The Targeted Reading Intervention: A classroom teacher professional development
program to promote effective teaching for struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade
Lynne Vernon-Feagans
Kirsten Kainz Amy Hedrick Marnie Ginsberg Steve Amendum
• Thanks to our partner schools and teachers in Nebraska, New Mexico North Carolina and Texas without whose support this project would never have been successful…and Thanks to the children who made it all worthwhile.
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The Targeted Reading Intervention
• The Changing Rural Context and risk for early reading problems
• Struggling Readers and Effective Intervention
• The TRI Reading Framework• The TRI Professional Development and
Content• The TRI Implementation via Technology• Results from RCT
The Changing Rural Conttext and Risk for Early Reading Problems
Child Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas: 1990 - 2007
5O’Hare (2009)
Children Living in Rural Poverty
(compared to Urban)
• Deeper Poverty
• Longer periods of Poverty
• African Americans 50% poorer
• Fewer married Parents
Of the 701 counties in the US that have experienced persistent poverty since 1970, 601 (82%) were located in rural America
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• Of those families in poverty, only 28% of their children could read at this minimum level of proficiency in fourth grade (Lyon, 2001; Vaughn, Wanzek, Linen-
Thompson, & Murray, 2007).
• These low levels of reading proficiency are especially true for rural children from low-wealth communities who come to school with lower readiness skills than other children (Lee & Burkam, 2003). 7
Struggling Readers and Effective Interventions
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• Children’s early success in reading is critical for their later schooling success (Juel, 1988; Foorman et al., 1998)
• Research shows that for children at risk academic trajectories are fairly stable by the end of first grade, predicting their entire school career (Alexander & Entwisle, 1988)
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Elements of Successful Interventions(Foorman & Torgesen, 2001; Snow et al, 1998, Connor et al., 2007; 2008)
• 1. Explicit Instruction
• 2. Early Intervention in first few grades
• 3. One on one and small group instruction
• 4. Effective teacher/child relationships
5. Diagnostic or instructional match between the teacher’s instruction and the child’s skill (Connor et. al., 2007;2009; Scanlon et al., 2004, 2008)
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The TRI Reading Framework
The National Reading PanelReading First
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Word Identification
Decoding Understanding of Alphabetic Principle Phonemic Awareness Skills Phonics Knowledge
Sight Word Knowledge Strategies for Using Context
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Vocabulary
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Fluency
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Comprehension
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The TRI Professional Development Content
The RTI Approach to Intervention (Fuchs et al., 2008)
• Tier 2 Intervention: Specific intervention for children who are not profiting from good classroom instruction, using the classroom teacher to implement specialized reading strategies
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TRI: Classroom Teacher Tier 2 Intervention
One on one 15 minute instructional match sessions between teacher and struggling readers in the regular classroom
Intervention until the child makes rapid progress
The use of technology that allows live coaching by literacy consultants of teachers working a struggling reader in the regular classroom
The TRI Classroom Processes that Promote Rapid Progress in Reading
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Coaching in instructional match between the teacher and child in one on one 15 minutes sessions
Focus on child’s most pressing need always in the context of the word and text
Create a motivationalContext for each interaction
Teachers learn best through Teaching practicenot through Knowledgeenhancement
TRI Transactional Model: Learning by Teaching (Sameroff & Fiese, 2001; Rutter, 1979; Vellutino et al.,
2006)
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The TRI Content
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TRI Diagnostic 15 minutes sessions
Re-Reading for Fluency(~2+ minutes)
Word Work(~8+ minutes)
Guided Oral Reading(~5+ minutes)
TRI Extensions
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TRI: Primary Word Work Strategies in the Context of word and Text
– Segmenting Words
– Change One Sound
– Read, Write, & Say
– Pocket Phrases
Word Work(~8+ minutes)
TRI components
• Re-Reading for Fluency• Word Work
– Segmenting Words– Change One Sound– Read, Write, & Say– Pocket Phrases
• Guided Oral Reading• TRI Extensions
Using the TRI Diagnostic Map
Change One Sound
Repeat changing with 3-sound words
Begin/Repeat changing with 4-sound words
Repeat sound(s) ___________Move to next sound ________
Able to manipulate phonemes in
Frequent phonics errors
3-sound words
4-sound words
Change one sound
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Integrating Word Work with Guided Oral Reading
TRI Implementation via Technology
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Web cam consultation in Remote Locations
• Teachers were given laptops with webcams to use in their classroom.
