Adolescent Intervention Model (AIM) for Reading West Virginia’s Pathway

1. Adolescent Intervention Model (AIM) for ReadingWest Virginia’s Pathway Office of Instruction Office of Special Programs, Extended and Early Learning Office of Student Assessment and Accountability

2. Consortium for Reading Excellence (CORE) • Scientifically based research “Preventing Reading Difficulties’ Report of the National Reading Panel Put Reading First • National Advisory Board Isabel Beck, Barbara Foorman, Phyllis Hunter, Edward Kame’enui, Mark Shinn, Shane Templeton and Joseph Torgesen

3. CORE “Educational triage…” • well-run intensive care units • specialized care • excellent core instruction • extended and enrichment opportunities

4. Adolescent Literacy School Improvement Cycle Committed Instructional Leadership Increased Student Achievement Ongoing, Imbedded, Research-based Professional Development Highly Effective Teachers

5. Enduring Effect Designing, implementing and sustaining effective reading programs is everybody’s business. English Math Special Educ. Science Arts Reading Career & Technical Social Studies Health

6. Diverse Learners • Mild learning disabilities • Primary language different • “skilled evaders of reading” • Low motivation, anxiety

7. Program and curriculum designs must take in to account … • lack of background knowledge of these diverse learners. • delayed language development of these diverse learners. • limited successful reading experiences of these diverse learners.

8. Adolescent Intervention Model Levels of Support: • Advanced • Benchmark • Strategic • Intensive Kame’enui and Simmons, 2000

9. Who are the Advanced learners? • May already know much of the content • At or above grade-level standards • Benefits from opportunities for elaboration • May appear bored Linda Diamond, CORE, 2004

10. Who are the Benchmark learners? • Generally can meet standards • Average learner • Can adapt and adjust to teacher’s style Linda Diamond, CORE, 2004

11. Who are the Strategic learners? • Typically tests between the 30th – 40th percentile on normative measures • Gaps in skills and knowledge • 1-2 years behind • Can basically read but not with depth • Does not apply him/herself and may appear unmotivated • Content area work may be challenging • May not complete homework Linda Diamond, CORE, 2004

12. Who are the Intensive learners? • Tests below the 30th percentile on normative measures • Very low performance • Reading skills are limited • Very frustrated and unmotivated • Demonstrates behavior and absentee problems • Cannot handle content area work • Does not turn in homework Linda Diamond, CORE, 2004

13. Advanced – the standard reading program plus 25 books per year; assessment every 6-8 weeks; need challenge, extension and enrichment • Benchmark – adopted grade-level text plus 25books per year; assessment every 6-8 weeks; in-class modifications • Strategic – adopted grade-level text plus 25books per year; added support class; assessed every 3-4 weeks; direct instruction with adjustment of pace and complexity; possible tutoring program • Intensive –special supplementary materials and/or specialized program; assessed every 2 weeks; pinpoint problems and target interventions

14. Who provides the instruction in each tier? • Advanced – teachers that have received Advanced Placement training and teachers that have received Pre-AP instructional strategies • Benchmark – ELA teachers • Strategic – ELA teachers, reading specialists, content area teachers, special educators, coaches • Intensive – reading specialist with assistance from special educators/coaches *Each school determines who teaches which students.

15. What are the roles of assessment in the model? • Advanced and Benchmark – assessment every 6-8 weeks, data monitored • Strategic – diagnostic tests to pinpoint problems and target intervention, assess students every 3-4 weeks, data regularly monitored by coach/principal • Intensive – assess every 2 weeks and use diagnostic tests to pinpoint areas of weakness

16. What does test data do for the student? • Advanced – students benefit from enrichment and more in-depth work in order to continually grow and to avoid boredom • Benchmark – students occasionally might need some reteaching • Strategic – students need assistance in the ELA class by utilizing added time, adjustments to pace, and increased explicitness and intensity of focus; students need targeted content area classes that focus on pre, during and post – reading strategies

17. continued… • Intensive – students need extended intensive and specialized instruction in small groups/small class size

18. What about time? • Advanced and Benchmark – ELA period (80 – 90 minutes) • Strategic – ELA period (80 – 90 minutes) plus strategic reading class (literacy intensive content area classes), possible strategic tutoring program • Intensive – the traditional ELA period is replaced by intensive intervention period plus another class period

19. Intervention Tier “It is crucial to implement well-designed intervention classes (replacing the English class) of sufficient duration (usually two periods at least) to lift the intensive learners to basic literacy in two years.” Linda Diamond, CORE 2004

20. Three components of your design: • Professional Development/Knowledge Base • Effective Instructional Tools • Systemic Reorganization and Support

