Key Literacy Strategies for Middle and High Schools Involved in RTI

1
Key Literacy Strategies for Middle and High
Schools Involved in RTI

• Dr. Denise P. Gibbs
• RTI Consultant
• gibbsdenise_at_aol.com

2
Need for Secondary Literacy Improvement

• Approximately two-thirds of eighth- and twelfth-
  grade students read at less than the proficient
  level as described by NAEP (National Institute
  for Literacy, 2006).
• Students in lowest 25 percent of their class in
  reading are 20 times more likely to drop out than
  students not in this group.

3
Some students.

• Read well and are motivated to achieve academic
  success
• Struggle with comprehending what they read but
  can read words accurately and fluently
• Struggle to read words accurately and fluently

4
Adolescent Reading Struggles(Reading Next, 2004)

• 90 of reading difficulties of adolescents are
  due to comprehension difficulties.
• Only about 10 of reading difficulties of
  adolescents are due to accuracy, decoding, or
  word level difficulties (dyslexic?).

5
Adolescent Reading Struggles(Deshler, 2007)

• Perhaps as many as 45 of adolescent struggling
  readers have word-level deficits!
• Each school will need to determine their own
  percentages.

6
How do we sell a secondary literacy program?

• If secondary students dont have adequate
  literacy skills, they wont be able to meet the
  goals of the schools general education
  curriculum.
• Think content area literacy
• Improved content literacy skills improved
  content performance (on high stakes tests!)
• Improved content performance increased
  graduation rates (AYP!)

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Important Adolescent Literacy Documents(Research
basis for adolescent literacy)

• Adolescent literacy A position statement.
  International Reading Association (1999)
• Adolescent literacy and the achievement gap What
  do we know and where do we go from here? Carnegie
  Corporation of New York (2003)
• Adolescent literacy resources Linking research
  and practice. Northeast and Islands Regional
  Educational Laboratory at Brown University (2002).

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Important Adolescent Literacy Documents(Research
basis for adolescent literacy)

• Adolescents and literacy Reading for the 21st
  century. Alliance for Excellent Education (2003).
  
• Effective literacy instruction for adolescents.
  National Reading Conference (2001).
• Reading at risk How states can respond to the
  crisis in adolescent literacy. National
  Association of State Boards of Education (2005).

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Important Adolescent Literacy Documents(Research
basis for adolescent literacy)

• Reading for understanding Toward a research and
  development program in reading comprehension.
  RAND Corporation (2002).
• Reading next A vision for action and research in
  middle and high school literacy. Alliance for
  Excellent Education (2006).
• Reading to achieve A governors guide to
  adolescent literacy. National Governors
  Association Center for Best Practices (2005).

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Important Adolescent Literacy Documents(Research
basis for adolescent literacy)

• Teaching children to read An evidence-based
  assessment of the scientific research literature
  on reading and its implications for reading
  instruction. Report of the National Reading
  Panel. National Institute of Child Health and
  Human Development (2000).
• Ten years of research on adolescent literacy
  19942004 A review. Learning Point Associates
  (2005).
• What should comprehension instruction be the
  instruction of? Handbook of reading research.
  Mahwah, NJ Erlbaum (2000

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Important Adolescent Literacy Documents(Research
basis for adolescent literacy)

• Academic literacy instruction for adolescents A
  guidance document from the Centers on Instruction
  (2007)
• Interventions for adolescent struggling readers
  A Meta-Analysis with Implications for Practice
  Centers on Instruction (2007)
• Literacy instruction in the content areas
  Getting to the core of middle and high school
  improvement Alliance for Excellent Education
  (2007).

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Consistent Recommendations from Adolescent
Literacy Documents

• Focus upon explicit learning strategy instruction
  and provide time for students to practice using
  these strategies in small group experiences in
  daily classes.
• Include this strategy instruction in ALL content
  area classes

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Consistent Recommendations from Adolescent
Literacy Research

• Address the need to ensure student engagement and
  motivation by providing students appropriate
  materials and meaningful classroom activities
  which allow them to be active participants in the
  learning process.

