Tier I Example

Carlton is the most talkative student Mrs. Johnson has ever encountered. Every morning he comes to class talking about his exciting night - the shows he watched, or restaurants his family visited, or the video games he played. But, whenever it comes to to talk about the story he read during independent reading time, Carlton clams up. Carlton seems to mentally wander when he reads, so Mrs. Johnson decided to include books that would be of particular interest to him.

One day, Mrs. Johnson picked out a book about baseball that she thought Carlton would really enjoy. She directed Carlton to read the book to a peer. Carlton read the book aloud with no problems and even commented about the uniforms worn by the players.

Pleased with their on-task behavior, Mrs. Johnson asked Carlton, "So, why was Jackie not allowed to play on the best teams?"

Carlton paused with a confusing look on his face and replied, "I don't know, maybe he didn't know how to play."

Mrs. Johnson pressed a bit further and asked, "What did the author say about how Jackie was treated by others?"

Carlton flipped through the book and glanced over the pictures but could not answer the question posed by the teacher.

Mrs. Johnson reflected on the situation. She knew that Carlton could pronounce the words on the pages of the book, she knew that he understood the vocabulary in the book, and she knew that he was interested in the book.

She concluded that Carlton struggled with comprehension. Understanding that comprehension combines the use of background knowledge, vocabulary, and making meaning of text, Mrs. Johnson decided that Carlton and the other students in her class could benefit from small group discussions of text that includes stopping at strategic points to discuss what was happening at each stopping point.