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Core Intervention

Strategy Manual

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Introduction

The Core Intervention Strategy Manual is designed to assist teachers in delivering

research-based instructional strategies when teaching the core language arts

curriculum.

Teachers may use these strategies along with the core reading in order to enhance

their instructional strategies. Academic Support Specialists can assist with resources or

by modeling or observing and critiquing teachers in their use of the strategies.

Intervention teachers may use these strategies with the small groups of students they

serve in order to frontload material before students encounter their material in the

regular classroom.

As teachers begin incorporating these strategies with the core curriculum, we hope to

add to this manual by including lesson plans that align with the intervention strategies,

the curriculum resources and pacing guide

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Reading—Phonemic Awareness

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS INTERVENTIONS

Reading—Phonemic Awareness

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Elkonin Boxes Grade Levels: K-2 Specific Skills Assessed: Phoneme segmentation and blending Individual or group administration: Can be individual or as a group Approximate Time: A class period, depending on amount of words to complete Description: Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having

students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes.

Each box in an Elkonin box card represents one phoneme, or sound. Though not

originally intended for teaching spelling, Elkonin boxes can be used to practice spelling

from a synthetic phonics point of view.

Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Have children draw three boxes on a sheet of paper or dry-erase board. 2. Distribute counters to the children. Have them place counters above the boxes.

Model the activities before children begin. 3. For each phoneme, children move a counter to each box in a left-to-right

progression. For example: Say the word let. 4. Children move the counters that represent the sounds they hear in the word: /l/

/e/ /t/ 5. Children say the word again, sliding their finger below the boxes from left to

right: let. Other Information:

Ask children to listen for a certain sound in a word. Say a word that has that sound. Children place a counter in the first box if they hear the sound in the beginning of the word, in the middle box if they hear the sound in the middle of the word, and in the last box if they hear it at the end of the word.

For example, “Listen for the /m/ sound in the following words. Place a counter in the first box if you hear the /m/ sound at the beginning of the word; place a counter in the middle box if you hear the sound in the middle of the word; or place it in the last box if you hear the /m/ sound at the end of the word. Listen carefully: ham.”

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Replace the counters with several letters after appropriate letter-sound correspondences have been introduced. For example, give children the letters a, l, p, s, and n. Have children place the corresponding letters in the boxes for the phonemes as you say words. For example, say, “Lap. The cat sat in my lap.”

Have children write letters in the boxes as you dictate words. For example, say,

“Spell the word big. The big dog barked at the squirrel.” Other Resources: http://bogglesworldesl.com/elkonin_boxes.htm, http://www.u-46.org/dbs/roadmap/files/Appendix/5Elkonin-soundbox.pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/8289362/Elkonin-Boxes-Cards Video Demonstrations: www.easdpa.org/EarlyChildhoodEducation/Elkonin.html www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOqXpltuLpo

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Sound Sorts Grade Levels: Primary Grades Specific Skills Assessed: Phonemic Awareness of beginning, middle and ending sounds Individual or group administration: This can be administered with a partner, by themselves or under the teacher’s direction. Approximate Time: Depending on the student, a few minutes to 10 to 20 minutes. Description: Students will use pictures to sort by initial consonant sound, rhyme, or the number of syllables. Steps in Intervention Delivery: Teacher models picture sorts first. Students are given a group of pictures to place under the letter sound that it begins with. For example, the students may have a picture of a ball at the top of one column and a dog at the top of another column. The student is holding a picture of a baby, which should be placed under the picture of the ball. Have them say the names of the pictures as they place them under the correct letter. After working with the teacher to complete the guided activity students can work independently for more practice. Other Resources: Picture This! Picture Sorting for Alphabetics, Phonemes, and Phonics by Shari Nielson-Dunn, M.Ed. Words Their Way by Donald Bear, Marcia Invernizzi, Shane Templeton, Francine Johnston.

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“Say it Fast” Grade Levels: Pre-k through 2nd Specific Skills Assessed: This activity is conducted to improve phoneme segmentation by saying words and taking them apart. It reinforces their ability to properly articulate words from their separate phonemes. Individual or group administration: Large group, small group, or individually Approximate Time: 10 minutes Description: The teacher will explain to the students that they will play a game called “Say it Slow/Say it Fast.” In that game students will have to listen to what the instructor does to the words (familiar and unfamiliar). Teacher will break the word up into word parts slowly and gradually increase to say it fast. Say it slow then say it fast. Steps in Intervention Delivery: Choose words with single syllables then complete with multi-syllabication and gradually go from syllables (ti-ger) to onset-rime (c-ake) to individual phonemes (c-a-t). Other Information:

Pictures or images of the words are helpful while administering the activity.

