Reading intervention is provided in addition to the core reading instruction in their primary classroom. The main purpose of intervention is to give students additional opportunities to practice literacy skills needed to increase reading and writing achievement. Each session is designed to meet the specific needs of individual students in a small group setting using texts at their instructional level ("just right books"). This provides students with targeted instruction necessary to support and extend their literacy growth.

Another primary goal of reading intervention is to support reading motivation by building students' self-confidence. Extensive research shows that reading motivation is strongly correlated with higher reading achievement, deeper comprehension, and greater willingness to persevere. With this in mind, a key aspect if reading intervention is immersing students in high-success literacy activities and helping students set goals.

Students are selected for intervention based on teacher recommendations, class performance, and assessment results. Assessments may include standardized tests, local assessments, and individual screenings. In addition to these, individualized and group assessments over the course of the year are used to monitor student performance and determine next steps for instruction.

Reading is a highly complex process. In order for readers to comprehend a text, they need to develop word recognition skills (sight words, spelling, decoding), have language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, language structure), and read fluently (appropriate rate, phrasing, expression). Of course, motivation and engagement are also critical to learning because they lead to greater academic achievement and long term success.

For the majority of students receiving intervention, lessons are tailored using Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention system. These lessons include various activities to support literacy development including guided oral reading, repeated readings, word study, and writing.

A key component of this system is sending students home with texts read during the lessons. Enjoy listening to your child reading their books to you, a sibling, or other caregiver. If everyone is busy, you can even have your child read to a pet or stuffed animal! The idea is to give them time everyday to practice what they have learned about reading.

Your child will also often bring home “fold sheets” to complete at home. This work will be related to the reading instruction that we will do in person and is a wonderful opportunity for your child to share their learning with you.

If you have time, you can even do some of the suggested activities found under the resources section.