21. 1. Professional Development The targeted audience should be: • Teachers who will teach the intervention class • Content Area teachers who will benefit from improved strategies to help students develop vocabulary and comprehension

22. Reading Professional Development • 20 to 40 hours for understanding Joyce and Showers, 1982, 1995 • Adolescent learning issues • Ongoing support and mentoring

23. Reading Professional Development Modeling and Demonstration Lessons: • Take place in the actual classrooms • Outside experts or skilled teachers • Intervention programs – models come directly from the program • 10%-15% are likely to implement the practice Joyce et al., 1999

24. Reading Professional Development Workshop setting and simulated practice: • Done with peers • Controlled environment for learning without worrying about managing the complete class • Teachers can make mistakes and improve

25. Reading Professional Development StructuredFeedback: • System for observing participant behavior • Self-administered • 40% implementation rate

26. Reading Professional Development Coaching for Classroom Application: • Direct coaching in the classroom • Coaching includes modeling, side-by-side teaching and helping teachers reflect upon their own teaching • 90% implementation rate

27. 2. Instructional Tools Effect programs for adolescents will address: • Motivation to read. • Decoding skills and fluency. • Language comprehension. • Text comprehension. Peterson et al., 2000

28. Motivation to read Design programs that: • include materials students can read successfully but are age appropriate (e.g., Lexiles) • provide real-life reading opportunities (e.g., newspaper, magazines) • establish independent reading programs • have student choice

29. Decoding skills and fluency • Explicit instruction in decoding skills multisyllabic word attack skills spelling ability through identifiable stages (alphabetic spelling – within-word spelling – patterns based on meanings) • Fluency development

30. Fluency Development • Speed, accuracy and prosody • Prosody – one who recognizes phrasal junctures, and understands the words sufficiently to know which word to emphasize, where to pause, and where to move more quickly • Reading intervention program and base program for all middle school students

31. Fluency provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

32. Language comprehension • Includes linguistic and syntactic knowledge, and semantics (word meaning knowledge) • Explicit instruction for weaker students • Morphemic knowledge (roots and affixes) • Vocabulary development

33. Text comprehension • Lack of background knowledge about reading and about different text structures • Opportunities for self-selection of texts, making connections and self-monitoring while reading • Inferencing – need teacher modeling – “think alouds” • Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies

34. continued… • Content-area informational text: • Explicit instruction in expository text structures, signal words often used in sentences and use of graphic organizers • Incorporate in intensive intervention classes, in regular English classes and in the teaching repertoire of content area teachers

35. 3. School Support Systems and Leadership • School leadership • Assessment • Time • Instructional grouping for intervention • Coaching • The home-school connection

36. School leadership (Literacy Team) Must be heroic! • Year 1 – challenge of changing teachers’ beliefs about reading instruction • Year 2 - refining the approach while ensuring consistency and adherence to the program design • Year 3 – “Domestication”

37. “Domestication” • Educators tend to become comfortable with a program so… they alter it… they adjust it… they do it their own way. • Less fidelity to the program design and consequently a lower success rate

38. Why Program Fidelity is Important • To ensure sufficient practice, correct sequence and precise methods • To make sure the entire treatment occurred • To be able to effectively gauge the quality of the selected program/treatment • To provide the substance for teachers who are new, overworked, unskilled or ineffective

39. Why a Lack of Fidelity:Program Reasons • Program selected was actually weaker than suspected and had many gaps • Teachers were not trained and prepared to teach the program selected • The program complexity required greater skill at implementation • The system didn’t redesign the organizational structures necessary to implement the program

40. Why a Lack of Fidelity:People Reasons • Resistance and downright insubordination • Inadequate training and support • The administration is not clear, firm and tenacious • The myth of autonomy and academic freedom – teachers want to pick and choose • Philosophical beliefs

41. Assessment Assessment Toolkits • Screening assessments • Formative and ongoing assessments • Summative assessments

42. Time • Time to maximize learning • Significantly below level students, 2 hours (or two periods blocked) a day • Simply keeping pace with one’s peer is not enough • Struggling students will need increased time and instruction of the highest quality

43. Coaching • Leadership should design and implement a system of peer and expert coaching • Coaching must be supported by clear expectations and guidelines • Coaches will assist and support teachers as they try a new strategy, implement new materials and engage in assessment and intervention of students • Coaches need to be trained and mentored as they grow in their roles.

44. The home-school connection • Independent, outside reading for students • Parents must understand the school’s expectations • Parents may also fill vital tutoring roles.

45. Summary • Everybody’s business! • Well-designed and ongoing professional development • Appropriate tools tightly linked to the research • Support systems initiated by the local leadership

46. “Now is the time that we must choose between what is right, and what is easy.” Quote by Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.