This activity can be done with letter tiles. Each tile should represent a phoneme (Example /sh/ should be written on ONE tile as “sh”). As the student says the phonemes faster and faster, he or she pushes up the letter tiles while saying the sound.

Reading—Phonics

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PHONICS INTERVENTIONS

Reading—Phonics

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Alphabet Arc Grade Levels: K-1 Specific Skills Assessed: Letter Names and Sounds Individual or group administration: Can be individual or as a group Approximate Time: 5-10 minutes Description: The student will name and match letters of the alphabet using the alphabet arc(s). Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Place the Alphabet Arc and the set of letters on a flat surface. 2. The teacher points to each letter and says its name/sound. The student

echoes the teacher.

3. The student chooses a letter, names it (e.g., "p"), and places it on the

corresponding letter on the Alphabet Arc. Continues until all letters are

matched.

4. The teacher points to random letters and the student identifies letter

name/sound.

5. Students match lowercase letters on clothespins to uppercase letters on a circle. Place the uppercase letter circle and clothespins on a flat surface. Taking turns, students choose a clothespin, name the letter (e.g. "a"), and place it on the corresponding uppercase letter on the circle. Continue until all letters are matched.

Other Information:

Ask student to put both arms in the air above their heads. Demonstrate with your back to the student that the right hand is the after hand. Have student lower his/her right arms as they say, “My right hand is my after hand.” Ask student to form the pointer fingers of both hands into a pointer and point to the letter T on their mats as they say t. Ask the student to move his/her after (right) hand to the letter after T. Ask the student to name the letter after T. Then ask the student to say in a sentence: “U comes after T.” Continue through 4 or 5 more letters with the same process.

The student places the letters in the center of his/her mat and turns the letters right side up. Student is led to find the first letter of the alphabet (A) and place it on the arc at the bottom of the mat. Then the student is led to find and place each letter of the alphabet on the arc on the mat on top of the matching letter.

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After placing the 26 letters, the student touches and names the 26 letters again. As student places the letters back into the bag, student says the letter names again. If a student continues having difficulty, pair that student with a stronger student. When the stronger finishes his/her arc, s/he helps the weaker student by pointing to the letter on the arc. The weaker student names and finds the letter.

Other Resources: http://www.alphabetmats.com/activities.html

Video Demonstrations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8nnx4VlnXk

Adams, M. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Snow, C., Burns, M., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Texas Education Agency. (2002). The Alphabetic Principle.

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Folding In Grade Levels: K-2 Specific Skills Assessed: decoding, fluency w/decoding words Individual or group administration: Both Approximate Time: 10-15 minutes Description: Incremental rehearsal builds student fluency by pairing unknown items with a steadily increasing collection of known items. This intervention makes use of concentrated practice to promote fluency and guarantees that the student will experience a high rate of success. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. On individual index cards, the teacher writes down each letter that a student is expected to master. The teacher/tutor reviews the collection of index cards with the student. a) Any of the letters or letter sounds (depending on the intervention) that the student can orally answer correctly within two seconds are considered to be known and are separated into one pile. b) Letters or letter sounds that the student cannot yet identify within two seconds are considered 'unknown' and collected in a second pile -- the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck.

2. The teacher/tutor next randomly selects 9 cards from the pile of known letters/letter sounds and sets this subset of cards aside as the 'known' deck. The rest of the pile of cards containing known letters/letter sounds is put away ('discard deck'), not to be used further in this intervention.

Each day of the intervention the tutor follows an incremental-rehearsal sequence:

First, the tutor takes a single card from the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck, reads the letter/letter sound on the card aloud and then prompts the student to read the letter/letter sound.

Next, the tutor takes a card from the 'known letters/letter sounds’ deck and pairs it with the unknown letter/letter sound. When shown the two cards in sequence, the student is asked to read the letter/letter sound of each.

The student is judged to be successful if he or she orally provides the correct answer to that card within 2 seconds. If the student commits an error on any card or hesitates for longer than two seconds, the tutor reads the letter/letter sound on the card aloud, then prompts the student to read the same unknown letter/letter sound.

This review sequence continues until the student answers both cards within two seconds without errors.

