The "Right" Thing to do with Struggling Readers

Let me first begin by saying that I think we have made a TON of progress this year when it comes to intervention and helping our most struggling readers.  We have plans, flexible schedules, resources, the DRA2, AIMS web, meetings and more meetings!!!!  Yet, most of us are still wondering, are we doing the right thing?  What is the "right" thing to do in intervention?

Richard Allington (the "King of Intervention"),  suggests that one of  the "right" things is to devote 2/3 of your intervention time for students to actually read (practice the game). He also suggests that "students need an adequate supply of texts that they find interesting and that they can read accurately, fluently and with good understanding.  Lots of books is not enough, but it is the beginnning step - an absolutely necessary beginnning."  In fact, the National Reading Panel did a similar study on the impact of comprehension achievement when students read books that are at their independent reading level.  They found a "huge effect size (ES = 1.64) on reading comprehension for ease of access students had to interesting texts.  Just to understand the enormity of that, it may be useful to know that it is four times as large as the effect that the NRP found for systematic phonics instruction on word reading, and roughly ten times the size of the effect phonics lessons had on reading comprehension." 

Ensuring that students have interesting books that they can read accurately, fluently and with good understanding is essential!  Luckily, we have Dana and Madeline who are excellent and finding that "just right book"  to help.    So, if you are wondering if you are doing the "right" thing, and your students are spending the bulk of their intervention time actually reading with texts that they can read accurately, fluently and with good understading, than know you are headed in the right direction!

30 minutes of Intervention: Are you playing the game or practicing the skills?

   When Jacob played soccer this fall, the coach practiced a few of the skills for the first 10 minutes and then they spent the next 30 minutes actually playing the game.  The first game they played, needless to say, didn't go so well.  Three year olds were all over the field, some running and some playing in the dirt, but they actually did play the game.  As the season progressed, they gained a few more skills, but each game got better and better.  If the coach had waited until all the kids had the skills to play the game, he would still be waiting!  A game would have never been played, because at 3 years old, Jacob has very minimal skills when it comes to soccer.  (Guess, Scott and I won't count on a scholarship for college:)) 
  
    Reading instruction is very similar to the analogy of a soccer game.  Kids need to practice the skills, but they need more time actually playing the game.  Simply praciticing skills, gets dull and boring, and leads to disinterested readers!   So, I would encourage you to make sure that your struggling readers are practicing their skills, but are spending more time playing the game and actually reading. 

30 minutes can go very quickly when working with a struggling reader, so it is very important to make every minute count.  

In order to make every minute count, Allington has reccomended that daily 30-minute, expert, very small group intervention should look like this:

• 20 minutes of reading appropriate new texts and rereading previously read texts
• 5 minutes of word work or phonological skills work
• 5 minutes of work on comprehension skills and strategies

He states that, "In many cases this equaled or exceeded the total volume of reading these struggling readers had done in their classroom reading lessons.  The intervention design doubled the volume of reading that these struggling readers did every day.  This doubling of reading volume was directly related to the accelerated reading growth." 

Good luck in the game!
- Liz

New Year's Resolution

I always love the start to a new year!  I love setting new goals for myself and thinking about my successes and highlights of the year past.  Spending the entire 2010 year at Camden was definately a highlight, as well as seeing the success we had as a school.  In 2010 our test scores increased dramatically, we have had several different groups of people come and observe (including the PEBC), made it through the SACS visit, looped for the first time ever and had a lot of laughs through it all!  I am thankful to be a part of such a great place! 

Although 2010 was a great year, there are definately some things that I want to work on in 2011 and one of those is BLOGGING!  I think I am probably the worst blogger ever,  in the history of blogging, but my New Year's resolution is to do better!!!  I think a blog can be very valuable for sharing information, but most importantly so that you can get a bird's eye view of all of the great instruction that I see on a daily basis!  I don't want the blog to become one more thing you have to check, but hopefully it is a tool that you can go to when you need to get information.  I will also be starting a parent blog (another New Year's resolution), but I will post more about that later.  I hope everyone had a restful break.  Would love to hear the highlights of your 2010 or your goals for 2011 if you care to share. 
- Liz