The Targeted Reading Intervention: A classroom teacher professional development program to promote effective teaching for struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade Lynne Vernon-Feagans Kirsten Kainz Amy Hedrick Marnie Ginsberg Steve Amendum

Thanks to our partner schools and teachers in Nebraska, New Mexico North Carolina and Texas without whose support this project would never have been successful…and Thanks to the children who made it all worthwhile. 2

The Targeted Reading Intervention The Changing Rural Context and risk for early reading problems Struggling Readers and Effective Intervention The TRI Reading Framework The TRI Professional Development and Content The TRI Implementation via Technology Results from RCT

The Changing Rural Conttext and Risk for Early Reading Problems

Child Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas: O’Hare (2009)

Children Living in Rural Poverty (compared to Urban) Deeper Poverty Longer periods of Poverty African Americans 50% poorer Fewer married Parents Of the 701 counties in the US that have experienced persistent poverty since 1970, 601 (82%) were located in rural America 6

Of those families in poverty, only 28% of their children could read at this minimum level of proficiency in fourth grade (Lyon, 2001; Vaughn, Wanzek, Linen-Thompson, & Murray, 2007). These low levels of reading proficiency are especially true for rural children from low-wealth communities who come to school with lower readiness skills than other children (Lee & Burkam, 2003). 7

Struggling Readers and Effective Interventions

9 Children’s early success in reading is critical for their later schooling success (Juel, 1988; Foorman et al., 1998) Research shows that for children at risk academic trajectories are fairly stable by the end of first grade, predicting their entire school career (Alexander & Entwisle, 1988)

10 Elements of Successful Interventions (Foorman & Torgesen, 2001; Snow et al, 1998, Connor et al., 2007; 2008) 1. Explicit Instruction 2. Early Intervention in first few grades 3. One on one and small group instruction 4. Effective teacher/child relationships

5. Diagnostic or instructional match between the teacher’s instruction and the child’s skill (Connor et. al., 2007;2009; Scanlon et al., 2004, 2008) 11

The TRI Reading Framework The National Reading Panel Reading First

13 Word Identification Decoding Understanding of Alphabetic Principle Phonemic Awareness Skills Phonics Knowledge Sight Word Knowledge Strategies for Using Context

14 Vocabulary

15 Fluency

16 Comprehension

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The TRI Professional Development Content

The RTI Approach to Intervention (Fuchs et al., 2008) Tier 2 Intervention: Specific intervention for children who are not profiting from good classroom instruction, using the classroom teacher to implement specialized reading strategies 19

TRI: Classroom Teacher Tier 2 Intervention  One on one 15 minute instructional match sessions between teacher and struggling readers in the regular classroom  Intervention until the child makes rapid progress  The use of technology that allows live coaching by literacy consultants of teachers working a struggling reader in the regular classroom

The TRI Classroom Processes that Promote Rapid Progress in Reading 21 Coaching in instructional match between the teacher and child in one on one 15 minutes sessions Focus on child’s most pressing need always in the context of the word and text Create a motivational Context for each interaction Teachers learn best through Teaching practice not through Knowledge enhancement

TRI Transactional Model: Learning by Teaching (Sameroff & Fiese, 2001; Rutter, 1979; Vellutino et al., 2006) 22

The TRI Content

24 TRI Diagnostic 15 minutes sessions Re-Reading for Fluency (~2+ minutes) Word Work (~8+ minutes) Guided Oral Reading (~5+ minutes) TRI Extensions

25 TRI: Primary Word Work Strategies in the Context of word and Text –Segmenting Words –Change One Sound –Read, Write, & Say –Pocket Phrases Word Work (~8+ minutes)

TRI components Re-Reading for Fluency Word Work –Segmenting Words –Change One Sound –Read, Write, & Say –Pocket Phrases Guided Oral Reading TRI Extensions

Using the TRI Diagnostic Map Change One Sound  Repeat changing with 3- sound words  Begin/Repeat changing with 4-sound words  Repeat sound(s) ___________  Move to next sound ________ Able to manipulate phonemes in Frequent phonics errors 3-sound words 4-sound words

Change one sound 29

30 Integrating Word Work with Guided Oral Reading

TRI Implementation via Technology

32 Web cam consultation in Remote Locations Teachers were given laptops with webcams to use in their classroom. UNC Consultants (using free interface) can see and hear the teacher working with target children in real time so teachers get feedback immediately. Teachers can also see and hear the consultant in real time. Consultants can attend grade level meetings via web cams. Teachers can see the consultant and the consultant can see the teachers. Teachers can download information and training videos from our website targetedreadingintervention.org

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Word Work at Green Level 35

TRI Website: targetedreadingintervention.org 36

Randomized Clinical Trial of the TRI

38 Research Design Pair matched schools within district on free and reduced lunch, % minority, school size, and Reading First. (15 schools…one withdrew) Randomly assigned one school to the intervention condition and the other to the business as usual condition. All kindergarten and first grade classrooms were involved (75 classrooms)

Selection of Children in the Experimental and Control Schools After 6 weeks into the school year each kindergarten and first grade teacher used assessment data and consultation from our reading consultant to rate each child in the class as to whether they were below, on, or above grade level in early reading. 39

Kindergarten and 1 st Grade Classrooms (648 children) Focal Children From those children rated as below grade level 5 children were randomly selected as focal children (struggling readers) Non-Focal Children From those children rated as on or above grade level, 5 children were randomly selected as non-focal children (non- struggling readers) 40

Total Sample: pre/post test data WJ (four subtests) ECEC Focal Non-Focal

RaceN% Black/African American American Indian5.8 White/European American Other Gender Female Male Grade Kindergarten st Grade Child Demographics (N = 648) Mother’s Education Less than high school High school and some college Bachelors degree and beyond

VariableN Race (1 missing) Black/African American10 White/European American60 Other4 Gender Female (1 missing)74 Age Certification Level Elementary Ed. Certified68 Master’s Degree or Higher32 43 T eacher Demographics (N = 75) Experience MSD Total years teaching

44 Fidelity (80%) Teacher report of weekly use of the TRI by child (now done on the web) Literacy consultant biweekly rating of fidelity quality from watching videos teacher/children working together (fidelity checklist)

Intent to Treat Analysis ANCOVA race gender mother’s education grade

Growth in PPVT 46 PPVT Standard Score Time Point

Growth in Word Attack 47 Word Attack W-Score Time Point.38

Growth in Letter Word ID 48 Letter Word ID W-Score Time Point.61

Growth in Passage Comprehension 49 Passage Comprehension W-Score Time Point.58

Growth in Spelling of Sounds 50 Spelling of Sounds W-Score Time Point.42

Future Directions There was evidence that the TRI children were gaining more than the control children and some evidence that they were catching up with their non- struggling peers but there were some children who were less responsive to the intervention This year we are intervening with the children for a second year to see if we can accelerate the growth of struggling readers to make them indistinguishable from their non-struggling peers. 51

Thank You Targeting instructional match in every interaction…