Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Chapter 10/Chapter 10 Wildcard 1

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What is Early Reading Intervention and why is it important in schools today?

Written by: Sue Vaughan

Reading is one of the most important subjects in education today. In grades one through three, the primary challenge facing general education teachers and students is the acquisition of basic reading skills (Good,III). Without a strong, solid foundation in reading and phonological awareness at an early age, a child may struggle for the rest of his or her life to read sufficiently. What do we do in our school systems to help students accomplish this firm foundation? It begins with early reading intervention. I am compelled to share with you an understanding of Early Reading Intervention and its importance in our school system today.

WHAT IS EARLY READING INTERVENTION?

An early reading intervention program is one that identifies, through assessment, students at risk of reading failure when they enter school. Students receive intense one-on-one instruction designed to accelerate their growth in reading(Dunn 2000). There are several key components to successful early reading intervention programs:

 . Occurs at the onset of schooling.
 . Ongoing assessment directs instruction.
 . Intervention instruction is frequent, regular, and of suffient 
   duration to make a difference.
 . Instruction includes reading familiar texts, word study, writing that
   supports reading, and application of skills and strategies to new 
   material.
 . On-going training for staff providing instruction
 . Instruction is fast paced.
 . Students build confidence and view themselves as readers and writers.

These programs focus on five essential elements of effective reading instruction dealing with phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and comprehension strategies.

PROGRAMS AVAILABLE THROUGH EARLY READING INTERVENTION

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that almost all reading problems are preventable. Research shows that there are at least five early reading intervention programs available that have effectiveness. These programs are as follows: Success for All, The Winston-Salem Project, The Boulder Program, Reading Recovery, and The Early Intervention in Reading Program. Some common characteristics of these programs are as follows:

 . small-group instruction in addition to instruction as a part of the
   regular classroom program
 . reading for meaning is an overriding consideration
 . intervention instruction is frequent, regular, and of sufficient 
   duration to make a difference
 . pupil-to-teacher ratio is kept very small
 . fluency is a major goal

Many schools have seen success in their students by implementing one of these programs.

WHY INTERVENE EARLY?

The negative effects of reading problems are well documented. There is evidence that reading disability is associated with social, economic, and psychological problems. There is also evidence to suggest that children who encounter difficulty in learning to read fall further and further behind their acheiving peers(Stanovich,1986). There are three primary reasons for intervening early: to enchance the child's development, to provide support and assistance to the family, and to maximize the child's and family's benefit to society(US Department of Education). According to child development research, the rate of human learning and development is most rapid in the preschool years. The earlier we intervene, the better. It has been seen at times that early intervention can reduce the number of children that need to be referred to special education. Here are some facts about at-risk children and literacy:

   . 35% of American kindergarten children enter school unprepared to learn 
     (Carnegie Foundation's Starting Points Report).
   . 50% of low income children enter first grade up to two years behind 
     their peers in preschool skills(Brizius & Foster).
   . Children from low-income homes enter school with one-fourth of the 
     vocabulary of students from middle-class homes(Children's Defense Fund).

The solution to this problem is to intervene early so that students learn both adequate initial skills, and the necessary pre-skills to make adequate progress. Early, effective intervention is especially urgent for those children who experience difficulty acquiring early literacy skills like phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence(Good,III).

THE ROLE OF FLUENCY

Fluency is the ability to read accurately and quickly. It is a vital dimension of reading and is needed to be a successful reader. Our education system at times has overlooked this important aspect while stressing decoding and comprehension. Without fluency, text cannot be processed quickly enough to comprehend correctly what was read. Here are a few of the many ways fluency can be attained.

   . use repeated reading
   . use repeated reading with a teacher model
   . use paired reading
   . use choral reading
   . use appropriate-level text
   . use predictable or patterned text

Fluency is a major goal to set before our children to acheive. There is clear evidence that unless students become fluent in their ability to identify words, they will have difficulty concentrating their attention on comprehension and responding to the texts they read(LaBerge & Samuels,1974; Nathan & Stanovich, 1991).

MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO READ

How do we motivate students to read? Students may be struggling readers or children who just have no interest in reading. It is sometimes best to find reading material that your student finds interesting or appealing. Statistics have shown that most fiction sold in bookstores is sold to women while the informational books are sold to men. So there's a start. Find out what type of book or article the student prefers to have read to them or read on their own. Children reading what they enjoy will often times spark an interest in reading that blazes into the fire of a love for reading. Let the student chose what type of reading material he or she would like to use for independent reading time. Another motivator for reading is teacher read-aloud practices. Teacher read-aloud has been shown to be one of the major motivators for children to read(Cunningham). Most students will tell you that a teacher reading aloud to them is what got them interested in reading.