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• The tutor repeats the sequence--taking yet another card from the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck to add to the expanding collection of letters/letter sounds being reviewed ('review deck'). Each time, the tutor prompts the student to read the whole series of letters/letter sounds in the review deck, beginning with the unknown and then moving through the growing series of known letters/letter sounds that follow it. • When the review deck has expanded to include one 'unknown' letter/letter sound followed by nine 'known' letters/letter sounds (a ratio of 90 percent 'known' material to 10 percent 'unknown' material), one of the original 'known' letter/letter sounds is discarded (put away with the 'discard deck'). • The student is then presented with a letter/letter sound taken from the ‘unknown' deck. With each new 'unknown', the review sequence is again repeated as described above until all letters/letter sounds are known. Other Information:

Other Resources: Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMvBodxoJWk

Reading—Phonics

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Timed Word Sorts Grade Levels: K-1 Specific Skills Assessed: decoding, fluency w/decoding words Individual or group administration: Both Approximate Time: 20-25 minutes Description: Students sort words the teacher has provided into categories based on the spelling of the word. The student tries to see how many words they can sort in a given time period. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. The teacher selects an orthographic feature to focus on that meets the needs of

the students. The teacher then constructs a list of words (approximately 15-20)

that can be contrasted that focuses on this orthographic feature. (example. The

list of words would include examples of words with the –an word family and the

–at word family)

2. Each word should be written on a card. Each student will receive a set of these

cards with all the words printed on them. The student will also receive two

words written in a different color or printed on a different color of card that will

serve as the “headers” of each word column. (For the example above, the two

words might be “can” and “mat.”)

3. The teacher models how to select a word card, read the word card and then

decide which column the word belongs in.

4. The student practices sorting several times. When the student feels he or she is

ready, the teacher will time how many words the student can sort in under a

minute or some other predetermined time limit.

Other Information: It is important that the student must read the word on the word card before placing it in the appropriate category, as this activity is focusing on having the student read words more fluently. We do not want the student simply relying on visualization.

Other Resources: Words Their Way, 4th ed. by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton and Johnston (Pearson) Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3NhYLKJ7MA

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5X5 Speed Drills Grade Levels: K-1 Specific Skills Assessed: decoding, fluency w/decoding words Individual or group administration: Both Approximate Time: 10-15 minutes Description: The students practice reading words they already know faster and faster. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Select a set 5 words students can accurately identify

o Select high-priority and high-utility words o Select words students are able to identify accurately o Separate highly similar examples

very/every there/where/here

2. Make page with 5 X 5 matrix:

Example matrix:

every here there very where

very where every here there

there very here every where

where every there very here

here every where very there

3. Do a 1-minute small-group practice. Position paper so all can see.

Name the words This word is “every”. What word? (pause, tap) ____Yes, “every”. This word is “here”. What word? (pause, tap) Yes, “here” Repeat for each word in the row. Activity Directions I am going to time us for one-minute. If we make a mistake, we will have to go back to the beginning of the row. Answer together when I tap the

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word. If we don’t answer together, we will go back to the beginning of the row. Let’s see how far we can get! Activity Start timer. What word? pause, tap What word? pause, tap etc…eventually, you can omit “what word” and simply tap. Stop at 1 minute. Correction procedure: “That word is ____. What word? ____yes, ____. Let’s go back.”

Other Information:

Students can race against the clock to see who can beat the timer.

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Word Building Grade Levels: K-1st Specific Skills Assessed: segmenting, blending phonemes, decoding/encoding one-syllable words, rhyming Individual or group administration: Group, but can also be done individually Approximate Time: 20-25 minutes Description: Word Building is similar to Making Words. Students manipulate letters to make words having high-frequency word patterns. The students later sort for words that have common patterns and use these patterns to read and write more words. Word Building is designed for students for whom Making Words may be too challenging. In Word Building, only one phoneme is changed from word to word. The teacher may choose to incorporate some nonsense words also. As well, there is no “target word” that uses all of the letters. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. The teacher asks students to place all letter tiles face-up on a flat surface, such

as a desk or workboard. The students should only have letter tiles that would

make the words the teacher will call out.

2. The teacher reviews the name of each letter and the sound with the students.

3. The teacher then calls the first word on the list and uses it in a sentence. The

students repeat the word and then the teacher helps the students to segment

the word into phonemes.

4. When the teacher has determined the students have segmented successfully, he

or she allows the students to manipulate the letter tiles in front of them to form

the word.

5. When most of the students have made the word, the teacher makes the word

with her letter tiles, and the students check their work. (As an option, the

teacher may have the students check their work by pushing each tile up as they

say the sound for that letter, then running their finger along the bottom of the

tiles to blend the word.)

