Universal (Tier 1) Reading Instruction

Nicole Fenty, Ph.DUniversity of Louisville

Today

• Response to Intervention (Three Tier Model): Tier 1 Academic Instruction

• Core Programs– Curricula– Characteristics– Grouping

• Five Key Components of Reading– Sample strategies

Multi-tier Model

Tier 1

• School wide efforts where ALL students are involved– Universal screening of academic skills– Instruction supported by scientifically based

research • Effective Instruction• Differentiated Instruction• Effective Classroom Management

Copyright © 2008 Mississippi Department of Education

Tier 1: Effective Instruction• Research-based effective teaching principles include:

– active engagement of students, – direct instruction – scaffolded instruction, – instruction in the organizing, storing, & retrieving of info, – strategic instruction,– explicit instruction, and – instruction that teaches across subjects.

Copyright © 2008 Mississippi Department of Education

Example of Tier Level Interventions

Time

Curricular Focus

Curricular Breadth

Frequency of Progress Monitoring

Tier I

90

5 areas

Core

Every 6-8 weeks

Reading

Sample Common Core Reading Curricula

• Harcourt Trophies• Rigby Literacy• Scott Foresman• Voyager Universal Literacy

Characteristics of Effective Core Reading Programs

• Research-based instructional strategies that explicitly teach strategies and skills;

• Systematic and sequential instruction that moves children from simple to more complex skills and strategies;

• Ample practice opportunities that allow children to practice skills and strategies in reading and writing text;

• Assessment tools for diagnosing children's needs and monitoring progress; and

• Provide professional development that will ensure teachers have the skills necessary to implement the program effectively and meet the needs of their children.

ednews.org

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Characteristics of the Core Reading Block

• Minimum of 90 minutes daily• Uninterrupted and protected• Teaching is dispersed across 5 days• Writing and spelling are considered part of the core reading

block if the objectives and lessons relate to one of the critical components

• Varied grouping patterns used• Initial instruction and intervention for some students when

needed

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General Overview• Whole group instruction (Introduction of

lesson, initial skill instruction, review for all)• Small group instruction (centers)

– Homogeneous (Teacher led for targeted instruction, students have similar abilities)

– Heterogeneous (Student led, center activities planned to practice skills previously taught, students have varied abilities)

• Independent work (practice skills, assess skills)• Whole group instruction (Teacher reviews,

makes connections, read alouds)

Whole Group• Engages teachers and students in shared learning experiences• Allows inclusion of every student

Read alouds Shared writing Author’s chair

Speaking/performancesClass discussions ModelingIntroduction of new concepts

Texas Education Agency: Second Grade Teacher Reading Academies

Read Alouds

• Children’s literature• Varied genres

Increases vocabularyAdult fluent modelPromotes oral language developmentDemonstrates reading for a purpose/enjoyment

Fountas & Pinnell, 1996

Shared Reading

• Enlarged texts– Big books– Poems

Word by word correspondenceImproves student participationOpportunities to participate

Fountas & Pinnell, 1996

Small Group

Meets individual students’ needsMaximizes opportunities for students to express

what they know and to receive feedback

Center/station activitiesPractice concepts with immediate feedback

Focus on targeted skills

• Review data sources – Standardized measures– Curriculum-based measures– Progress monitoring– Informal information (classroom data, observations)

• Identify at-risk students using data• Determine targeted areas for instruction• Students may have multiple areas of need

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Forming Groups Based on Assessment Data

Sample ScreenersDIBELSAIMSWEBMAPSScantron AssessmentT-Pro

Teacher Led Small Groups• Focus is placed on skill development• Same book or content is usually used with

all students in group• Teacher introduces text, previews,

predicts, discusses vocabulary, guides students during read, asks students questions following reading, engages in word work

Reading Centers

• Implemented during the time that the teacher is teaching in targeted small groups

• Activities planned should provide practice opportunities, not initial instruction

• Activities should match the reading objectives

Considerations when planning centers

• Objectives (be sure that you have goals for what you want students to learn)

• Accountability (how will you know the kids did what they were suppose to do?)

• Management (how will you be sure that they remain engaged and on task?)

• Transitions (how will you ensure that students know where to go and how to get there?)

• Amount of time and movement between centers (be sure to plan ahead and take transitions into account)

Keeping Groups Flexible

Regroup Often

Use class work, informal assessments during instruction, and progress monitoring of at-risk

students to regroup students and change instruction

Texas Education Agency: Second Grade Teacher Reading Academies

How to manage more than one group at a time

• When introducing centers/stations, take sufficient time to explain, demonstrate, practice procedures, and clarify expectations one step at a time.

• Establish rotation procedures that allow you to work with a small group without interruption.

Reading First Initiative: Secretary’s Leadership Academy

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Remember--Make students accountable for their work!

Word Study with a Buddy

-- review knowledge of word parts to read words and determine meaning

Reading Corner

-- where a wide variety of books are organized by topic and reading level, and students can read and reread with a partner, or in a small group

Writing Plus

-- extends all the components of reading through a variety of writing activities, including computers

Texas Education Agency: Second Grade Teacher Reading Academies

What Will Other Students Do While I Teach a Small

Group?