14
Consistent Recommendations from Adolescent
Literacy Research

• Make intensive intervention classes available for
  students who need them
• Provide and require participation in professional
  development to equip educators to accomplish the
  mission

15
Secondary Literacy can and has been done
effectively!
16
Secondary RTI Framework based on 30 years of
research!

• Content Literacy Continuum (CLC)
• University of Kansas Center for Research on
  Learning
• 5 levels of literacy instruction and intervention
• Aligned with RTI and 3 Tier Model but designed
  for middle and high schools!
• An evolution of the Strategic Instruction Model
  (SIM).

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A Simple 3 Tier Model for Secondary Students
(Gibbs, 2009)
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Tier 3 Intensive intervention provided to
students as needed in a separate literacy
intervention class
Tier 2 Literacy assistance/intervention provided
to struggling readers embedded in
English/Language Arts classes and in ALL content
area classes
Tier 1 Literacy instruction provided to all
students embedded in English/Language Arts
classes and in ALL content area classes
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About Each Tier

• Tier 1 content area comprehension strategy
  instruction provided to ALL students in ALL
  classes (some daily small group time)
• Tier 2 classroom teacher works with weaker
  students during the small group time while
  on-level students work independently in their
  groups.
• Tier 3 intervention classes are provided for
  students with word-level deficits and for
  students with severe comprehension deficits

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Possible Tier Combinations

• On-level students will be in Tier 1 only.
• Below-level students who have comprehension skill
  deficits but who have functional word-level
  skills would be in Tier 1 and 2
• Significantly below level students who have
  severe comprehension skill deficits and/or
  deficits in basic word-level skills would be in
  Tiers 1, 2, and 3

21
Administrative Issues

• Fidelity
• Professional Development
• Literacy Coaches
• Scheduling
• Intervention Teams

22
Assessment
23
RTI Uses of Assessment

• To determine IF intervention is needed
• To determine WHAT intervention is needed
• To monitor the progress of students in
  interventions

24
Assessment to determine IF intervention is needed

• Begin with reading scores from high stakes
  testing
• Analyze drop-out risk factors (on-track /
  off-track)
• Absences
• Courses failed
• Credits earned
• Grades
• http//www.betterhighschools.org/pubs/EWStool.xls

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Assessment to determine IF intervention is needed

• Organize/analyze other data
• most recent benchmark/progress monitoring data
• intervention history
• Determine need for additional information to
  decide WHAT intervention is needed
• Word-level deficit / or comprehension deficit?

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Assessment to determine IF intervention is needed
and WHAT intervention is needed

• See Intervention Needs Assessment
  Profile-Secondary (INAPS)
• Comprehension deficit examples
• Comprehension Tier 2
• Comprehension Tier 3
• Word-level deficit examples (Tier 3)
• Below 3rd grade skills
• 3rd 5th grade skills

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What is a maze procedure?

• Use a grade level determined passage with every
  7th word omitted and replaced with three words
  from which to choose.
• Student has 3 minutes to read the passage while
  circling correct answers as the passage is read.
• Score is the number of correct words circled
  within the 3 minutes
• Can be group administered if desired!

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Antarctica is the last unspoiled place on Earth,
our last frontier. When I have a busy day or / so
/ as am stuck in traffic, knowing Antarctica
heavy / exists / begin makes me more confident
about the ever / slight / future of our natural
places. I imagine the / was / and sheets of ice,
the crunch of snow names / under / large foot. I
think of the light blue of / as / is the sky and
the darker blue of / a / us the encircling ocean.
Lately, though, that / are / sing vision of
Antarctica has changed because is / of / as
things my sister has told me. Knowledge is / to /
or a good thing, but it changes how / the / was
we think about a place.
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Antarctica is the last unspoiled place on Earth,
our last frontier. When I have a busy day or / so
/ as am stuck in traffic, knowing Antarctica
heavy / exists / begin makes me more confident
about the ever / slight / future of our natural
places. I imagine the / was / and sheets of ice,
the crunch of snow names / under / large foot. I
think of the light blue of / as / is the sky and
the darker blue of / a / us the encircling ocean.
Lately, though, that / are / sing vision of
Antarctica has changed because is / of / as
things my sister has told me. Knowledge is / to /
or a good thing, but it changes how / the / was
we think about a place.
30
Possible Resources for Mazes

• Florida Center for Reading Research has mazes for
  grades 6-12
• www.fcrr.org/forf_mazes/mazes.htm
• Assessing Reading Multiple Measures, 2nd ed
  (2008) has mazes for grades 2-10 with expected
  levels of performance
• www.corelearn.com