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6. The teacher then tells the student they will change one sound and reads the

next word. The students should follow the same procedure as above, repeating

the word and then segmenting it before trying to construct the word with their

letter tiles.

7. After the students are finished sorting the 8-10 words made from the teacher’s

list, the teacher assists the students in sorting the words they made into

common word patterns (example. fan and can).

8. The teacher then asks students to read and spell new words based on the

common word patterns they sorted for. (Example. The teacher holds up a word

card with the word, “man” on it. Ask students how to read this word if they

know f-a-n is fan and c-a-n is can.)

Other Information: Ready-made lessons can be found in the resource listed above. Students can transfer their learning to a common nursery rhyme or poetry. The teacher should not have the student write the words they made with the tiles, as first graders often take a long time writing words that will not allow time for the sorting and transfer to new words. However, the teacher may choose to have the students practice writing the “transfer” words before checking when the students are more familiar. The teacher may also opt to tell the students which letters to push down and have them “decode” the new word, rather than have the teacher give it to them and they “encode,” or spell, the word.

Other Resources: Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families by Judy Lynch (Scholastic) http://www.education.pitt.edu/EducationalResources/Teachers/LEADERS/TeachingStrategies/WordBuilding.aspx

Reading—Phonics

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Making Words Grade Levels: Late 1st grade and above Specific Skills Assessed: Phonics, Vocabulary, Phonemic Awareness Individual or group administration: Group Administration but could be done individually at a lower/higher level than the class Approximate Time: 15-20 minutes Description: Making Words is an active, hands-on, manipulative activity in which children learn how to look for patterns in words and how changing just one letter changes the whole word. The children are given letters which will form a final "secret" word. The lesson begins with small words, builds to longer words, and finally ends with the "secret" word that can be made with all the letters. Then, students sort the words according to a variety of patterns, such as beginning sounds, endings, and rhymes. They transfer the patterns by using the words sorted to read and spell words with similar patterns. Steps in Intervention Delivery: 1. Decide upon a secret word which can be made with all the letters. In choosing, you may choose children’s interests or content-area curriculum. 2. Make a list of other words that can be made from those same letters. 3. From all the words that can be made, select approximately 10-12 words, ranging from smaller to larger words and containing rimes you want to emphasize. 4. Write the words on index cards and sort from shortest to longest. 5. Arrange so that the fewest number of phonemes changes from one word to the next. 6. Choose the patterns some words to share with which the students will sort. 7. Choose other words that can be made from the sorting patterns. 8. Store in a manila envelope.

1. Children make the words with their letter tiles as the teacher calls them out from shortest to longest.

2. After the word has been made by the majority of students, the teacher or a student places the word in a pocket chart so everyone can check.

3. Students continue to form words as the teacher calls them, checking with the pocket chart.

4. When all words have been made, the teacher tells the students to make the secret word that uses all the letters.

5. If no student makes the secret word, the teacher may give hints until someone makes the word.

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6. Once the secret word has been made, the teacher has the students sort words in the pocket chart according to patterns they see, usually rimes.

7. After the words have been sorted, the teacher shows a few words printed on index cards to students that can be read using the patterns they sorted for, but couldn’t be made, because they didn’t have the letters. (For example, the students have an –ake word list, so the teacher shows the word “snake.”)

8. The teacher also will say 2-3 sentences containing words the students could write, or spell, using the sorted word patterns, but couldn’t be made, because students didn’t have the letters. (For example, the students have an –ake word list, so the teacher asks which pattern will help them spell “partake.”)

Other Information:

Do not wait for all students to make the word before checking with the pocket chart and moving on.

The Sort and Transfer steps are the keys to this strategy; do not skip! If necessary, do the Sort and Transfer the next day.

If students take too long to make 10-12 words, shorten the lesson to only include 8-10, keeping in mind the common patterns you want students to sort for and not eliminating those words.

If students struggle with this strategy, consider the Word Building strategy from elsewhere in this manual.

