Paul Bambrick-Santoyo's book, Driven by Data 2.0: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction, describes the data meeting structure begun by Uncommon Schools. It involves highly structured plan that starts with unpacking a standard, examining exemplars to revise the what students need to know/do, student work to identify the gap, scripting a reteach, and then practicing it. Ideally this process is completed in under 30 minutes- a rigid time clock is utilized to make sure it does. For the leader of the group, be it a principal or team leader, they need to have prepared for the meeting by having unpacked the standard, gathered both exemplar and typical student work showing a gap, gathered video footage, named the gap in precise language, determined how to reteach the material to address the gap (model or discourse) and why, identified the when to reteach and thought about what that might look like. A half hour meeting might need more than a half hour to prep for, especially if the target subject is not an area of expertise of the leader. Expectations for the leader are huge.
A few years ago I was involved with a program that administered interim assessments every 10 weeks and then spent the nest three weeks going over them to identify data trends and action plans. The assessments utilized a program that collected the data and shared number of correct responses per question. This allegedly allowed staff to examine where students made errors and plan to remediate them. Ideal, right? Unfortunately the implementation was flawed. The responses were too general to provide real guidance on gaps. The assumption was that the staff knew the standards and their components well enough to target error patterns. If only one teacher taught a subject, they were a data team of one- not very effective. It was too loose to provide a path forward and no one was trained to run a data meeting. (Ah, the benefits of hindsight and increased training.)
I have been asked by many an interview team how I use data to inform instruction. I use it daily to determine if my students "got" what I presented. When I provide consultant teacher services I watch the errors my students made and then provide instruction in that area. This book allowed me to see how I might improve that process with formalizing it.
The book comes with a DVD of materials. It includes video clips of components of instruction and data meetings. Some of them are the same as those from Get Better Faster. The book utilizes it's tenet of concise language. It uses the see it, name it, do it strategy that they propose as a way to improve instruction. Very readable but somewhat repetitive. It presents a nice framework that schools could capitalize on to improve instruction.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Hacking School Discipline
Nathan Maynard and Brad Weinstein wrote Hacking School Discipline: 9 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy & Responsibility Using Restorative Justice as a part of the Hack Learning Series. These books all describe a group of "hacks" around various educational issues. We may be familiar with the definitions of hack being to cut roughly or gain unauthorized access to data, but a less common definition: to manage or cope, is what the series producers are utilizing.
The books follow a formula for each hack: define the problem, describe the solution, what you can do tomorrow, a blueprint for full implementation, overcoming pushback, and the hack in action (vignette). The nine hacks the book describes are:
I like the three building-wide expectations they set forth:
Two codicils are mentioned toward the end of the book. "If data shows that a certain strategy is not as effective with a certain subset of students, then adjust!" (p. 154) A couple of years ago I worked with a program and they instituted a particular Tier 2 intervention with a couple of students whose behaviors actually increased under the intervention- in frustration, I collected the data and presented to the tier 2 committee 15 weeks into the intervention. It still required a huge push to get something else into place. Early in my career I attended a week long Elements of Instruction workshop whose key components was monitor and adjust. We need to do this for our programs so that we can ensure they are having the impact we want.
"All staff must be consistent and committed to the mission of the MTSS [multitiered system of supports] model and the embedded restorative practices for this to work" (p. 154). I have seen staff sabotage interventions because they so not believe in them. I have seen the results of inconsistent implementation. It is not pretty. A slow roll out with discussion at staff meetings about success and challenges as the process occurs is important. Teachers will buy in when they see success, but poorly articulated or clearly thought out programs will encourage rigidity. Lack of training will result in poorly implemented and ineffective programs. Let the naysayer see positive results with their kids in someone else's classroom. Instead of ignoring their concerns, address them. Restorative Justice programs have been shown to be highly effective if they are properly implemented. Poorly implemented, they often exacerbate problems.
The books follow a formula for each hack: define the problem, describe the solution, what you can do tomorrow, a blueprint for full implementation, overcoming pushback, and the hack in action (vignette). The nine hacks the book describes are:
- create a culture of communication
- restorative circles
- teach acceptance of responsibility
- create, clear consistent expectations
- foster a growth mindset
- teach mindfulness
- cultivate empathy
- build restorative support
- use data to track success, increase attention on important items and modify programs in response to need.
