High Impact Literacy Areas

Examining Your School’s Core Reading Program in a RtI Framework

• New York State RtI Technical Assistance Center• Presenter: Jeanne Wanzek, Ph.D, Florida State

University– Assistant Professor– Former Special Educator and Classroom Teacher– Focus on prevention and remediation of students

with reading difficulties

5 Pillars of Literacy Instruction

• Phonological Awareness• Phonics and Word Recognition• Fluency• Vocabulary• Comprehension

Importance of All

• Cannot focus on just one area• Discussion was not to leave any area out• Certain areas have a higher impact on learning

to read than others

Phonological Awareness Skills

• Rhyme• Comparison/matching/discrimination• Isolation• Blending• Segmenting• Deletion• Substitution

Least Impact

MostImpact

Phonological Awareness Manipulations

• Whole Words• Compound Words• Syllables• Onset-Rime• Phoneme

Fluency

• Most consistent measure of predictor of reading ability/skill.– Those students that are fluent are more likely to

be good readers, which includes comprehension, not just word calling.

How much practice with print do students receive during core

classroom instruction?

Fluency can improve with instruction and practice

• Suggests 3 times a week• Students need to know the goal is to improve

fluency• Designate time to practice fluency: specific

goal• Repeated readings• Chunking (phrases)• Modeling of fluent reading• Echo reading

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary Knowledge:• Links to academic success

• Is critical to reading comprehension• Determines success in learning from texts

Improve Reading

Skills

Increase in Vocabulary

Improve Reading

Comp Skills

Enjoy Reading

Read More

Good Readers

Poor ReaderLack

Reading Skills

Learn Fewer Words

Do Not Glean

Meaning from Text

Fall Further Behind

Read Less

Comprehension

• Comprehension Instruction:– Helps students BETTER understand narrative and

expository text– Helps students become MORE strategic readers

who monitor their understanding and use comprehension strategies

Strategies that Improve Comprehension

• Using graphic organizers• Generating and answering questions• Monitoring comprehension• Recognizing Text Structure• Identifying main ideas/summarizing

Comprehending Text

• Before Reading– Build background knowledge– Identify key concepts or words students need to

know more about– Preview organization of text

Comprehending Text

• During Reading:– Monitor Understanding– Identify main idea of each paragraph or section– Generate questions about the text

Comprehending Text

• After Reading:– Generate questions about the text– Identify main ideas of selection– Summarize what they have learned