Other Resources: Systematic Sequential Phonics by Patricia Cunningham (1st-2nd); Prefixes and Suffixes They Use (3rd-4th); Making Words for ____ Grade for Home and School by Patricia Cunningham; Big Words for Big Kids by Patricia Cunningham (5th-6th) Grade Levels: 1st-6th grade; Making Words and Making Big Words books published by Good Apple. Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nxljktf-Hw

Reading—Phonics

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Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping Grade Levels: K-2 Specific Skills Assessed: Phoneme segmentation and blending, letter-sound correspondence Individual or group administration: Can be individual or as a group Approximate Time: A class period, depending on amount of words to complete Description: Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes. Each box in an Elkonin box card represents one phoneme, or sound. In Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping, students use the Elkonin boxes to spell words. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

Spelling by explicit phoneme-grapheme mapping requires the learner to match the letters/letter combinations in a word to the speech sounds they represent. One approach is to use a simple grid; each box of the grid represents a phoneme. As these examples show, the teacher selects a word and gives children an empty grid with a box for each phoneme. The teacher says the word, the students repeat it, segment the sounds, and write a grapheme in each box.

Straight: In this example, the long a (/a¯/) is spelled with the four-letter grapheme, aigh.

S T R AIGH T

Crash: In this example, the cr combination stands for two phonemes; the sh is a digraph (meaning it represents one phoneme).

C R A SH

Because it helps fix phoneme-grapheme correspondences in children's minds, this technique supports children's spelling, reading, and writing development. It should be taught in first grade, but it is also especially helpful with second-and third-grade students who missed the fundamentals in the earlier grades.

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Other Information:

Have children write letters in the boxes as you dictate words. For example, say, “Spell the word big. The big dog barked at the squirrel.”

Other Resources: http://bogglesworldesl.com/elkonin_boxes.htm, http://www.u-46.org/dbs/roadmap/files/Appendix/5Elkonin-soundbox.pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/8289362/Elkonin-Boxes-Cards

Video Demonstrations:

http://www.readingrockets.org/podcasts/classroom/

select phoneme segmentation video

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Sylla-Search Grade Levels: 2-8 Specific Skills Assessed: Multi-syllable decoding Individual or group administration: Can be individual or both, depends on if student works on it alone or as a game with other students Approximate Time: 20-25 minutes Description: This intervention is a strategy for helping students learn to decode multisyllabic words. Beck created this strategy to help students break down large words which in turn helps them read long words. Steps in Intervention Delivery: Sylla-search consists of three parts: Meet the Words- this is when the teacher reads the words aloud and the students read with the teacher. Find the Syllables-students are asked to find syllables within words. Collect the Words-the syllables found in part 2 are then used to make other words. Other Information: http://books.google.com/books?id=uyCgqaxmpYcC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=sylla-

search&source=bl&ots=nqQbdTU_Cc&sig=Q-gWDFFN4QRx3RDsI89-

RQn_bwI&hl=en&ei=KDYKStjpAZbEMp_zxNkL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&r

esnum=1#PPA74,M1

This site provides other ways of practicing using Sylla-search.

Other Resources: Making Sense of Phonics by Isabel Beck Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnc5WEXN9H8

Fluency

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FLUENCY INTERVENTIONS

Fluency

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Error Word Drill:

Grade Levels: ALL Specific Skills Assessed: Fluency, reading rate Individual or group administration: Individual Approximate Time: 20-30 minutes (total lesson including reading passage) Description: The Error Word Drill is an effective way to build reading vocabulary. The procedure consists of 4 steps. When the student misreads a word during a reading session, write down the error word and date in a separate "Error Word Log".

Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. At the end of the reading session, write out all error words from the reading session onto index cards. (If the student has misread more than 20 different words during the session, use just the first 20 words from your error-word list. If the student has misread fewer than 20 words, consult your "Error Word Log" and select enough additional error words from past sessions to build the review list to 20 words.)

2. Review the index cards with the student. Whenever the student pronounces a word correctly, remove that card from the deck and set it aside. (A word is considered correct if it is read correctly within 5 seconds. Self-corrected words are counted as correct if they are made within the 5-second period. Words read correctly after the 5-second period expires are counted as incorrect.)

3. When the student misses a word, pronounce the word for the student and have the student repeat the word. Then say, "What word?" and direct the student to repeat the word once more. Place the card with the missed word at the bottom of the deck.

4. Error words in deck are presented until all have been read correctly. All word cards are then gathered together, reshuffled, and presented again to the student. The drill continues until either time runs out or the student has progressed through the deck without an error on two consecutive cards.

Students who are just learning to read or have delayed reading skills often benefit from having a more accomplished reader listen to their reading and correct any reading mistakes immediately.