I like the three building-wide expectations they set forth:
- engage in productive work
- maintain a safe and clean environment
- share space effectively (p. 82).
Two codicils are mentioned toward the end of the book. "If data shows that a certain strategy is not as effective with a certain subset of students, then adjust!" (p. 154) A couple of years ago I worked with a program and they instituted a particular Tier 2 intervention with a couple of students whose behaviors actually increased under the intervention- in frustration, I collected the data and presented to the tier 2 committee 15 weeks into the intervention. It still required a huge push to get something else into place. Early in my career I attended a week long Elements of Instruction workshop whose key components was monitor and adjust. We need to do this for our programs so that we can ensure they are having the impact we want.
"All staff must be consistent and committed to the mission of the MTSS [multitiered system of supports] model and the embedded restorative practices for this to work" (p. 154). I have seen staff sabotage interventions because they so not believe in them. I have seen the results of inconsistent implementation. It is not pretty. A slow roll out with discussion at staff meetings about success and challenges as the process occurs is important. Teachers will buy in when they see success, but poorly articulated or clearly thought out programs will encourage rigidity. Lack of training will result in poorly implemented and ineffective programs. Let the naysayer see positive results with their kids in someone else's classroom. Instead of ignoring their concerns, address them. Restorative Justice programs have been shown to be highly effective if they are properly implemented. Poorly implemented, they often exacerbate problems.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Self-regulations interventions and strategies
Teresa Garland's Self-Regulation Interventions and Strategies: Keeping the Body, Mind, & Emotions on Task in Children with Autism, ADHD, or Sensory Disorders is a book I wish I had when my son was little. He was highly sensitive to smell, very oral- he chewed on everything, did not recognize when he was hungry, tactile defensive around people he did not know or when stressed, did not recognize when he was cold, a picky eater and the list goes on. Amazingly enough, when he was due for a reevaluation for special ed services, I asked for a sensory evaluation and his very helpful (yes, I use that term with sarcasm) OT did not perform one because she did not see it. Everyone else, except the equally helpful PT, looked amazed and the meeting went on. We had to figure it out interventions in the days before the internet explosion of information. This book does a great job of describing examples of challenges and what to do about them. It reviews commercial programs and presents lots of simple at home ideas for helping children.
One important comment that she makes is that many of our kids are developmentally delayed when it comes to sensory integration. That means that for some of our kids time is a component of the answer. However, you cannot wait and hope. Interventions can make children more calm and happy in the here and now. Some interventions involve teaching children the signs that they are becoming overwhelmed and how to take a break to allow them to return to baseline. As they age they do not become overwhelmed so easily, but, in the here and now, they need strategies to not explode. Managing the environment through noise canceling head phones or access to fidgets can truly help our kids successful socialize and participate in activities.
One thing she repeatedly references is that these children often need grounding. Strategies to accomplish this include
The chapter on sensory modulation is broken into sections by sense. She addresses oversensitive, undersensitive and cravings of touch, smell, vision, auditory, vestibular (balance), proprioception (body sense, movement) and interoception (sense of internal states- hunger, pain, temperature,...). I liked the idea of using a metronome to help coordinate movements and work on self-regulation. Much to my irritation, she will make a list and then address things in a different order.
She does provide some case studies and vignettes. These enhance the text. More would have been useful.
One important comment that she makes is that many of our kids are developmentally delayed when it comes to sensory integration. That means that for some of our kids time is a component of the answer. However, you cannot wait and hope. Interventions can make children more calm and happy in the here and now. Some interventions involve teaching children the signs that they are becoming overwhelmed and how to take a break to allow them to return to baseline. As they age they do not become overwhelmed so easily, but, in the here and now, they need strategies to not explode. Managing the environment through noise canceling head phones or access to fidgets can truly help our kids successful socialize and participate in activities.
