Recommendation 5 Make Available Intensive and Individualized Interventions for Struggling Readers That Can Be Provided b

1. Institute of Education Sciences Adolescent Literacy Practice Guide Recommendation 5Make Available Intensive and Individualized Interventions for Struggling Readers That Can Be Provided by Trained Specialists Level of Evidence: Strong

2. NAEP Data (2007): • 33% of 4th Graders • 26% of 8th Graders performed below the Basic level.

3. Intensive supplemental interventions are needed for adolescent students not reading at their grade level.

4. Failure to Read at Grade Level May be Caused by Several Different Factors Including: • deficiencies in decoding skills • deficiencies in vocabulary • deficiencies in background knowledge • inefficient use of comprehension strategies As a result, the choice of interventions needs to be guided by assessments!

5. Research to Support the Recommendation Research supports the appropriateness of word-level interventions for middle and high school students with inadequate ability to decode printed text accurately and fluently. Implication: Interventions focused at the word level have resulted in both improved reading accuracy and improved reading comprehension in older struggling students.

6. Struggling adolescent readers tend to use less efficient reading comprehension strategies than do more skillful readers. Research to Support the Recommendation Implication: Use multiple approaches to help struggling readers become more active and strategic readers. Use structured and explicit instruction with all approaches.

7. Other Promising Research • Student collaboration in comprehension strategies • Relies on teacher-guided instruction and interaction among students • Helping students organize information presented within the classroom • Examples include using graphic organizers and instruction in text structure, organizational patterns and linguistic conventions found in expository texts

8. Struggling readers with the most intensive needs require more intensive interventions. Research to Support the Recommendation Implication: Provide targeted, intensive, explicit instruction accompanied by extensive guided practice to the most struggling readers.

9. How to Carry Out the Recommendation

10. Use an initial screening test or a threshold score on a required reading test and subsequent diagnostic reading tests administered, scored and interpreted by a specialist to pinpoint the learning needs of struggling readers.

11. The identification of students’ learning needs should be followed by the selection of an intervention that provides an explicit instructional focus targeted to meet those specific needs.

12. Even though explicit strategy instruction and various forms of structuring effective strategy instruction show promise, it also seems that many struggling readers require more intensive efforts than do students who are performing at or near grade level.

13. Intensive Interventions might involve repeated reading, provision of adjunct questions to scaffold comprehension, and questioning for understanding to improve the reading outcomes of adolescents.

15. Other Considerations • Some schools believe they may not have the specialized personnel, time, and resources needed to identify reading needs and provide targeted interventions. • Establish strong administrative and faculty support to make literacy a schoolwide priority. • Assessment is needed to target critical areas.

16. Other Considerations • Some schools believe they may not have the specialized personnel, time, and resources needed to identify reading needs and provide targeted interventions. • Consider reallocating resources and seeking other resources including: • Title I and other supplemental state and federal funding sources • Title II for professional development initiatives • Private Grants • Business Partnerships

17. Other Considerations • Many middle and high school teachers don’t have the skills or believe it is their job to teach reading strategies. • Content teachers can and should be taught to use strategies designed to make content-area texts more accessible to all students, including those who struggle with literacy.