The two studies presented in this report were designed to test the effectiveness of a new diagnostic-based reading intervention for classroom teachers, called the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI). This TRI Tier 2 intervention stressed diagnostic teaching as the key to helping struggling readers make rapid progress in reading in the regular classroom. In Study 1 the authors wanted to understand whether the intervention was effective for struggling readers and under what conditions and for whom was the intervention most beneficial. In Study 2, the authors wanted to understand if their intervention could have an effect when it was delivered via technology, using webcams that allowed real time consultation in the regular classroom where their consultants could see and hear the teacher working with individual children. Study 1 included 6 elementary schools in two rural poor counties in the Southeastern United States. Consistent with literature on rural schools, the teachers in this study had many years of classroom experience but their advanced education was less than might be expected for their years of teaching. Study 2 included two schools in rural Texas and two in rural New Mexico. The teachers in this study had slightly less experience but more advanced degrees than in study 1. These studies suggest that professional development for classroom teachers in rural low wealth communities that focuses on diagnostic teaching in the regular classroom with struggling readers can make a dramatic difference in the gains these children make in one academic year. With the help of a biweekly literacy consultant who worked with the teacher in the regular classroom, the TRI Tier 2 intervention found effect sizes of almost 1 in Study 1 and effect sizes of about 0.5 in Study 2 when consultation was delivered by webcam technology. In both studies there was no evidence that normally progressing children were suffering because of the time teachers used to work with the struggling readers. In addition, this study also suggests that this diagnostic approach appears to help all children equally with no evidence that boys, African American children, or low-SES children gained less than other struggling readers. In addition, the interaction between rapid color naming and the intervention suggested that children with rapid color naming problems gained the most from the TRI, providing evidence that this kind of deficit may be particularly addressed in a diagnostic teaching format. Finally, this study demonstrates that low cost effective teacher professional development can dramatically improve the reading of struggling readers by biweekly consultation in the regular classroom either face to face or by very cost effective web cam technology that allows teacher and consultants to see and hear each other in real time as they work with a struggling reader.

While most children learn to read fairly well, there remain many young Americans whose futures are imperiled because they do not read well enough to meet the demands of our competitive, technology-driven society. This book explores the problem within the context of social, historical, cultural, and biological factors. Recommendations address the identification of groups of children at risk, effective instruction for the preschool and early grades, effective approaches to dialects and bilingualism, the importance of these findings for the professional development of teachers, and gaps that remain in our understanding of how children learn to read. Implications for parents, teachers, schools, communities, the media, and government at all levels are discussed. The book examines the epidemiology of reading problems and introduces the concepts used by experts in the field. In a clear and readable narrative, word identification, comprehension, and other processes in normal reading development are discussed. Against the background of normal progress, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children examines factors that put children at risk of poor reading. It explores in detail how literacy can be fostered from birth through kindergarten and the primary grades, including evaluation of philosophies, systems, and materials commonly used to teach reading.

A look at the research about the Three-Tier Approach - a core reading program, supplementary instruction and intensive intervention.

The main objective of the overall Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) was to help the classroom teacher acquire the key reading diagnostic strategies (e.g., Cooter, 2003; Desimone, 2009; Garet et al., 2001; Timperley & Phillips, 2003) relevant to K-1 struggling readers (e.g., Desimone, 2009; Garet et al., 2001; Guskey, 2002; Joyce & Showers, 2002; Penuel et al., 2007; Taylor, Pressley & Pearson, 2004) through the authors' professional development program. In the present study the authors employed an innovative distance technology model to deliver professional development and real-time collaborative coaching to isolated rural schools. Each experimental classroom received a laptop, webcam, and webconferencing software. This technology was used with each experimental teacher so that the authors could see and hear her working with each of her struggling readers in real time and she could see and hear the literacy consultants at their university thousands of miles away. Through this technology the literacy consultants could coach the classroom teacher in using the TRI strategies and also use the technology of grade level meetings and workshops throughout the year. Findings of this study suggests that the Targeted Reading Intervention, using webcam technology with classroom teachers in kindergarten and first grade, can significantly help struggling readers progress more quickly in all of the basic word reading and comprehension skills over one year. In addition, for the basic word reading skills, the TRI can actually help struggling readers catch up with their non-struggling peers in the same classroom by the end of the school year. Future work is needed to understand what actual teacher knowledge and practice constructs that might mediate the relationship between treatment and student outcomes. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.).

Use this practice book to bring all students up to a fifth grade reading level, bridging the gap between struggling and proficient readers. With a variety of fun-filled activities, text types, and passages that meet Common Core and other state standards, this dynamic practice book is the perfect tool to improve the reading skills and test scores of students, whether they are on-, above-, or below-level learners.

This book provides innovative tools and strategies to support reading intervention for students in grades 3–8 who do not yet read with grade-level accuracy. Uniquely comprehensive, the Interactive Strategies Approach--Extended (ISA-X) has been shown to enhance intermediate and middle grade students' reading accuracy and comprehension as well as content vocabulary knowledge. Preservice and inservice teachers learn how to conduct assessments that help to identify instructional goals; monitor progress toward these goals; promote students' strategic thinking and motivation; and implement small-group instruction using thematic text sets on science and social studies topics. Numerous lesson examples and a thematic text set are included. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download and print reproducible materials from the book, as well as additional Web-only lesson templates and assessments, in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. See also Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties, Second Edition: The Interactive Strategies Approach, by Donna M. Scanlon, Kimberly L. Anderson, and Joan M. Sweeney, which focuses on supporting the literacy growth of beginning and struggling readers in grades K–2.

This full-color Student Guided Practice Book has been created specifically to support a first grade reading level and includes reading passages, comprehension activities, writing activities, and daily comprehension review.

This book has been replaced by Assessment for Reading Instruction, Fourth Edition, ISBN 978-1-4625-4157-7.