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Possible sources of additional information to
determine what intervention is needed

• Test of Word Reading Efficiency
• Orally read sight words and nonsense words for 45
  seconds each.
• Percentiles and standard scores
• sight words, phonemic decoding, and total word
  reading efficiency (fluency)
• less than 2 minutes per student
• 2 equivalent forms

32
Possible sources of additional information to
determine what intervention is needed

• Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency
• AYELLOWBIRDWITHBLUEWINGS
• Percentiles and standard scores reflect students
  silent reading skills including word
  identification, word meaning, word building,
  sentence structure, comprehension, and fluency
• 3 minutes per student or can be group
  administered
• 4 equivalent forms for progress monitoring

33
Possible sources of additional information to
determine what intervention is needed

• Degrees of Reading Power (DRP)
• Silently read a nonfiction passage completing
  mazes with multiple choice selections.
• Un-timed format
• Determine independent, instruction, and
  frustration levels of text comprehension
• Both criterion referenced and standard scores are
  available
• May be administered three times per year
• May be group administered

34
Adolescent Literacy Progress Monitoring

• May be included in reading intervention program
• AIMSWEB through 8th grade
• CBMs ORF and accuracy percentage
• Mazes Reading Comprehension
• STEEP middle school and high school mazes (maze
  sentences-not paragraphs)
• Teacher-made

35
Adolescent Literacy Progress Monitoring

• See www.studentprogress.org for a list of tools
  available for progress monitoring.
• See www.fluentreader.org for free digital
  progress monitoring graphing template!
  (University of Washington CBM growth Calculator)

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Progress Monitoring Tool Selection

• Selection of inappropriate progress monitoring
  tool will kill your RTI efforts!
• MUST select progress monitoring tool that
  reflects intervention focus
• But Not mastery testing

37
Appropriate progress monitoring tool

• If intervention focus comprehension
• Then progress monitoring tool mazes
• Commercially available mazes
• Teacher-made mazes using actual textbook
  passages!

38
Appropriate progress monitoring tool

• If intervention focus word level decoding
  skills
• Then progress monitoring tool decoding probes
  (real and nonsense multisyllabic words
  representing all 6 syllable types)

39
Appropriate progress monitoring tool

• If intervention focus increased content
  knowledge
• Then progress monitoring tool vocabulary
  matching probes

40
About ORF and Adolescent Literacy

• ORF stabilizes at about 150 wcpm at grades 6-8
  and changes very little after that.
• Fluency levels vary according to what is being
  read by adolescents!
• Need increased fluency if topic is unknown or
  uninteresting to the reader.
• If the intervention goal is to improve
  comprehension, asking for faster reading may not
  get you there.we are asking the student to read
  and reflect.not to read faster

41
About ORF and Adolescent Literacy

• ORF and Mazes BOTH predict reading performance
  and can be used in determining IF a student needs
  intervention but..
• ORF should not be used to determine progress in
  literacy unless ORF is the actual focus of the
  intervention.
• Target fluency only if it is REALLY low

42
Appropriate progress monitoring tool

• If intervention focus gaining minimally needed
  fluency level
• Then progress monitoring tool oral reading
  fluency probes
• Look at both rate and accuracy
• Determine appropriate grade-level passages, set
  intervention goals for accuracy and rate, and set
  target ROI needed to reach goal

43
Goal Setting and Decision Rules(Dazey Mazey)

• Determine baseline performance on first PM probe
• Set expected rate of improvement (ROI)
• How much growth by years end and divide by
  number of weeks of intervention to get expected
  weekly ROI.
• If student is making the expected gains (ROI
  meets or exceeds the goal set by the intervention
  team), continue the intervention.
• If student is not making expected ROI after data
  seems solid (rule of 4), then consider altering
  the intervention or refer to SPED.

