INCREASING READING FLUENCY Implementing Reading Intervention in Grades 7-9 Andrea Nelson University of Utah Special Education

Problem Identification Middle school students are reading below grade level, and there is no structured intervention program to close the gap. Intervention has not been consistent across grade levels, and there has been little improvement since the beginning of the school year. Because students are reading below grade level, they are having difficulty accessing and making progress in the general curriculum.  Expectation: Students’ reading levels will increase and that will make it easier for them to perform well in class.

Problem Analysis Students are reading below grade level are not making substantial progress. Students are experiencing difficulty completing classroom and homework assignments. No reading intervention is currently in place to increase reading ability. Undesirable behaviors increase in classes where a lot of reading is necessary.

Development & Implementation Implementing a research-based reading intervention program to increase reading fluency. (Higher Steps) Intervention will be implemented by resource teachers and paraprofessionals Progress will be tracked through Higher Steps program, measuring fluency 7 th Grader: Start Higher Steps Level 3E 8 th Grader: Start Higher Steps Level 4M 9 th Grader: Start Higher Steps Level 4D Anticipated growth rate: 2 wcpm per week End of term: Conduct third reading benchmark to see if the intervention has helped and the students have made progress.

Weekly Progress Monitoring StudentWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9 7 th Grade 80 wpm 96% acc 77 wcpm 65 wpm 91% acc 59 wcpm 68 wpm 96% acc 65 wcpm 67 wpm 96% acc 64 wcpm 100 wpm 100% acc 100 wcpm 69 wpm 98% acc 68 wcpm 87 wpm 98% acc 85 wcpm 91 wpm 99% acc 90 wcpm 94 wpm 99% acc 93 wcpm 8 th Grade 94 wpm 96% acc 90 wcpm 102 wpm 97% acc 99 wcpm 56 wpm 94% acc 53 wcpm 90 wpm 96% acc 86 wcpm 81 wpm 99% acc 80 wcpm 80 wpm 93% acc 83 wcpm 102 wpm 96% acc 98 wcpm 88 wpm 99% acc 87 wcpm 102 wpm 99% acc 101 wcpm 9 th Grade 100 wpm 98% acc 98 wcpm 133 wpm 99% acc 132 wcpm 128 wpm 98% acc 125 wcpm 136 wpm 98% acc 133 wcpm 122 wpm 100% acc 122 wcpm 120 wpm 100% acc 120 wcpm 128 wpm 98% acc 125 wcpm 140 wpm 98% acc 137 wcpm 162 wpm 99% acc 160 wcpm During every lesson, students were timed while reading on their instructional level for one minute. The reading rates below were recorded during the final intervention session for each week.

Fluency Progress

Growth by Grade 7 th Grader8 th Grader 9 th Grader Overall Growth 7 th Grader 8 th Grader 9 th Grader 1.78 words per week 1.22 words per week 6.89 words per week

Benchmark Reading Rates Benchmark WCPM

Intervention Evaluation Overall Growth Student7 th Grade8 th Grade9 th Grade Week 9 – Week 193 – 77 wcpm wcpm160 – 98 wcpm Growth16 wcpm11 wcpm62 wcpm Growth Per Week From Week 1 to Week 9, all three sampled students have shown growth in their reading rates. Each student has had regressive days, several circumstances have been noted that likely had an impact (i.e.- had fight with friend) but overall, the results have been positive. The 9 th Grader has increased enough in fluency to move to the next reading level. Since the implementation of the intervention, each student has turned in more complete work in History and English.