Reading Intervention - Part 2

I recently wrote a blog post about how my team and I divide and conquer reading intervention. To read about how we leveled the students and about the groups click here. This post is about what I do with my reading intervention group to get these kiddos reading!

My group is the 2nd lowest group. At the very beginning of the year I focused mostly on filling in the phonics gaps these students had, and would run small reading groups. The students showed improvement, but if we do the same thing next year I won't do that again. I had too many little behaviors show up from the students in other classes, and I am really big on time on task. There just wasn't enough time to really set up and enforce the expectations, and I didn't think the kids had enough "turns" while reading. By the end of the semester, I made some changes and had it running smoothly. Students get more turns, time on task increased, and behavior issues went down. #win

I had to take a whole group approach. I wanted to stay away from that so the students could get more individual time reading and more direct feedback, but this is the only way I could get it to work. Luckily with 15 kids the whole group thing isn't too bad!

I use resources from Reading A-Z and also from our core curriculum. I typically use the decodables on Reading A-Z and the leveled readers from the core. I found that the students needed more exposure with phonics patterns that we covered in Harcourt, and I wanted to use a different text so they could be exposed to another book. I use the leveled readers in Harcourt so we can compare and contrast stories, but I could also use Reading A-Z for this. If you don't have a subscription to this website I highly recommend it!

Day 1: We start out by learning a new phonics pattern and practice with phonemic awareness to "warm up". I once heard that struggling readers often have low phonemic awareness, and that explicitly teaching this skill can drastically improve their reading and decoding strategies. I try to add this in as often as possible, and so far it's been successful! Students cut out word cards and play "the spelling game" with a partner practice the skill. 

Rules for The Spelling Game: One partner draws a card and reads it, the other partner spells it. If the partner spells the word correctly, they get to keep the card. Then they switch - Partner 2 draws a card and reads it. If partner 1 spells it correctly they get to keep the card. The winner is the partner with the most cards. 

Day 2: Students get their word cards and play the spelling game with a partner. During this time, I pull a small group and introduce the words on a toughie chart to the students. This lasts for 10 minutes or less because I need to get to all the students in 1 day so that we can get to the text ASAP. Once they have read the words in the toughie chart correctly, I send them to practice with it in partners. I pull the remaining groups back and do the same thing.

Using a Toughie Chart in partners - Roll the dice and read the words in that box. This toughie chart doesn't have a 6, so if the partners roll a 6 then they need to read the entire chart. This can also work with lines of practice in a pocket chart - just number each row. 

Day 3: We review the toughie chart quickly using a Kagan Structure called "Inside Outside Circle". This takes maybe 5-10 minutes. The students are divided in half, and set up in 2 circles - on inside and one outside. Each partner gets a turn before we switch. I roll the dice to determine what they read, and I do this for each partner before we switch. Just like with any Kagan structure, we work on our social skills by thanking our partners before we switch.

When we switch partners, only one circle moves at a time. I have that circle raise their hand, so I know they know who is moving and point in the direction they're moving. Then I give them 10 seconds (way more than enough time) to get to their new partner. I switch circles each time so that way everyone gets to move, but they move in opposite directions.

This isn't my class, but it's a short video of inside outside circle in action.

Day 4: It's finally time to read the decodable! I divide the class into 2 teams, and we switch off reading so that I can listen to the students and give feedback. After one team reads a page, I choose one students to reread the page independently so that I can "check out" their reading. The students who are not reading are thinking of a question they can ask the class about something that happened on that page. This is really similar to the "Test Your Friends!" product I also use, but this is all done orally. There just isn't enough time for the students to write their questions. This usually takes the entire class period this day, but if we finish early then the students will play the spelling game with partners.

Day 5: These kiddos need to reread and develop their fluency. This next activity combines inside outside circle, and quiz quiz trade. I give the students 1 page from the decodable, and we get set up for inside outside circle again. The students will take turns reading the page they have, and then trade pages. They they move to the next partner in the circle and repeat.

If there is time, we will read the below level and/or on level book. It really depends on the week. 

Wow, that was a long post! I hope you found some ideas you can use with your struggling readers. Share your great ideas in the comments so I can better meet the needs of my kiddos.

Divide and Conquer...Reading Intervention!

My school has a large population of struggling readers. It's a Title 1 school, and everyone gets free lunch. The reading specialists are fantastic and pull kids as often as they can, but there are simply just too many struggling readers and not enough teachers to get them the small group help they need. This post is all about working with your team to get your students reading!

This year my team and I decided to try something new. Well, this idea certainly isn't new, but grouping the students this way and working together was for us. During reading intervention time, we decided to level the remaining kids and divide and conquer reading intervention. There are four teachers and roughly 80 kids left in our rooms during intervention time. We have four groups - on/above level, approaching level (strategic), below level (intensive), and way below level (intensive). As we call them, 2 high groups and 2 low groups. 

The low groups have fewer kids so we can focus on more intensive instruction and more individual attention. The way below level group has 12 students, and the below level group has 15. The 2 higher groups have about 27 students each. Each group has a different focus depending on what the kids need. The lowest group focuses mostly on phonics and decoding strategies; 2nd lowest group phonics and fluency. The higher groups focus on fluency, comprehension, and writing. 

To figure out which students go where, we ranked the students by their DIBELS scores. At the beginning of the year we started at the bottom and went up; second semester we started at the top and went down. If at the "break" there were multiple kids with the same score we put them in the same group. So far it's worked out pretty well - many students in the lowest groups doubled their scores and students in the higher groups showed a lot of improvement, too!

I'll be back in a few days with a post about what I do with my reading groups. Stop back to see what I do to get my kiddos reading!