1. Reading Instruction, Curriculum and Coaching Panel
Moderated by Pennye Thurmond
Director of Administrator Evaluations
Tennessee Department of Education

2. Welcome to our Panelists
Tony Dalton, Ed.D.
Instructional Coach,
Hamblen County Schools
Caresa Brooks
Coordinator, Reading and Instructional Interventions,
Murfreesboro City Schools
Jennifer Jordan, Ed.S.
School Psychologist,
Lauderdale County Schools

3. Today our panelists will be discussing the following three questions:
What are the key elements principals and teachers need to hear to improve core reading instruction?
How do you identify gaps in skill and understanding for your students?
How can intervention be structured to provide meaningful, targeted instruction for all students?

4. Hamblen County Schools
What are the key elements principals and teachers need to hear to improve core reading instruction?
Tony Dalton
Instructional Coach,
Hamblen County Schools

5. Improving Our School’s Core Reading Instruction
Tony Dalton
PreK-1st District Instructional Coach
Hamblen County

6. Scientifically Based Reading and Intervention Programs
Reading Components (Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension, and Writing) each day
Scope and Sequence for consistency and to ensure all skills/standards are addressed
Differentiated Instruction/Materials to meet the need of all students
Grade level and High Expectations for all
Technology-based reinforcement
RTI2 with Fidelity

7. Effective Scheduling
Efficient, but flexible use of staff, resources, and time
Prioritize responsibilities, skills, and strengths across staff
Common Planning for teachers
minutes of Reading/Language Arts each day
Emphasis on small-group differentiated instruction. Tier I implemented correctly!

8. Professional Development
On-going/follow-up training for all staff members on current, research-based, best practices and intervention
Regular monthly staff meetings/training
Empower teachers to lead PD

9. Parental Involvement Ongoing Communication
Flexible and Accommodating time for parent meetings/training
Encourage assistance at home and offer support
Involve them by keeping them informed

10. Data Analysis Valid and reliable assessments/screener
Ongoing data management, disaggregation, and utilization
Grade-level meetings/PLC to analyze data and make instructional decisions

11. Strong Leadership – Strong Vision
Recognize and identify staff needs
Establish reading instruction as a priority
Constant support and encouragement

12. How do you identify gaps in skill and understanding for your students?
Caresa Brooks
Coordinator, Reading and Instructional Interventions,
Murfreesboro City Schools

13. The Reading Rope SKILLED READING:
fluent execution and coordination of word
recognition and text comprehension.
Language Comprehension
● Background Knowledge
● Vocabulary Knowledge
● Language Structures
● Verbal Reasoning
● Literacy Knowledge
Increasingly strategic
Word Recognition
● Phonological Awareness
● Decoding (and Spelling)
● Sight Recognition
Increasingly automatic
Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice

14. Areas of Deficit Reading
Basic Reading
Phonological Awareness
Decoding skills (and spelling)
Sight word recognition
Reading Fluency
Retrieval speed
Reading quickly, correctly, and with expression
Reading Comprehension
Background Knowledge
Vocabulary Knowledge
Language Structures
Verbal Reasoning
Literacy Knowledge

15. Identifying Skill Deficits
Benchmark Testing
Red Flag that something is wrong
Much like a thermometer; a fever indicates something is wrong….but what???? Have to go deeper
Skills Assessment
Identify deficit then assess that skill for instruction

16. Example
3rd grade student flags in reading CBM (fluency measure) at the 8th percentile
Questions to ask:
Is the fluency deficit due to a Basic Reading Deficit?
If you don’t ask this question, you could provide intervention for a fluency deficit and never address the underlying deficit
How far below the standard is the student?
What skills must be remediated to help the student reach the standard?
INTERVENTION

17. Example (cont’d) 3rd grade student
RTI team feels the student has deficit Basic Reading Skills
Administer a test of phonological processing and basic decoding and sight word recognition
This student is found to have deficits in phonemic segmentation, confusing short and long vowel patterns (reading and spelling), and poor retrieval speed

18. Example (cont’d) Standard for third grade
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Prefixes and suffixes
Multisyllable words
Read irregularly spelled words
SKILL DEFICIT (to reach this standard)
Phonemic Segmentation
Read and spell short vowel sounds
Read common sight words in first and second grade

19. Intervention
Intervention should be focused to remediate these skill deficits!!
This is how students will access the standard

20. Caresa Brooks Murfreesboro City Schools Caresa.brooks@cityschools.net

21. Lauderdale County Schools
How can intervention be structured to provide meaningful, targeted instruction for all students?
Jennifer Jordan, Ed.S.
School Psychologist,
Lauderdale County Schools

22. Jennifer Jordan Lauderdale County Schools
How can intervention be structured to provide meaningful, targeted instruction for all students.
Jennifer Jordan
Lauderdale County Schools

23. [Intervention] is first and foremost, instruction focused on individual needs. It is carefully planned. It is intensive, urgent, relentless and goal directed. It is empirically supported practice, drawn from research.” (Zigmond, 1997, p.385).
Zigmond, N. (1997). Educating students with disabilities: The future of special education. In J.W. Lloyd, E.J. Kameenui, & D. Chard (Eds.). (1997). Issues in educating with disabilities. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