Mixed ability would be okay here

Word Work

• Manipulate letters and words

Develops letter/sound correspondenceProvides opportunities practice words from

connected text

Fountas & Pinnell, 1996

Independent WorkOnly allow with material that have been masteredConsider providing ways for students to self-assess

Increases opportunities for immediate feedback

Practice skillsAssess skills

Promotes individual responsibility

How Do I Teach Students to Work Independently?

• Teach each independent activity as a separate set of lessons (with modeling and feedback)

• Practice, practice, practice

Texas Education Agency: Second Grade Teacher Reading Academies

Independent Reading

• Read text at independent reading level

Practice reading strategies independentlyPractice re-reading text

Fountas & Pinnell, 1996

Independent Writing

• Produce text

Practice writing words independentlyPractice writing for different purposes

Fountas & Pinnell, 1996

Five Key Components of the Core Reading Program

• Phonological/Phonemic Awareness• Phonics• Fluency• Vocabulary• Comprehension

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

• Phonological Awareness– The conscious understanding about how

speech can be broken down into different size parts

– The ability to manipulate those parts• Phonemic Awareness

– The conscious understanding that spoken words are made up of individual sounds

Note: Phonological Awareness is not…the same as phonics - no letter-sound correspondence is involved. It may be an essential skill for phonics instruction to make sense, however.

Word Level

Syllable Level

Onset-Rime Level

Phoneme Level

PhonologicalPhonologicalAwarenessAwareness

Phonemic Awareness Skills• Discriminating: recognizing which pictures in a set of

pictures begin with the same sound("Bell, bike, and boy all have /b/ at the beginning.")

• Blending: combining, or blending the separate sounds to say the word("/m/, /a/, /p/– map.")

• Segmenting: breaking, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds("up – /u/, /p/.").

• Deleting: Children recognize the word part that remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.(“smile – without the /s/ is mile”)

• Substituting: Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.(The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/. The new word is bun).

Activities for Rhyming• Play the willoughby wallaby woo name game.

Song: Willoughby wallaby woo, An elephant sat on you! Willoughby wallaby wee, An elephant sat on me! Willoughby wallaby W_______, An elephant sat on __________!

Activities for Onset and Rime Practice

• Critter Sitter– Some animals have escaped from the

zoo– Draw a picture of large cage on the

board– We need to catch a /l/…ion. What animal

are we trying to catch? (lion)– Put the picture of the lion over the

picture of cage– Continue with other animals

Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000http://www.clker.com/clipart-23399.html

Activities for Discriminating

Activities for Blending • Guessing Game

– “I’m thinking of something in our classroom. You can sit on it. It is a /ch/ /ai/ /r/ What am I thinking of? (chair)

• Display three pictures or items

– Display the pictures

– Say the individual sounds in one of the pictures

– Ask students to guess the word you are thinking of

Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000http://www.balddog.com.au/images/illustration/cartoon_bag.gif

Activities for Deleting• Tell a story, leaving off the initial sound in the last word of each

sentence.– After school I go _ome. I then walk my _og. I then take a _ap.– Ask students what is missing– Re-tell the story and have students fill in the missing sounds

• Draw a picture with an elkonin box underneath– Ask students to name the picture– Have students name the sounds – Put a sticky note in the first box– Say: “If I cover up the first sound, what is left? What sound is

missing?”

Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000http://www.balddog.com.au/images/illustration/cartoon_bag.gif

Phonics

• Phonics is the knowledge that letters represent sounds and when these sounds are blended or pronounced, the result is reading words.

• Skills– Letter-sound correspondence, blending, onset-

rimes/word families, multi-syllable words

• Activities used for phonological awareness can also be used for phonics instruction just include letters

Sample Phonics Activity: Phonograms

• -at • Brainstorm words that rhyme with cat.• Consider creating sentences to contextualize• Print –at on the board• Blend and segment –at• Practice adding onsets to the rime –at• Contextualize with sentences and decodable

textHonig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000

Components

Fluency

accuracy speed/rate

prosody

A reader’s fluency rate depends on the complexity of the text

Components of Fluency Instruction• Model reading text• Allow opportunities for practice• Frequent progress monitoringFluency Activity• Super Signals

– Choose a piece of text that signals you want students to recognize and understand (e.g., exclamation marks, question marks, etc).

– Use a big book or overhead projector– Read with no expression– Re-read with expression– Discuss the differences between the two readings with students– Allow for practice with text using the signals

Johns & Berglund, 2002

Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Florida Center for Reading Research, 2004

Activities for Vocabulary

tele

telegram

television telephone

telepathy

Word Roots

Prefixes-re, -un, -dis, etcUn- “not or opposite of”undo, unwind, untie

Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000

Comprehension

The process of constructing meaning from text

Comprehension

• Activate or build background knowledge• Monitor comprehension throughout• After reading

– Summarize– Identify main idea/supporting details– Compare/contrast similar text– Identify and use text structures (e.g., sequencing,

cause/effect etc)

Identifying the Main Idea

• Explain to students that learning to identify the most important idea of a passage will make it easier to remember what they read.

• Start with short excerpts/paragraphs.– Focus on the main person and on what the main

person did. – Think aloud and make use of graphic organizers

• Continue practice with several paragraphs

Honig, Diamond, Gutlohn, 2000

Resources • www.fcrr.org• Fountas & Pinnell (1996). Guided reading: Good first

teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

• Johns, J., & Berglund, R.L (2002). Fluency: Strategies and assessments. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

• Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2000) Teaching reading sourcebook for kindergarten through eighth grade. Novato, CA: Arena Press.