Supporting All Readers in Small Group Instruction Providing Equity in Literacy Instruction Beth Estill

Creating a Comprehensive Literacy Program Enhance your knowledge of instructional practices that promote reading success for all students Share research proven strategies that can be implemented to increase reading achievement for all students Provide methods for differentiated instruction that targets the individual needs of all learners

The Gap Between Research and Classroom Practices Most research on reading is published in scientific journals and is outside of reading journals and textbooks Hundreds of articles are published yearly Many undergraduate and graduate textbooks on literacy draw little from empirical findings on reading which results with inadequate training of teachers (Joshi, 2009) Varying philosophies of literacy instruction; i.e. whole language or literacy-based instruction

What Works “By operating on a ‘what works’ basis, scientific evidence can help build a foundation for instructional practice. Teachers can learn about and emphasize methods and approaches that have worked well and caused reading improvement for large numbers of children. Teachers can build their students’ skills efficiently and effectively with greater results than before. Most importantly, with targeted ‘what works’ instruction, the incidences of reading success should increase dramatically.” -National Institute for Literacy, 2001

National Early Literacy Panel, 2008 “Early, explicit, and systematic instruction in phonics, along with direct instruction in phonological awareness, can prevent reading difficulties and can also remediate reading difficulties.”

Let’s Look at the Stages and Instructional Examples of Literacy Development Emergent Beginning Transitional Instructional

State Standards for Small Group Instruction Unpacking the “Reading” Standards

Emergent Learners

Beginning Learners

Phonological Awareness Phonological Awareness refers to the more general understanding of the sound structure of words and sentences. Phonemic Awareness is an awareness of individual sounds in spoken words. It represents the most precise subcategory of phonological awareness. It is essential for reading.

25% of incoming students lack this awareness. The facts for learning to read . . . and why some students struggle. Children who lack phonological awareness are likely to become poor readers. 25% of incoming students lack this awareness. Early instruction that includes phonological awareness with a focus on phonemic awareness facilitates reading and spelling.

Instruction that emphasizes the alphabetic code promotes accuracy and fluency of word identification –skills that are essential to becoming a proficient reader. (Blachman, 1997)

Phonological Awareness Continuum Phonemic Awareness Onsets and Rimes Syllables Sentence Segmentation Alliteration and Rhyme

Assessment Helps to Determine Whether students are applying word study skills and strategies What kinds of errors students are making How to group students to target similar needs and to address student progress

Let’s take a look at assessing kindergarten students. Letters and Sounds TOPA: Test of Phonological Awareness

Letter and Sound Recognition Identify upper and lower case letters. Identify beginning sounds Five word Kindergarten list

Test of Phonological Awareness Rhyme Sentence and Syllable Awareness (COW) Syllables Blending Sounds Segmenting Sounds

Activities for the Emergent Learner Phonological Awareness that is Direct and Explicit Concept of Word that Promotes Orthographic Mapping Systematic Instruction in Letters and Sounds Opportunities to Connect the Two with Text

Assessments for the Beginning Learner PALs for word knowledge and reading level TOPA: Test of Phonological Awareness for Beginning Learners: Assessing Levels of Phonemic Awareness Developmental Spelling Assessment for word knowledge

Early Intervention 1st and Early 2nd Grades Intensive Phonemic Awareness Training Systematic & Explicit Instruction in Phonics Opportunities to Read Connected Text

Intensive Phonemic Awareness Instruction Identifying number of phonemes Isolating individual phonemes: beginning, middle, end Blending and segmenting phonemes Adding and deleting phonemes

New Read Cueing Strategies Introducing the Get Your Mouth Ready Skip the Word; read to the end; reread Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? Look for Chunks You Know Introducing the New Read Introduce with brief summary statement Brief picture walk (not the whole book) Retell

Assessments for the Transitional and Instructional Learner Reading Inventory (RI): assess comprehension and vocabulary; provides Lexile Level Spelling Assessment: assess knowledge of words and word patterns Developmental Reading Assessment: assess word accuracy and fluency Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST): assess higher levels of phonemic awareness Listening Comprehension: assess ability to comprehend grade level text Test of Nonsense Words: assess ability to decode

Spelling Assessment

Assessing Comprehension “Best practice in reading comprehension assessment will involve multiple subtests and the assessment of the key skills that underlie reading comprehension and general language comprehension.” (Kilpatrick, 2015) Reading Inventory: assesses ability to comprehend text along with vocabulary knowledge Running Records: identify the ability to read text with accuracy and at an appropriate rate to include retelling

Listening Comprehension “An assessment of listening comprehension is highly recommended for any student who displays difficulties with reading comprehension.” Kilpatrick, 2016

Tier One Instruction

Intervention with Older Students Intensive instruction in phonemic awareness Explicit and systematic phonics instruction Opportunities to Read Connected Text

Activities that Promote Orthographic Mapping Provide students with the academic vocabulary Develop a rime-based word wall Introduce words orally to direct students to oral properties Use look-alike words Highlight onset and rime units and syllables in words Use oral spelling to reinforce mapping Incorporate oral decoding (Identifying orally spelled words) Read nonsense words (5-10 per lesson) Spell nonsense words Build words with letter cards and letter tiles Kilpatrick, 2016

Tier Two Instruction

Shape Up a Summary Circle: What is still going “around” in your head? Triangle: What do you see from a new angle? Square: What do you have “squared away?

Final Thoughts. . . “Changing people’s perspectives regarding literacy practices that have been entrenched in our educational system for well over 100 years is a daunting task.” “Do we continue with repackaged versions of the classic approaches that yield a high rate of struggling readers, supplemented by intervention approaches that produce an average of 2 to 5 standard score point gains on nationally normed assessments? Or, do we shift to scientifically validated approaches that can prevent 75% to 80% of the reading difficulties we see as well as produce 12 to 20 standard point gains among students with reading problems?” David Kilpatrick, 2015