One thing she repeatedly references is that these children often need grounding. Strategies to accomplish this include
- heavy work- rake leaves, push furniture around, carry a backpack, toss a weighted ball, wear a weighted vest
- massage- formal ones, loofah, Qigong
- yoga- especially the tree pose
- breathing exercises
- deep pressure- weighted blankets, joint pressure, body socks, pressure vest or suits
The chapter on sensory modulation is broken into sections by sense. She addresses oversensitive, undersensitive and cravings of touch, smell, vision, auditory, vestibular (balance), proprioception (body sense, movement) and interoception (sense of internal states- hunger, pain, temperature,...). I liked the idea of using a metronome to help coordinate movements and work on self-regulation. Much to my irritation, she will make a list and then address things in a different order.
She does provide some case studies and vignettes. These enhance the text. More would have been useful.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Language at the speed of sight
Mark Seidenberg is a reading researcher who wrote Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can Be Done About It. This book came to my awareness through a mention in another text that I have written about: Essentials of Assessing, Preventing and Overcoming Reading Difficulties (see here, here, here and here). He is focused on the idea that many teachers do not know, and consequently implement, the science of reading. This book addresses the concern in a somewhat abstract way. His major theory is that to teach reading, it is essential to teach alphabetics- the phonetic and orthographic code of our language.
Of core importance to learning to read is speech. Students who enter reading with a developmental delay in speech, poor access to standard English (home language is a dialect of English or a completely different language such as Mandarin), or limited vocabulary will struggle with reading. The focus for these children is intensive Standard English exposure to develop vocabulary and an understanding of standard pronunciation to assist with spelling and recognizing written terms by their orthographic code. In my house my mother pronounced the structure that our car was in as a gar'ge. I could not spell or even determine the number of syllables in the word until high school. Bostonians would "pahk a cah." American Black English has "tin" mints, not "thin" ones. These all compete with matching verbal statements to written ones.
Poor readers are a) burdened with the greatest difficulty in decoding and b) struggle with reading context words and c) are poor guessers (p. 130). A recent spurt of research publication as well as older ones explain how poor readers are more likely to use context clues and yet they are worse at it (for some examples see here, here, here, here, and here). Context clues are useful a small amount of the time in determining words. In the sentence, "The baby has a ____." You might know you need a noun (syntactic clue) but is it a nap, bottle, smile or something else? Without the phonetic clues, you are lost. While context is important and the older students must use context to develop both background knowledge and vocabulary, for students just learning to read, it is the lesser of the skills students need to develop. The author points out that "phonological information is an essential element of skilled reading in every language and writing system: impairments in the use of this information are typical of poor readers and dyslexics" (p 126).
He offers an interesting chart on characteristics of dyslexics. All dyslexics will not show exactly the same pattern, but these are characteristic to look for. I modified it slightly.
(p 152)
The primary identifier in dyslexia is poor phonemic skills.
Dyslexia is not the sole reading challenge. As the author points out, "every act of reading is also an act of visual perception, learning, memory, language, and the rest. The goal may be comprehending the text, but the bonus is the tuning and refining of these shared systems, which then tend to correlate" (p 164). Students who struggle to read or who are late readers, do not have the practice and refinement in these other areas and so you see a rippling of impact across many areas in school. He expresses concern over the expansion of the concept of literacy to include digital and other ideas because it dilutes focus on reading print and its consequent benefits. "The emphasis on multiple literacies is that it devalues the importance of reading and teaching reading at a time when they need more attention, not less" (p. 297).
He would like to see a revolution in teacher education. Instead of the art of teaching reading, he would like to see instruction in the science of it. Unfortunately he has seen a reluctance to accept the science as a mainstay of teaching preparation programs. Teaching preservice teachers the science behind child development and linguistics would be a good step in the direction of helping teachers understand the underlying elements of learning.
While many states have enacted legislation about teachers needing to learn and use evidence based practices is the teaching of reading (see EdWeek), there exists a gap between evidence-based and research demonstrated high effectively instruction. Further, the deeply ingrained focus on, at best, embedded phonics instruction is a tough mountain to change.
Of core importance to learning to read is speech. Students who enter reading with a developmental delay in speech, poor access to standard English (home language is a dialect of English or a completely different language such as Mandarin), or limited vocabulary will struggle with reading. The focus for these children is intensive Standard English exposure to develop vocabulary and an understanding of standard pronunciation to assist with spelling and recognizing written terms by their orthographic code. In my house my mother pronounced the structure that our car was in as a gar'ge. I could not spell or even determine the number of syllables in the word until high school. Bostonians would "pahk a cah." American Black English has "tin" mints, not "thin" ones. These all compete with matching verbal statements to written ones.