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Other Resources:

Haring, N.G., Lovitt, T.C., Eaton, M.D., & Hansen, C.L. (1978). The fourth R: Research in the classroom. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing. Jenkins, J. & Larsen, D. (1979). Evaluation of error-correction procedures for oral reading. Journal of Special Education, 13, 145-156. Singh, N.N. (1990). Effects of two error-correction procedures on oral reading errors:

Word supply versus sentence repeat. Behavior Modification, 14, 188-199.

Fluency

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Folding In Grade Levels: K-2 Specific Skills Assessed: decoding, fluency w/decoding words Individual or group administration: Both Approximate Time: 10-15 minutes Description: Incremental rehearsal builds student fluency by pairing unknown items with a steadily increasing collection of known items. This intervention makes use of concentrated practice to promote fluency and guarantees that the student will experience a high rate of success. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

2. On individual index cards, the teacher writes down each letter that a student is expected to master. The teacher/tutor reviews the collection of index cards with the student. a) Any of the letters or letter sounds (depending on the intervention) that the student can orally answer correctly within two seconds are considered to be known and are separated into one pile. b) Letters or letter sounds that the student cannot yet identify within two seconds are considered 'unknown' and collected in a second pile -- the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck.

2. The teacher/tutor next randomly selects 9 cards from the pile of known letters/letter sounds and sets this subset of cards aside as the 'known' deck. The rest of the pile of cards containing known letters/letter sounds is put away ('discard deck'), not to be used further in this intervention.

Each day of the intervention the tutor follows an incremental-rehearsal sequence:

First, the tutor takes a single card from the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck, reads the letter/letter sound on the card aloud and then prompts the student to read the letter/letter sound.

Next, the tutor takes a card from the 'known letters/letter sounds’ deck and pairs it with the unknown letter/letter sound. When shown the two cards in sequence, the student is asked to read the letter/letter sound of each.

The student is judged to be successful if he or she orally provides the correct answer to that card within 2 seconds. If the student commits an error on any card or hesitates for longer than two seconds, the tutor reads the letter/letter sound on the card aloud, then prompts the student to read the same unknown letter/letter sound.

This review sequence continues until the student answers both cards within two seconds without errors.

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• The tutor repeats the sequence--taking yet another card from the 'unknown letters/letter sounds' deck to add to the expanding collection of letters/letter sounds being reviewed ('review deck'). Each time, the tutor prompts the student to read the whole series of letters/letter sounds in the review deck, beginning with the unknown and then moving through the growing series of known letters/letter sounds that follow it. • When the review deck has expanded to include one 'unknown' letter/letter sound followed by nine 'known' letters/letter sounds (a ratio of 90 percent 'known' material to 10 percent 'unknown' material), one of the original 'known' letter/letter sounds is discarded (put away with the 'discard deck'). • The student is then presented with a letter/letter sound taken from the ‘unknown' deck. With each new 'unknown', the review sequence is again repeated as described above until all letters/letter sounds are known. Other Information:

Other Resources: Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMvBodxoJWk

Fluency

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Repeated Partner Reading Grade Levels: ALL Specific Skills Assessed: Fluency, reading rate Individual or group administration: Students are paired together to practice reading fluency. Approximate Time: Several minutes per reading. Teacher determines length of time Description:

1. Partner Reading involves pairing students to practice rereading text. 2. Partner Reading increases the amount of time students are reading and enhances

fluency. 3. Pair high-performing readers with lower-performing readers for fluency practice.

Steps in Intervention Delivery: Students take turns reading.

a. Partner A reads the passage or text aloud for 1 minute. Partner A models fluent reading.

b. Partner B follows along in the text. c. After 1 minute, Partner A stops reading. d. Partner B reads aloud the SAME passage or text for 1 minute.

When using this procedure, the whole class can participate while you time the readings. Other Information:

Students alternate reading pages, rather than reading for a specific time.

Many students enjoy graphing their correct words per minute and seeing if they can beat their previous amount.

After both students have read, they can take turns checking their comprehension. Cue

cards can be developed for students to use. What will happen next?

Did your predictions come true? Tell what happened first. Tell what happened next. Tell how the story ended.

Tell the most important thing about the main character in ten words or less (count words on fingers).

Other Resources: University of Texas at Austin. Searchlight Website. Utexas.org Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrrLJR7Zbq0

Fluency

10-04-12

Neurological Impress Method (NIM) Grade Levels: All Specific Skills Assessed: fluency Individual or group administration: Individual Approximate Time: 10-20 minutes Description: Neurological Impress Method requires the teacher to speak into the student’s ear while the text is read in unison. This is done to impress the words on the learner’s brain. The teacher is required to vary the pace and the softness or loudness of her voice during readings. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1) Select a book that is both interesting to the student and slightly challenging. This could be a book a student would like to read, but could not do on their own. Two copies of the book should be used – one for the teacher and one for the student.

