Teaching students to read is not only about "sounding out words".  There is a HUGE push for the Science of Reading in education right now, which is GREAT!  However, we know from years of research and trying different methods, that not all students are phonetic readers.  

A structured phonics approach is great for getting students to decode and attack words they know once they've been taught different syllable types and phonics spelling patterns.  Decodable readers are good for working on fluency, but leveled readers are also good texts because they are more like a real books.  When they haven't been taught all the spelling patterns, students need to rely on "thinking" strategies to create meaning of the text they read.  They don't rely on just spelling patterns they know and force the reader to use the text, context clues, and pictures clues to create meaning as they read.

We don't want students to be guessers, so we need to give them a bag of tricks to help try everything they know to become a successful reader.  A teacher wants to take away the prompting as the students becomes better at self-monitoring their own reading.  Once a student starts self-correcting their errors, you know they are reading and not just word calling.

Questions to ask readers as they are reading:  

• Does that look right? (visual)

• Does that sound right? (structure)

• Does that make sense? (meaning)

Title One Reading:  UFLI

Title One Supplemental Reading groups are offered to the lowest first graders.  UFLI is now the interventions used with these intervention groups.  If you are interested in learning more about UFLI, check out the website:  UFLI Literacy Institute.

FAST Reading Intervention PLans:  WIN

At Lake Mills Community Schools, we are doing the following, as required by Iowa law, to support students who have been identified as having difficulties reading at grade-level. This law also requires that any student falling below grade-level benchmark on the EarlyReading screener be provided with a personalized reading plan involving one or more of the following:

• Progress Monitoring: All students who are identified as persistently at risk or at risk are required to receive weekly progress monitoring. This allows schools to monitor the improvement students are making toward end-of-year goals (i.e., spring benchmark) given the intervention they receive.  

• Intensive Interventions: All students identified as persistently at risk are required to receive intervention to remediate their reading difficulties. This intervention is required to continue until the student meets grade level expectations at the next screening period.  Interventions used during WIN groups (What Individuals Need) is based on the Screen-to-Intervention report derived from the FAST screening.  

• Parent Option for Retention: As parent or guardian you may submit a request to the district that your student be retained in the current grade level if they are not meeting proficiency benchmarks.