Poor readers are a) burdened with the greatest difficulty in decoding and b) struggle with reading context words and c) are poor guessers (p. 130). A recent spurt of research publication as well as older ones explain how poor readers are more likely to use context clues and yet they are worse at it (for some examples see here, here, here, here, and here). Context clues are useful a small amount of the time in determining words. In the sentence, "The baby has a ____." You might know you need a noun (syntactic clue) but is it a nap, bottle, smile or something else? Without the phonetic clues, you are lost. While context is important and the older students must use context to develop both background knowledge and vocabulary, for students just learning to read, it is the lesser of the skills students need to develop. The author points out that "phonological information is an essential element of skilled reading in every language and writing system: impairments in the use of this information are typical of poor readers and dyslexics" (p 126).
He offers an interesting chart on characteristics of dyslexics. All dyslexics will not show exactly the same pattern, but these are characteristic to look for. I modified it slightly.
phonology
|
·
Limited impairment on phonemic tasks: deletion,
matching, blending
·
May have other limitations (especially if young)
in letter naming and sounds
|
Reading Aloud
|
·
Slow, dysfluent and error-prone- especially
with irregularly pronounced words
·
Poor at sounding out nonsense words
|
Processing speed
|
·
Slow at naming familiar things (rapid automatized
naming- RAN)
·
Fluency issues
|
Orthography
|
·
Limited knowledge of structure- ex determine
legal from illegal letter strings (ex. jn, px versus jam or pixy)
·
Weak spelling- misspelling, misidentifications
(rain or rane), dysfluency (
|
Working memory
|
·
Deficits in non-word repetition and memory
span tasks
|
Language
|
·
Limited vocabulary and quality
·
Familiarity with a narrower range of sentence
structures and expressions
·
Prosody weaknesses
|
The primary identifier in dyslexia is poor phonemic skills.
Dyslexia is not the sole reading challenge. As the author points out, "every act of reading is also an act of visual perception, learning, memory, language, and the rest. The goal may be comprehending the text, but the bonus is the tuning and refining of these shared systems, which then tend to correlate" (p 164). Students who struggle to read or who are late readers, do not have the practice and refinement in these other areas and so you see a rippling of impact across many areas in school. He expresses concern over the expansion of the concept of literacy to include digital and other ideas because it dilutes focus on reading print and its consequent benefits. "The emphasis on multiple literacies is that it devalues the importance of reading and teaching reading at a time when they need more attention, not less" (p. 297).
He would like to see a revolution in teacher education. Instead of the art of teaching reading, he would like to see instruction in the science of it. Unfortunately he has seen a reluctance to accept the science as a mainstay of teaching preparation programs. Teaching preservice teachers the science behind child development and linguistics would be a good step in the direction of helping teachers understand the underlying elements of learning.
While many states have enacted legislation about teachers needing to learn and use evidence based practices is the teaching of reading (see EdWeek), there exists a gap between evidence-based and research demonstrated high effectively instruction. Further, the deeply ingrained focus on, at best, embedded phonics instruction is a tough mountain to change.
Monday, February 24, 2020
Conflict in the Classroom
Nicholas J. Long and William C. Morse's book, Conflict in the Classroom: The Education of At-Risk and Troubled Students, Fifth Edition, is one of the many publications they have produced. It was published in 1995, but the authors have released other newer publications. This and the books with the same title but different subtitles are designed as college textbooks. This particular version is a collection of reprinted articles by a number of authors, including themselves, with a thread of commentary and information to tie it together. The text is comprehensive at looking at managing challenging behaviors in the classroom, it is not a text that describes behaviorism techniques such as recording data, planning interventions, and types and effects of consequences.
While containing a depth of information, I think this text would be challenging for preservice teachers because of its lack of concrete suggestions. Very few vignettes appear to show what they describe.
About halfway through the text they describe the difference between aggressive behavior, hostile behavior and violence.
A few of the articles included quotes that made me think. Long quoted David Burns, "you feel the way you think" (p. 255). It showcases how our feelings are products of our mind. I was working in a program with Second Step curriculum. They highlighted that students understand that different people can feel differently about the same thing. Understanding those feelings and having ways to think about them can change the intensity of the feeling.