Some schools have implemented incentive programs such as the Pizza Hut Book It! challenge and Accelerated Reader to increase the amount of reading children do. In the case where even these programs are not motivating children to read, other ideas may have to be used. Buddy reading is also good. During buddy reading, older grade students become "big buddy readers" to a lower grade such as kindergarten or first grade. The higher grade will schedule a day to go into the classroom and read to the their "little buddy".

Reading is the fulcrum of academics, the pivitol process that stabilizes and leverages children's opportunities to succeed and become reflective, independent learners(Good,III).

CONCLUSION

Children who are destined to be poor readers in fourth grade are usually the same students who have difficulties in kindergarten and first grade. Their problems then spiral as their ability to become fluent readers is compromised. The terrible spiral then spins even more strongly. Delayed development of reading skills affects vocabulary growth, and alters children's attitudes and motivation. Children who are poor readers at the end of first grade almost never acquire average-level reading skills by the end of elementary school. In addition, poor reading skills have been linked to the development or exacerbation of concomitant behavioral and/or emotional problems, including aggressive behavior, hyperactive behavior, patterns of poor effect, poor self-concept, and school dropout(Good,III). That's the bad news. However, we now have the tools to identify at-risk children and the programs available to give our students the extra help they need to succeed. Every child has the right to develop into a thoughtful, competent reader(Pikulski).

RESOURCES

Dunn(2000), Pikulski(1998). Early Reading Intervention. Retrieved September 14, 2006, from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at8lk26.htm

Torgesen, Joseph K.(2004,Fall). Preventing Early Reading Failure. American Educator. Retrieved September 15, 2006, from http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/fall04/reading.htm

Pikulski, John J.(n.d.). Preventing Reading Problems. Retrieved September 14, 2006 from Reading/Language Arts Center, from http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/prevent.html

Good,III, Roland H., Simmons, Deborah C., Smith, Sylvia B.(1998). Effective Academic Interventions in the United States: Evaluating and Enhancing the Acquisition of Early Reading Skills. The School Psychology Review,27, no1, 45-56. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml

Cunningham, Pat(2005). "If they don't read much, how they ever gonna get good?" The Reading Teacher,59, no1, 88-90. Retrieved September 18, 2006, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/hww/results/results_single_fulltext.jhtml

Welsch, Richard G.(2006, January). Increase oral reading fluency. Intervention in School Clinic, 41.3, 180. Retrieved September 15, 2006, from http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/itx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IAC-Documents&res...

U.S. Department of Education.(n.d.). What Is Early Intervention? Retrieved September 15, 2006, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/early.intervention.html

ESSAY QUESTION

In light of what you know about early reading intervention, would you recommend it be implemented in our public school systems today and why? How would it be beneficial?

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. How is Early Reading Intervention effective?

A. increases developmental and educational gains for the child

B. improves functioning of the family

C. reaps long-term benefits for society

D. all of the above

2. Early Reading Intervention programs are designed to:

A. single-out students and embarass them

B. be carried out during regular classroom teaching with the entire class

C. have small group instruction in addition to the classroom instruction

D. none of the above

3. Isaiah, a first grade student in Mrs. Smith's reading class does not know letter sounds t,d,s,f,h,m,and p. What should Mrs. Smith do?

A. refer the student for special ed

B. call parent to inform that Isaiah needs to catch up these skills at home

C. give assessment to Isaiah to see if he qualifies for small group early reading intervention

D. let Isaiah catch up when he gets into second grade

4. Evan, a second grade student in Mrs. Clary's class is timed on reading a passage from his storybook. Evan goes over the time limit and has fifteen errors. What should Mrs. Clary recommend?

A. have Evan practice reading the passage several times

B. have Evan pair read with a partner

C. have Evan read text containing alot of repetition in the story

D. all of the above

5. Mr. Carter has a student in his third grade class named Olivia. Olivia never does her reading homework assignments and during independent reading time she usually disrupts class. All she ever talks about is all the kinds of animals she would like to have as a pet. What can Mr. Carter do?

A. write a discipline referral and send Olivia to the office

B. take away Olivia's recess everyday that she does not complete her reading assignment

C. find books about animals, fiction or nonfiction, to give to Olivia to see if she may enjoy reading them

D. ignore Olivia because he has too many students in his classroom to focus his attention on her

MULTIPLE CHOICE ANSWERS

1. D

2. C

3. C

4. D

5. C