2) Teacher and student sit beside each other with their own copy of the text. 3) Begin by reading in unison for at least five minutes at a normal pace. Do NOT

slow down your pace reading pace to match that of the student. However, you do want to model pausing for punctuation, expression, chunking words into meaningful phrases, and reading fluency and expression.

Other Information: (tips, modifications, etc.) Simple step by step instructions are found on the University of Texas website and modifications to NIM are found on the SIL International website.

Other Resources: Kuhn, M. R. (2009). The Hows and Whys of Fluency Instruction. (pp. 88 – 90). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Neurological Impress Method (NIM) Retrieved May 6, 2009 from: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/readstrong/nim.html What is the Neurological Impress Method? Retrieved May 6, 2009 from: http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/referencematerials/glossaryofliteracyterms/WhatIsTheNeurologicalImpressMe.htm Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhOGj6i8f8s

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

VOCABULARY/COMPREHENSION INTERVENTIONS

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Click or Clunk Grade Levels: 1-12 Specific Skills Assessed: Explicit and Implicit comprehension Individual or group administration: individual or small group setting Approximate Time: varies Description: In the Click and Clunk strategy, the words that students instantaneously understand are called clicks. The words that make no sense to them and so interfere with comprehension are known as clunks. Clunks are analogous to potholes in a road that impede the process of smooth driving. To decipher the meanings of these clunks, students can use a cluster of word-identification strategies (i.e., fix-up strategies).

Steps in Intervention Delivery: Instruct students that, during any reading assignment, when they come to:

1. The end of each sentence, they should ask the question, “Did I understand this sentence?” If students understand the sentence, they say “Click!” and continue reading. If they do not understand, they say “Clunk!” and refer to the strategy sheet “My Reading Check Sheet” to correct the problem.

2. The end of each paragraph, they should ask the question, “What did the paragraph say?” If they do not know the main idea(s) of the paragraph, students refer to the strategy sheet “My Reading Check Sheet” to correct the problem.

3. The end of each page, they should ask the question, “What do I remember?” If they do not remember sufficient information, students refer to the strategy sheet “My Reading Check Sheet” to correct the problem.

The purpose of this strategy is for students to: Monitor their understanding of word meanings as they read and identify unfamiliar vocabulary and use fix-up strategies to understand the text

The teacher demonstrates the difference between a click and a clunk. The teacher reinforces this distinction by reading or asking the student to read a short section of text and then having the student report any clunks they may have encountered.

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Students who encounter a clunk must apply one or more of four fix-up strategies:

1. Reread the sentence as though the clunk was a blank space and try to guess another word that might be appropriate in place of the clunk. There is a good chance that the clunk is a synonym.

2. Reread the sentence with the clunk and the sentences before or after the clunk to look for clues (i.e., other words or phrases that may partially indicate the meaning of a clunk).

3. Look for a prefix or suffix in the clunk that may help to define its meaning.

4. If possible, break the clunk into smaller, more familiar words that may indicate the clunk's meaning.

Other Information:

Teachers should decide how much text students should read before they stop to Click and Clunk. For example, the text might consist of:

A paragraph

A multiple-paragraph section

One page

Each of these has its pros and cons: Generally, reading shorter passages leads to increased comprehension but may take up more class time, whereas longer passages shorten the overall activity time but may not foster as deep an understanding of the text.

Create Silent “Click/Clunk” Signals. Although it may seem rather silly to have students call out “Click” and “Clunk” as an aid to monitor their own reading, the technique is actually quite valuable. When students must make regular summary judgments about how well they comprehend at the sentence level, they are more likely to recognize—and to resolve—comprehension errors as these mistakes arise. You might find, however, that students start to distract each other as they call out these comprehension signals. Once you see that students consistently use the technique, you can train them to softly whisper the signal. Or confer with your students to come up with an unobtrusive non-verbal signal (e.g., lightly tapping the desk once for “Click” and twice for “Clunk”) that is obvious enough to allow you to monitor readers’ use of the technique without distracting other students.