Myrna R. Olson wrote, "Although these parents often hold reasonable values, their intentions are not joined to appropriate parental behaviors" (p. 555). This is true for all of us at times. Despite our best intentions, we all sometimes act in less than ideal ways. Her insight is important because it supports the concept that they are the best parents they can be in the moment, a positive way to view parents. When we hold parental behavior in a positive light, it makes our interaction with parents more positive rather than accusatory. That helps to establish working relationships that will benefit the children.
While containing a depth of information, I think this text would be challenging for preservice teachers because of its lack of concrete suggestions. Very few vignettes appear to show what they describe.
About halfway through the text they describe the difference between aggressive behavior, hostile behavior and violence.
- Aggressive- unplanned, often triggered by personal stress or frustration. impulsive breakthroughs
- Hostile- deliberate expression of hate. Revenge, intentional cruelty toward a person or group
- Violence- out of control anger and hate. mindless. Often results in unplanned injury. (p. 338)
- use strategies to reduce inappropriate behaviors
- clearly state expectations
- accept angry feelings but not behavior
- encourage positive problem solving
- ensure student is responsible for behavior
- affirm efforts to improve behavior
- intervene quickly with logical consequences
- explain reasons and values behind stopping behavior
- set up a behavioral contract. (p. 341)
A few of the articles included quotes that made me think. Long quoted David Burns, "you feel the way you think" (p. 255). It showcases how our feelings are products of our mind. I was working in a program with Second Step curriculum. They highlighted that students understand that different people can feel differently about the same thing. Understanding those feelings and having ways to think about them can change the intensity of the feeling.
Myrna R. Olson wrote, "Although these parents often hold reasonable values, their intentions are not joined to appropriate parental behaviors" (p. 555). This is true for all of us at times. Despite our best intentions, we all sometimes act in less than ideal ways. Her insight is important because it supports the concept that they are the best parents they can be in the moment, a positive way to view parents. When we hold parental behavior in a positive light, it makes our interaction with parents more positive rather than accusatory. That helps to establish working relationships that will benefit the children.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Get Better Faster
I ran into mention of this book in something I was reading and tracked down a copy to see what gems it had to share. Paul Bambrick-Santoyo wrote Get Better Faster: A 90-day Plan for Coaching New Teachers to highlight steps instructional leaders can help their staff improve at a faster rate than normal. He is a representative of Uncommon Schools- a network of charter schools that focus on improving urban school outcomes. They are based in the northeast with locations in Rochester, the large city near me. Some of Uncommon Schools have had exceptional results, especially considering the mainstay of its staff is young. At least in my location, pay is limited to perhaps 7 years experience in the public sector.
The book includes a DVD that has additional materials and video clips that highlight the text. While it is somewhat disruptive to go back and forth between the text and the video, seeing the steps in action is valuable.
The book details a scope and sequence for teaching staff how to manage a classroom. It breaks down the process into 5 phases: the first a preparatory one that begins school starts and the last a stretch it for people who have developed skill in the first sections. The book provides lesson plans for teaching professionals the skills, relies heavily on role playing to become comfortable with the skills and videos to show skills well implemented or areas where skills could be refined. One premise of Uncommon Schools is frequent observation and feedback cycles- at least every other week. They utilize data heavily to inform next steps. Teachers in the videos are seen with clipboards to record student understandings throughout instruction.
Scripted conversations are often a focus based on the premise that you have one chance to deliver instruction to students or staff so having it firmly thought out is critical. Writing out what instruction the teacher will give, what the expected student response will be and what to do if there is a lack of compliance is a strategy seen in every step of teacher development. While this focus enables teachers to practice prior to implementation, it is unrealistic in the grand scale of teaching. Presumably there will be generalization from the scripted component to the rest of the day. An interesting approach to helping teachers develop and refine skills at a faster rate than traditional models. Elements could certainly be used by coaches in other programs to help identify problem areas and help teach staff to improve their approaches.
The book includes a DVD that has additional materials and video clips that highlight the text. While it is somewhat disruptive to go back and forth between the text and the video, seeing the steps in action is valuable.