24. Instruction and Intervention Matter!
There is a convergence of research studies that show all but 2-5 percent of children can master basic reading skills in the early grades. (Mathes et al, 2005).
In addition, interventions that are intensive, explicit, and long-term will close grade level gaps for older students (Torgensen, Alexander, et al 2001).
Mates, P. G., Denton, C. A., Fletcher, J. M., Anthony, J. L., Francis, D. J., & Schatschneider, C. (2005). The effects of theoretically different instruction and student characteristics on skills of struggling readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 40,
Torgesen, J. K., Alexander, A. W., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Voeller, K. S., & Conway T. (2001). Intensive remedial instruction for children with severe reading disabilities: Immediate and long-term outcomes from two instructional approaches. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34,

25. Why Students Struggle ….
Studies find that there are three broad reasons students have difficulty reading:
problems with the alphabetic principal that lead to deficits in fluent and accurate reading skills
failure to acquire verbal knowledge and reading strategies that are necessary for comprehension
motivational issues due to continued reading struggles (Perfetti, 2011; Torgesen, 2006)
Perfetti, C. A. (2011). Phonology is critical in reading: But a phonological deficit is not the only source of low reading skill. In S. A. Brady, D. Braze, & C. A. Fowler (Eds.), Explaining individual differences in reading: Theory and evidence (pp ). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group.
Torgesen, J. K., (2006). Recent discoveries from research on remedial intervention for children with dyslexia. In M. Snowling and C. Hulme (Eds.). The Science of Reading: A Handbook. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

26. Simple View of Reading Text Comprehension Phonics
DECODING
Word Recognition
LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
READING COMPREHENSION
FLUENCY
Language Comprehension
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
This is the simple view of reading that our provides a visual of the information on the previous slide. Remember that many times we might make assumptions that children have master those decoding skills by the third grade. In fact, we know this is not the case. We have many students that have significant decoding deficits in grades In addition, we have some students that have deficits in those areas of language comprehension. And those that are accurate but not fluent. It is very important that few understand the components of reading and how each play a part in the goal of reading – which is reading comprehension. In order to remediate deficits or to prevent reading deficits, we must address the various skills with a variety of different intervention programs. But the research indicates that the poorest readers (regardless of their age) have the most serious trouble with word recognition or decoding.
Text Comprehension
Phonics
Torgesen, 2006

27. K – 5 Reading Tier 2 Intervention
Program
Specialized, scientifically-based reading intervention program and/or research-based strategies.
Setting
General Education Classroom
Interventionist
General Education Teacher
Grouping
Homogeneous small-group instruction
(1:6 or less)
Time
Minimum of 30 minutes per day
Assessment
Progress monitoring twice a month on targeted skill at students’ instructional levels to ensure adequate progress and learning.
Tier 2 Interventions are delivered within the General Education setting outside of the 90 – 120 minute Literacy block. Tier 2 is delivered but the general education teacher in a small group setting – 1:6 within a homogenous group. The students in this group are typically identified as needing intervention because they are failing to meet benchmark standards on the universal screening tool (i.e. below 25th percentile). As I mentioned previously, Tier 2 interventions should be systematic and explicit in instruction in whatever skill(s) that are deficient: one of the 5 areas of reading as identified by NRP: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, or fluency. Instructional features are that there is an intensity of instruction, ample opportunities for practice. Lauderdale Co Schools practices include: Tier 2 is scheduled within the master schedule. Data-based decision making: Progress monitoring on a target skills is conducted every other week (2 times a month) to measure responsiveness to intervention and progress toward goal. RTI2 team meets to discuss individual student data and make instructional decisions.

28. K-5 Reading Tier 3 Program
Sustained, intensive scientifically-based reading program emphasizing the five critical elements of beginning reading.
Setting
Appropriate setting determine by school (usually pullout setting)
Interventionist
Personnel determined by school to provide intensive interventions
Grouping
Homogeneous small-group instruction
(1:5 or less)
Time
Minimum of 30 minutes per day (above Tier 1 and Tier 2)
Assessment
Progress monitoring weekly on targeted skill at students’ instructional levels to ensure adequate progress and learning.
Tier 3 interventions are provided to those students who do not respond adequately to intervention in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 based on Progress Monitoring data. Tier 3 interventions are sustained, intensive, scientific-based programs and/or strategies that address the individual students’ skill deficits (again focused on 5 reading component/skills). Tier 3 interventions should be more intensive and prescriptive than those in Tier 2. Progress monitoring will be conducted once a week to measure responsiveness to instruction and progress toward goal.
Lauderdale County Schools Tier 3 Implementation. High quality intervention programs that target deficit areas. Need to have a variety of intervention programs because not all programs will be appropriate for all students (i.e. one size doe not fits all). Treatment fidelity is of upmost importance! Interventionist should be provided intensive PD on the instructional programs (scope and sequence), appropriate delivery of intervention materials (pacing/practice, skill building), and the use of assessment data to drive instruction within the intervention tier.

29. High School Literacy Intervention Plan
Reading Lab
All 9th grade students who reading between the 2nd and 8th grade are assigned to the Reading Lab.
Students are served in the Reading Lab for 85 minutes daily for 18 weeks.
The instruction is provided by one certified teacher and one paraprofessional (approximately a 1:15 ratio)
A research-based reading program (Cambium Learning Voyager) is used in the Reading Lab.
Progress Monitoring is conduced three times during the intervention period.
10th grade students are in a Literacy Circle 30 minutes per day during interdisciplinary studies to encourage out of school reading.
Students who are two or more years behind in reading are assigned to a reading lab one block (85) minutes per day.
Results: 13% had 5 years reading gains (pre-post test)
48% had 2 – 4 years reading gains
Literacy Circle – qualitative measure (survey) showed positive attitudes toward reading. “Reading really isn’t a waste of time.”