Other Resources:

The Savvy Teacher’s Guide: Reading Interventions That Work Jim Wright (www.interventioncentral.org

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) Grade Levels: K - 12 Specific Skills Assessed: Explicit and Implicit comprehension Individual or group administration: Group administration from 5 to 12 students with same fundamental reading abilities (http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gipej/drtahand.htm#the%20drta%20cycle) Approximate Time: varies Description: DRTA was developed in order to have students process shorter amounts of text at a time than when reading entire passages or selections. Also, DRTA illustrates for students how to set a purpose when reading. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Students read selection title (and perhaps a bit of the selection) and make predictions about content.

2. Students read to the first predetermined stop. They confirm, refine or reject their initial hypotheses and justify their ideas with reference to the text. Students then make new hypotheses.

3. Students read the next section and follow procedures in step two. This cycle continues until text is read.

4. Follow-up activities may be completed after the text is read.

(http://www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/sub/961007k.htm)

Other Resources: http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/drta.htm Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zK-uJkK7SA

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Question Answer Relationships (QAR) Grade Levels: 2-12 Specific Skills Assessed: Implicit and Explicit Comprehension Individual or group administration: Either Approximate Time: class period or less Description: Question-Answer Relationship Strategy (QAR) is a way for teachers to assess students’ understanding of the reading. There are four different types of questions in the QAR strategy all of which delve into the reading at different depths depending on the particular understanding desired of the students. The first type of question is the “Right There” question. These questions refer to questions which are found directly in passages from the reading. The second type of questions is “Think and Search” questions. These typically require the student to think a little bit about what the question is asking and group together passages from the reading to form one concept or idea. “Author and You” questions are the third type of question. These questions require the student to think about the author’s intent. These questions will refer to the implications made by the author for the reader. The final type of question in the QAR strategy is the “On Your Own” question. This type of question requires the reader to use their background knowledge of the information presented in the text to answer an opinion question. This type of question is to help the student better understand what they are reading by connecting the material to their own lives. Other Resources: http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20strategies/QAR.htm

Check out website above for differentiations and this website for more in-depth strategies. Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsud7AQWva8

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Questioning the Author (QtA) Grade Levels: 3- 12 Specific Skills Assessed: critical thinking Individual or group administration: Whole class or small group Approximate Time: class period Description: This strategy is designed to encourage students to go beyond the text and think about what the author is trying to communicate to the reader. Students who struggle with the text may be able to clarify the reading after questioning what the author wrote. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Teacher researches questions that can have the students thinking about the text they are reading. Some examples include:

What is the author trying to tell you?

Why is the author telling you that?

Does the author say it clearly?

How could the author have said things more clearly?

What would you say instead?

2. The class/ small groups have discussions about what the author is saying in the text, how and why the author wrote it.

3. The teacher uses different questions to help the discussion along and to help all the students understand the meaning of the text that they have read.

Other Information: (tips, modifications, etc.) The teacher has an active role in the discussion and has to know what questions to ask the class about the text.

Other Resources: http://www.fcrr.org/FCRRReports/PDF/QuestioningAuthorFinal.pdf http://www.readingquest.org/strat/qta.html

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

Reciprocal Teaching Grade Levels: 3-12 Specific Skills Assessed: clarifying difficult text, summarizing, questioning the text, making predictions Individual or group administration: group Approximate Time: varies depending on text used Description: Students read the beginning of the text silently, then teacher models the following for the students: 1. explains parts that were difficult to understand 2. summarizes the information 3. develops important questions about text 4. makes a prediction about the rest of the text Students then take turns conducting these four steps on subsequent sections of text. Steps in Intervention Delivery:

1. Put students in groups of four. 2. Distribute one notecard to each member of the group identifying each person's unique

role. a. summarizer b. questioner c. clarifier d. predictor

3. Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text selection. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies such as selective underlining or sticky-notes to help them better prepare for their role in the discussion.

4. At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to this point in the reading.

5. The Questioner will then pose questions about the selection: o unclear parts o puzzling information o connections to other concepts already learned o motivations of the agents or actors or characters o etc.

6. The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed.

7. The Predictor can offer guesses about what the author will tell the group next or, if it's a literary selection, the predictor might suggest what the next events in the story will be.

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12

8. The roles in the group then switch one person to the right, and the next selection is read. Students repeat the process using their new roles. This continues until the entire selection is read.

Other Information: Most often used with expository text Teacher and students provide feedback to each other Students are encouraged to use these four steps when reading other text

Other Resources: Instructing Students Who Have Literacy Problems by Sandra McCormick, 4th edition, Pages 393-394 Video Demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm4mSVXDCjE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnwBVrJVdY

Vocabulary/Comprehension

10-04-12