The book details a scope and sequence for teaching staff how to manage a classroom. It breaks down the process into 5 phases: the first a preparatory one that begins school starts and the last a stretch it for people who have developed skill in the first sections. The book provides lesson plans for teaching professionals the skills, relies heavily on role playing to become comfortable with the skills and videos to show skills well implemented or areas where skills could be refined. One premise of Uncommon Schools is frequent observation and feedback cycles- at least every other week. They utilize data heavily to inform next steps. Teachers in the videos are seen with clipboards to record student understandings throughout instruction.
Scripted conversations are often a focus based on the premise that you have one chance to deliver instruction to students or staff so having it firmly thought out is critical. Writing out what instruction the teacher will give, what the expected student response will be and what to do if there is a lack of compliance is a strategy seen in every step of teacher development. While this focus enables teachers to practice prior to implementation, it is unrealistic in the grand scale of teaching. Presumably there will be generalization from the scripted component to the rest of the day. An interesting approach to helping teachers develop and refine skills at a faster rate than traditional models. Elements could certainly be used by coaches in other programs to help identify problem areas and help teach staff to improve their approaches.
Monday, February 3, 2020
Intervention and the Essentials of Assessing, Preventing and Overcoming Reading DIfficulties
This is my fourth entry on this text.
David A. Kilpatrick's book, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, ends with his discussion of how to prevent and remediate reading problems. An important thing to keep in mind is his use of the simple reading theory which explains reading success as the product of word reading skills and language skills. Students who demonstrate language issues should be addressed with ENL services if they are English language learners or the services of a speech language pathologist (SLP) as approprriate. Many of the school district SLPs I have encountered at the elementary level are excellent at working with articulation issues, but demonstrate varying skill and attention to other language issues. Attention to receptive and expressive vocabulary grammar, background knowledge, and semantics is important when a student's poor reading levels cannot be explained by word level concerns.
As a prevention approach he encourages kindergarteners be exposed to phonemic awareness and letter sound training. Some commercial programs that address these issues are Florida Center for Reading Research Phonological Awareness Program (online and free), Road to the Code, Rosner Phonological Awareness Training Program, Interactive Strategies Approach, Ladders to Literacy, Words their Way, Equipped for Reading Success. At both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels, these are best implemented in small groups. In order to address potential language related reading difficulties he suggests shared book reading, literacy orientated language programs, vocabulary development and Developing Language and Literacy (Carroll, et al, 2011). The chapter on prevention provides the research base behind these programs as well as descriptions of them.
He suggests deep assessments to determine the specific cause of any challenges before implementing any intervention. Because the goal of intervention is to catch students up, he advocates the use of highly effective programs as measured by growth in standard scores. Unfortunately many students are given less effective interventions. The chart below categorizes word level intervention approaches that are commonly used.
Again, he describes the programs with indications of why they are or are not highly effective. Even with highly effective programs, some students will not make significant progress. 15-20 hours of intervention should reveal how a student will respond. RTI was introduced to special education based on the LiPS, Phono-Graphics and Discover Reading research.
He provides a list of components for effective language related interventions (those impacting comprehension). Importantly, students with language related issues should receive evaluations and appropriate interventions from SLPs. For comprehension skills, he suggests instruction in vocabulary, background knowledge, inferencing, working memory and attention, and strategy skills (ex. summarization, inferencing, comprehension monitoring and identifying main idea. He recommends Developing Reading Comprehension (Clarke et al, 2014) as a resource for assembling elements of an effective comprehension program,
Overall, he suggests using group sizes of a maximum of 1:5 of students with similar needs profiles. Rather than round robin reading (a method with ample evidence of not working to achieve improved reading skills or comprehension of the task at hand) he recommends a solo-choral-solo-choral approach where the changes occur every line of text. This improves attention to task, one of the challenges with round robin reading. He recommends peer tutoring, reciprocal teaching and spelling instruction to support reading.
Of note is his assertion that RTI should not be used as an excuse to delay special education referral. For students at the extreme end of the continuum or who demonstrate resistance to interventions more rapid referral in order to access more intense interventions is an important consideration.
Teachers tend to be woefully separated from the research base that supports the use of a program. Any parent should be able to ask for the research that supports a programs use and receive it in short order. This book provides a good source of that research. Research conducted by the manufacturer of a program must be closely examined. Assertions of research based preformance should be looked at in terms of their effectiveness at doing the job intended. Understanding the research is important so that programs can be selected and implemented with fidelity.
