Leveled Literacy Intervention LLI Developed by: Irene Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell All information acquired from the “ Blue Program Guide” Published by Heinemann © 2009

Overview O “LLI is a scientifically-based system that is designed to prevent literacy difficulties rather than correct long-term failure. It has been highly successful in achieving its goal of cutting across the path of literacy failure and bringing children to grade level performance in hundreds of schools.” (Blue System Program Guide p. 1)

What teachers should know: O To identify students that may be a good fit for this type of intervention there are many reading tests you can utilize. O In our district we have the DRA 2. O After a student has been identified, the next step is to determine class groupings. ***Very important that groups consist of no more than 3 students to have the best/quickest results***

Continued… O The next step after groupings have been made is to determine a time. O Time is a very important aspect of LLI. O LLI lessons are 30 minutes long (5 days a week) with very specific usages of those minutes. O 5 minutes of rereading O 5 minutes of phonics O 15 minutes of introducing and working with a new book O 5 minutes of word work/writing

Each level in LLI O Each level has 10 lessons O 5 odd O 5 even O Every level begins with an odd lesson because the even lesson days are the running record days. (students need to have read the story once in order to conduct a running record for LLI)

LLI Lessons O There are two types of lessons: Odd & Even O Odd lessons are the days where there is a new text introduced at an instructional level for the group. O Even lessons are the days where there is a new text introduced, BUT the text is 2 levels below their instructional level. O This type of lesson serves to provide a confidence boost for students while also improving their fluency rate.

Progress Monitoring O Each student will have a running record taken about once a week (depends on the number in the group) O Students must reach a certain percentage on their record in order to move on to the next level in the system. (% varies by level—ask your reading teacher) O LLI also has a continuum of skills students need to have control of before moving on the next level. (This can be found in the lesson manuals)

Program Length O LLI is designed to be a short-term intervention. O Example: A student may reach their grade level expectation in only a matter of weeks. However, this depends on how much below the grade level benchmark he or she was when beginning the program.

Classroom Connections O There are many record keeping and communication forms available for the reading teacher to communicate with the classroom teacher. (However, in my experience I find it best to talk directly to the classroom teacher). O This way you can determine if you are seeing a student exhibit similar skills and strategies as he or she works through a lesson.

Guided Reading O For there to be fidelity to the LLI program the classroom teacher must provide 5 guided reading lessons a week. (Normal school week) O The intervention still counts if there is a short week of school (3+ days)

Continued… O There are also what LLI refers to as “fold sheets.” These are one page sheets designed to reinforce a skill that was worked on during the LLI lesson. O For example, it could be a sort, or reading sight words, or completing sentences. O A reading teacher will only send these back to the classroom if we find them extremely valuable for the child to complete at school.

Home Component O There is a home component to LLI. O Each night the student will bring home a book to read with an adult, the adult needs to initial the book list, that is kept in the child’s take home folder, and return the folder (with the book), to school the next day. O On occasion there may be an activity page for the student to complete at home after they read to an adult.

Student Absences O If a student is gone during an LLI lesson, he or she will receive the book, or books (up to 3), when the student returns to school. O If there is time the reading teacher will try to catch the student up on the missed skills.

Questions O If you have more questions about LLI you can find more information at the following links: ll/default.aspx ll/default.aspx If you have any further questions see your corresponding reading teacher

Sources O Again, the sources of information for this presentation were acquired from: O the Heinemann website O the blue system program guide O and professional development training provided via CESA 6.