a passage three times.

Phrase Drill

(PD)

Designed to provide corrective

feedback and accurate practice to

increase correct responding (O’Shea,

Munson, & O’Shea, 1984)

As the student reads the passage the first time, the practitioner highlights or underlines

the student’s errors. After the student finishes reading the passage, the practitioner

points to and reads the first error word to the student. The student reads the error word

correctly to the practitioner, and then reads the phrase or sentence containing the error

word three times. This process is repeated for each error word.

Syllable

Segmentation

(SS)

Designed to increase accuracy by

providing the students with further

corrective feedback and practice

blending the syllables of error words

together (Daly, Bonfiglio, Mattson,

Persampieri, & Yates, 2006).

As the student reads the passage the second time, the practitioner uses an index card

to cover each error word, uncovering and modeling the correct pronunciation of one

syllable at a time. The student repeats the correct pronunciation of each syllable as the

practitioner uncovers them. The student then independently reads each syllable and

blends the syllables together to pronounce the word. If the student makes any

mistakes during this process, the practitioner repeats the previous step.

Connected Text Interventions Summary

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Intervention for Interpreting Text Comprehension

The ultimate goal in reading

Enhancing Comprehension Pre-reading Activities Post-reading Activities

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Pre-Reading Comprehension Clarify purpose of reading

What is purpose of reading?

Activate prior knowledge

Pre-teach vocabulary

Pre-teach concepts

Choose material that is appropriate

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Pre-Reading Comprehension: Unknown Words

Pre-Teach Vocabulary Say the word Tell the students what it means Use Context Clues

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Pre-Reading Comprehension: Unknown Words What does it mean?

Directions: Make a list of words you do not know Then, write a definition for each word The definition can be another word that means the same

thing or short description of that word

Word Definition

__________ ___________________

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Pre-Reading Comprehension: T.E.L.L.ST.E.L.L.S

Title What is the title? What is this about?

Form hypothesis and now read to see if they are correct, activate prior knowledge

Examine Clues

Pictures, headings and subheadings figures graphs Look

Important words Used often, in bold, illustration may provide clues

Unknown words Setting

Clues about the setting (time, place, date)

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Enhancing Pre-Reading Comprehension Activities should be short and engaging May be taught and done in small groups

where students can discuss T.E.L.L.S

Title What do you think about?

Look Unknown words (others can tell what it means) Important words (others can explain why they think word is

important)

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Post-reading Comprehension Strategies

Summarize Consolidate students knowledge

Write down main ideas, important points, sequence of events

Complete story maps, timelines, conflict charts

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Incorporating Motivational/Reinforcement Strategies

Motivational/Reinforcement Strategies If the task requires much effort then to get the

student to chose the task we must provide strong reinforcement Frequent Immediate Meaningful

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Motivation/Reinforcement

Student is given a story to read and questions to answer Student completes the assignment with 95%

correct Student is praised and receives a good grade

The task required little effort and time from the student so the weaker reinforcement is sufficient

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Motivation/Reinforcement

Joe tries really hard and completes three comprehension tasks

Joe gets 60% correct, which is a big improvement but not enough for a good grade

Done often enough, it is possible that Joe will stop trying because even if he did do well enough, all the effort would not be worth the reinforcement

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Motivation/Reinforcement Solutions Praise Joe for completing each task

Increased frequency and immediacy of reinforcement

Add an interdependent group-oriented contingency so that Joe’s effort and accuracy is reward Example: if 70% of class gets 70% correct then

the class gets a reward Promote cooperative learning

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Additional Motivation/Reinforcement Strategies Reward Box

Comprised largely of activities (free and fun for all) As long as one activity in the box is really cool for

each student, then there is the possibility of something wonderful happening each day for each student

Also, high quality powerful reinforcer for students who need it because the task requires much effort

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Group Adaptation

Class-wide Peer Tutoring Student pairs take turns reading aloud for a fixed

amount of time As the student reads “tutor” scores errors,

provides correction Switch roles in the student pair

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Mix and Matching Interventions Identify student need

Acquisition Sounds or words in isolation

Fluency Reading connected text

Comprehension Understanding what is read

Start with a research-based program Enhance the research-based program with

additional strategies tailored to student need

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Conclusions

Each student’s need is unique Must start with strong curriculum Guide decision-making with frequent & on-going

assessment Use research-based practices Tailor Intervention to student’s actual need Develop and implement manageable plan Monitor plan implementation and student progress

regularly