David A. Kilpatrick's book, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, ends with his discussion of how to prevent and remediate reading problems. An important thing to keep in mind is his use of the simple reading theory which explains reading success as the product of word reading skills and language skills. Students who demonstrate language issues should be addressed with ENL services if they are English language learners or the services of a speech language pathologist (SLP) as approprriate. Many of the school district SLPs I have encountered at the elementary level are excellent at working with articulation issues, but demonstrate varying skill and attention to other language issues. Attention to receptive and expressive vocabulary grammar, background knowledge, and semantics is important when a student's poor reading levels cannot be explained by word level concerns.
As a prevention approach he encourages kindergarteners be exposed to phonemic awareness and letter sound training. Some commercial programs that address these issues are Florida Center for Reading Research Phonological Awareness Program (online and free), Road to the Code, Rosner Phonological Awareness Training Program, Interactive Strategies Approach, Ladders to Literacy, Words their Way, Equipped for Reading Success. At both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels, these are best implemented in small groups. In order to address potential language related reading difficulties he suggests shared book reading, literacy orientated language programs, vocabulary development and Developing Language and Literacy (Carroll, et al, 2011). The chapter on prevention provides the research base behind these programs as well as descriptions of them.
He suggests deep assessments to determine the specific cause of any challenges before implementing any intervention. Because the goal of intervention is to catch students up, he advocates the use of highly effective programs as measured by growth in standard scores. Unfortunately many students are given less effective interventions. The chart below categorizes word level intervention approaches that are commonly used.
|
|
Minimal –modest growth
0-6 standard score point improvement
|
Highly successful
12-25 standard score point improvements
|
|
Elements included
|
Limited to a few areas of word reading- phonics, phonemic awareness
to blending or other (ex. Irlen lenses only address visual fatigue
components)
|
·
Eliminate phonological awareness deficits and
teach to the advanced level
·
Teach and reinforce phonics skills and
decoding
·
Provide opportunities to read connected text
|
|
Programs
|
·
Orton-Gillingham
·
Wilson
·
Read 180
·
System 44
·
Repeated Readings
·
Flashcards
·
Reading Recovery
·
Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI)
·
Fast ForWord
·
Failure Free Reading
·
Great Leaps
·
Irlen Lenses
·
Visual Tracking Training
·
Learning Styles
|
·
Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LiPS)
·
Phono-Graphics
·
Discover Reading
·
Read, Write, Type
·
Equipped for reading Success
|
Again, he describes the programs with indications of why they are or are not highly effective. Even with highly effective programs, some students will not make significant progress. 15-20 hours of intervention should reveal how a student will respond. RTI was introduced to special education based on the LiPS, Phono-Graphics and Discover Reading research.
He provides a list of components for effective language related interventions (those impacting comprehension). Importantly, students with language related issues should receive evaluations and appropriate interventions from SLPs. For comprehension skills, he suggests instruction in vocabulary, background knowledge, inferencing, working memory and attention, and strategy skills (ex. summarization, inferencing, comprehension monitoring and identifying main idea. He recommends Developing Reading Comprehension (Clarke et al, 2014) as a resource for assembling elements of an effective comprehension program,
Overall, he suggests using group sizes of a maximum of 1:5 of students with similar needs profiles. Rather than round robin reading (a method with ample evidence of not working to achieve improved reading skills or comprehension of the task at hand) he recommends a solo-choral-solo-choral approach where the changes occur every line of text. This improves attention to task, one of the challenges with round robin reading. He recommends peer tutoring, reciprocal teaching and spelling instruction to support reading.
Of note is his assertion that RTI should not be used as an excuse to delay special education referral. For students at the extreme end of the continuum or who demonstrate resistance to interventions more rapid referral in order to access more intense interventions is an important consideration.
Teachers tend to be woefully separated from the research base that supports the use of a program. Any parent should be able to ask for the research that supports a programs use and receive it in short order. This book provides a good source of that research. Research conducted by the manufacturer of a program must be closely examined. Assertions of research based preformance should be looked at in terms of their effectiveness at doing the job intended. Understanding the research is important so that programs can be selected and implemented with fidelity.
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