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Intervention Principlesand Strategies
45
Adolescent Literacy Problems

• Are caused by
• Limited comprehension
• Tiers 1 2 3
• Limited engagement
• Tier 1 2
• Limited word-level skills
• Tier 3

46
Reading Comprehension

• Two primary causes of reading comprehension
  problems
• Vocabulary/language limits
• Words in context
• Complex sentence structures
• passive reading
• Get to the end vs make meaning

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Reading Comprehension Vocabulary

• Tier 1 2 vocabulary strategies
• Vocabulary rubric
• Frayer model
• Concept map

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Reading Comprehension Active Reading Strategies

• Before strategies
• Set the stage
• Assess and build content knowledge
• During strategies
• Metacognition
• Support and monitor comprehension
• After strategies
• Review, organize
• Evaluate, extend, and transfer content knowledge

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Engagement Strategies(Rozzell Scearce, 2009)

• Tier 1 2 strategies to get students to be
  active participants in classes
• Turn to Your Partner
• Three-way Interview
• Numbered Heads Together
• Jigsaw Modified

50
Content Literacy Strategy Resources

• Power Tools for Adolescent Literacy (2009) by Jan
  Rozzelle Carol Scearce
• Strategies for engaging students
• Comprehension strategies (before, during, and
  after)
• Vocabulary strategies
• Strategic learning
• Website with free downloadables
• Go.solutions-tree.com/literacy

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Content Literacy Strategy Resources

• Inside Words Tools for Teaching Academic
  Vocabulary Grades 4-12 (2007) by Janet Allen
• 22 vocabulary strategies with examples for use in
  secondary content classes
• Includes a CD with graphic organizers.

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Word-level Strategies

• Teach students to identify and break words into
  syllable types.
• Teach students when and how to read multisyllabic
  words by blending the parts together.
• Teach students to recognize irregular words that
  do not follow predictable patterns.

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Word-level Strategies

• Teach students the meanings of common prefixes,
  suffixes, inflectional endings, and roots.
  Instruction should include ways in which words
  relate to each other (e.g., trans transfer,
  translate, transform, transition).
• Teach students how to break words into word parts
  and to combine word parts to create words based
  on their roots, bases, or other features.
• Teach students how and when to use structural
  analysis to decode unknown words.

54
Tier 3 Intensive Intervention Programs
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AMP Reading Program (2006)

• Tier 3 intensive comprehension intervention
• Interest level 6-12, reading level 3-5
• Seven comprehension strategies
• Content specific strategy use for Science, Math,
  and Social Studies
• Vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

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Corrective Reading (1998 2008)

• Tier 3 intensive word-level and/or comprehension
  intervention
• Grades 4-12
• Four levels for decoding and four levels for
  comprehension
• Scripted lessons
• Extensive skill practice
• Outstanding research data on efficacy

57
LANGUAGE! (4th Ed.)

• Tier 3 intensive word-level and comprehension
  intervention (could be a parallel ELA course?)
• Grades 3-12
• phonemic awareness/phonics, word
  recognition/spelling, vocabulary/morphology,
  grammar/usage, speaking/writing,
  listening/reading comprehension
• 90 minute lessons

58
READ 180 Enterprise Ed. (2006)

• Tier 3 intensive comprehension and word-level
  intervention (best if word-level skills are 3rd
  grade or higher)
• Stages B and C for middle and high school
• 9 workshops lasting 4-6 weeks in each stage
• targets decoding, fluency, vocabulary,
  comprehension, and writing skills
• 90 minute lessons with whole group and small
  group activities (computer, direct instruction,
  and independent reading)
• Assessments!

59
Wilson Reading System (1988)

• Tier 3 intensive word-level intervention for
  students with below 3rd grade level word-level
  skills.
• Orton-Gillingham based, multisensory, sequential,
  process-oriented
• Steps 1-6 focus upon decoding and encoding
• Steps 7-12 focus on advanced word analysis,
  vocabulary, and comprehension
• Grades 2-12

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REWARDS (Reading Excellence Word Attack and Rate
Development Strategies)

• Tier 3 intensive word-level intervention for
  students with 3rd to 5th grade word-level skills
  (short-term)
• Grades 4-12
• 20 lessons 40-50 minutes in length
• Lessons 1-12 focus upon decoding multisyllabic
  words and lessons 13-20 focus on fluency

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The SSS of Secondary Literacy

• We can achieve SUCCESS through RTI at the
  secondary level
• If we have..
• efficient Structures
• effective Strategies
• endless STAMINA!

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• THANK YOU!
• gibbsdenise_at_aol.com
• RTI for Middle and High School Structures and
  Strategies for Literacy Success (2009)
• www.LRP.com