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Targeted Reading Intervention:
A Rural Early Literacy Initiative
Each year many kindergarten and first-grade
children struggle when faced with school-based reading
activities during the extraordinary transition to school.
Moreover, many of these children attend rural schools
where there may be: geographical segregation and poverty
issues which affect student achievement, a lack of resources
for a diverse range of learners’ instructional
needs, and limited professional development opportunities
for teachers.
However, early intervention is one proven,
essential strategy for closing the reading gap (Snow,
Burns, & Griffin, 1998). What is less well-established,
however, are efficient and effective reading interventions
for use with struggling early readers that have the
potential to be widely-adopted by cost-conscious school
boards who may be plagued with limited resources. Many
well-known reading interventions are led by reading
specialists outside of the classroom. This model high
in personnel costs, and it also limits the opportunities
for instructional continuity and for building relationships
between the classroom teacher and her struggling learners.
To meet the needs of rural communities,
teachers, and students, we have developed the Targeted
Reading Intervention (TRI). The TRI is a dual-level
professional development intervention for both K-1 classroom
teachers and their struggling readers. The TRI helps
classroom teachers:
- acquire essential knowledge of early reading development
and efficient instructional strategies
- develop skills in matching instruction to informal
assessment
- apply their learning particularly for the benefit
of struggling readers
TRI teachers work with their struggling readers intensively
on a daily basis, initially one-on-one and transitioning
to very small groups, using efficient, evidence-based
reading strategies refined daily with a diagnostic mindset.
The effectiveness and efficiency of the TRI lie both
in the reading strategies themselves that integrate
multiple essential early reading abilities always in
the context of real words and books, and in the diagnostic
thinking that teachers are guided to adopt with each
day’s plan.
Why This Matters
Teachers, administrators, and parents recognize the
first few years of school are critical for children’s
later school success, especially in the area of reading.
In addition, struggling learners do not make expected
progress and teachers report these students have the
least success in learning and behavior. The TRI was
developed to accelerate rural students’ reading
development and allow struggling students to experience
school success, particularly in reading.
Factors that Influence Success
The TRI is designed to address early reading skills
and strategies which contribute to students’ long-term
reading achievement:
For early readers, much of the cognitive load is assumed
by recognizing and reading words. Students must possess
phonological awareness, phonics knowledge, and
sight word knowledge to recognize words quickly
and efficiently. The fluent integration of these skills
and knowledge with vocabulary word meanings
knowledge allows students’ to comprehend
as they read. Learning and using these early reading
skills and strategies allows students to become successful
readers.
Additionally, to provide exemplary reading instruction
to students, especially those who struggle with reading,
teachers must know the essential elements of reading
development, how to link efficient instruction with
assessments, and how to provide instruction based on
diagnostic assessment information.
Professional Development Activities
Three key TRI Professional Development Activities comprise
the professional development program for teachers: the
TRI Summer Institute, Weekly/Biweekly Consultant Visits,
and Monthly Professional Development Sessions. The TRI
model of professional development rejects the common
practice of “dump and run,” where teachers
are given a set of written materials during a training
session with no subsequent support to ensure successful
application. Instead, we combine teacher professional
development sessions with ongoing collaborative consultation
in the schools.
The TRI Summer Institute takes place
over three days prior to the beginning of the school
year. During the Summer Institute, teachers, paraeducators,
and school administrators all learn TRI content, including
the essential elements of reading development, how to
link efficient instruction with assessments, and how,
when, and why to use TRI strategies based on diagnostic
information. Teachers learn TRI content through varied
professional development activities, particularly with
case studies of struggling students which include video
and in-person modeling, role playing, synthesis, and
discussion.
TRI consultants provide collaborative consultation
visits weekly, later transitioning to biweekly
visits. The visits have two foci: coaching teachers
as they implement the TRI with their struggling readers,
and supporting the school consultant as she slowly takes
over the consultation process from the TRI consultant.
A typically consultant visit includes any/all of: modeling
the TRI, observing teachers using the TRI, providing
feedback to teachers, and supporting teachers as they
problem-solve regarding TRI instruction for their struggling
students. Future collaborative visits will be mainly
via webcam.
The TRI Professional Development process provides ongoing
professional development for teachers on a
monthly basis. The monthly two hour sessions revolve
around both TRI content and teacher-suggested content.
Typical TRI sessions include review and extension of
key TRI strategies and related ideas. Typical teacher-driven
sessions include how parents can support students’
efforts, and using existing district assessments to
support diagnostic decision-making.
Targeted Reading Intervention Staff
Rural Early Literacy Initiative
Staff
Dr.
Lynne Vernon-Feagans - Principal Investigator
Dr.
Steve Amendum - TRI Project Director
Dr.
Marnie Ginsberg - TRI Director
Dr.
Peg Burchinal - Investigator
Dr.
Kate Gallagher - Investigator
Dr.
Steve Knotek - Investigator
Dr.
Pam Winton - Investigator
Jeanne Gunther - Staff
Natalie
Martin - Staff
Dr.
Kelley Mayer - Staff
Iris
Padgett - Staff
Mandy
Peters - Staff
Jason
Rose - Staff
Tim
Wood - Staff
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