• UNC Consultants (using free interface) can see and hear the teacher working with target children in real time so teachers get feedback immediately. Teachers can also see and hear the consultant in real time.
• Consultants can attend grade level meetings via web cams. Teachers can see the consultant and the consultant can see the teachers.
• Teachers can download information and training videos from our website targetedreadingintervention.org
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Word Work at Green Level
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TRI Website: targetedreadingintervention.org
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Randomized Clinical Trial of the TRI
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Research Design
• Pair matched schools within district on free and reduced lunch, % minority, school size, and Reading First. (15 schools…one withdrew)
• Randomly assigned one school to the intervention condition and the other to the business as usual condition.
• All kindergarten and first grade classrooms were involved (75 classrooms)
Selection of Children in the Experimental and Control Schools
• After 6 weeks into the school year each kindergarten and first grade teacher used assessment data and consultation from our reading consultant to rate each child in the class as to whether they were below, on, or above grade level in early reading.
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Kindergarten and 1st Grade Classrooms
(648 children)
Focal Children
• From those children rated as below grade level 5 children were randomly selected as focal children (struggling readers)
Non-Focal Children
• From those children rated as on or above grade level, 5 children were randomly selected as non-focal children (non-struggling readers)
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Total Sample: pre/post test data WJ (four subtests)
194
206
116 132
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E
C
Focal Non-Focal
Race N %
Black/African American 153 23.6
American Indian 5 .8
White/European American 321 49.5
Other 169 26.1
Gender
Female 299 46.1
Male 349 53.9
Grade
Kindergarten 306 47.2
1st Grade 342 52.8
Child Demographics (N = 648)
Mother’s Education
Less than high school 80 12.3
High school and some college 400 64.8
Bachelors degree and beyond 148 22.9
Variable N
Race (1 missing)
Black/African American 10
White/European American 60
Other 4
Gender
Female (1 missing) 74
Age
20-29 14
30-39 19
40-49 20
50-59 18
60+ 4
Certification Level
Elementary Ed. Certified 68
Master’s Degree or Higher 32
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T eacher Demographics (N = 75)
Experience M SD
Total years teaching 15.47 10.45
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Fidelity (80%)
• Teacher report of weekly use of the TRI by child (now done on the web)
• Literacy consultant biweekly rating of fidelity quality from watching videos
• teacher/children working together
(fidelity checklist)
Intent to Treat Analysis
ANCOVArace
gender
mother’s education
grade
Growth in PPVT
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PP
VT
Sta
ndar
d S
core
Time Point
Growth in Word Attack
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Fall Spring400
410
420
430
440
450
460
470
480
Focal Experimental
Focal Control
Non-Focal Experimental
Non-Focal Control
Wor
d A
ttac
k W
-Sco
re
Time Point
.38
Growth in Letter Word ID
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Fall Spring340
360
380
400
420
440
460
Focal Experimental
Focal Control
Non-Focal Experimental
Non-Focal Control
Lett
er W
ord
ID W
-Sco
re
Time Point
.61
Growth in Passage Comprehension
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Fall Spring390
400
410
420
430
440
450
460
470
Focal Experimental
Focal Control
Non-Focal Experimental
Non-Focal Control
Pas
sage
Com
preh
ensi
on W
-Sco
re
Time Point
.58
Growth in Spelling of Sounds
50
Fall Spring440
450
460
470
480
490
500
Focal Experimental
Focal Control
Non-Focal Experimental
Non-Focal Control
Spe
lling
of
Sou
nds
W-S
core
Time Point
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Future Directions
• There was evidence that the TRI children were gaining more than the control children and some evidence that they were catching up with their non-struggling peers but there were some children who were less responsive to the intervention
• This year we are intervening with the children for a second year to see if we can accelerate the growth of struggling readers to make them indistinguishable from their non-struggling peers.
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Thank You
Targeting instructional match in every interaction…