Mrs. Gadbois - Literacy Specialist Grades 3-6

1. As a parent or guardian, what might I do to help my child be more successful in reading?
2. What does RTI mean and how does it fit into reading support for students?
3. What is Reading "Fluency" and why is it important?
4. What are some good reading websites?

As a parent or guardian, what might I do to help my child be more successful in reading?

First, and foremost, encourage your child to read whenever possible. The more
your child reads, the more practice he/she will have in using the strategies
she/he has been working on in school. With practice, readers become more
automatic in using the right strategy at the right time when they run into a
problem, and with minimal interruption to the flow of their reading. This
flow is called fluency. Keep in mind the difficulty of the books your child
chooses. To practice using strategies and to work on fluency, students need
to be reading books that are not too easy, and definitely not too hard. In
school, your student is learning how to choose “just right books” and you
might want to consider reinforcing this strategy when your child chooses books
to read at home. Ask your child to read out loud and if he/she seems to be
making several reading errors on any given page, this would indicate that a
book is really too difficult for any real learning to occur.

If your child seems reluctant to read independently, take opportunities to
share reading. Parents often think that once their child has learned to read
independently that they should step back from reading to or with their child.
This is not true and actually, reading aloud to children right on up through
elementary school is a wonderful way to keep children excited about books and
reading. What many parents don’t realize is that when you read books to your
children that are slightly more difficult than what they are able to read on
their own, you are teaching them valuable skills in developing new vocabulary,
recognizing different styles of text, how to read with expression and fluency,
and providing the support they need to understand harder text. All this will
help your child make an easier transition as she/he moves into increasingly
harder text on his/her own.

To get your child motivated to read, think about the things she/he likes to do
or is interested in and try to provide reading material that reaches those
interests. Don’t forget to consider age appropriate magazines, comic books,
and the Internet as a way to find reading material that matches your child’s
interests. When students are reading text that interests them, they are more
engaged and are less likely to consider reading a chore.

Make reading a priority and however you can, foster a “reading rich
environment”. This means, not only providing books and other materials to
read, but also giving your child plenty of opportunity to talk about their
reading. In school, students are learning that “reading is thinking” so
getting your child to share their thoughts and/or questions about what they
are reading is a wonderful tool for developing reading comprehension, or
understanding. You may discover that your child is much more insightful that
you ever thought possible!

Finally, children observe adult behavior as a model for their own. Whenever
possible, simply let your child “catch” you enjoying a good read!

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What does RTI mean and how does it fit into reading support for students?

This is the process through which students who are demonstrating some
difficulty in meeting grade level expectations, either behaviorally or within
the curriculum, are brought as a way to assure they are getting their needs
met to increase their level of skill, performance, and success in school.

When a reading difficulty becomes evident,the first part of the process begins
in the classroom. As the school year begins, teachers are getting to know
their students and are making
observations about the strategies and skills their students are demonstrating
in reading. In addition, teachers want documentation of what each of their
students are able to do in terms of reading engagement, reading fluency, word
decoding/analysis, and comprehension. At Spofford Pond this documentation is
made through the administration of the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)
by students' classroom teachers or other support staff, to see that students
are able to make benchmark (what would be considered grade level at that point
in time) levels in reading. A benchmark assessment of students
will now be administered three times a year, in the fall, in January, and in
the spring. Based on the data from the DRA, observations from the classroom
teacher, and - for grades 4-6 - data from the previous spring’s MCAS results,
teachers are able to identify students that may be at risk in reading. When
this is the case, the classroom teacher will then present what she/he is
seeing with specific students to a team of teachers in a brainstorming session
to develop strategies and ideas to differentiate reading support and
instruction to meet the needs of these students. These teams meet once a week
and are referred to as teacher-assisting-teacher teams or (TAT). Following a
TAT session, teachers implement these ideas or strategies and then meet with
the team again for a follow up within a set period of time. If a student has
shown continued progress at a rate that demonstrates a track for reaching
grade level expectations within a reasonable amount of time, new strategies or
goals may be set and implemented by the classroom teacher and the team. If a
student has not demonstrated reasonable progress, the student would then be
referred for an RTI meeting. In this case, the classroom teacher meets with
the principal and/or curriculum support specialists to look at documented
(assessments and assignments) and anecdotal records of a student’s performance
in reading. Based on this data, students may be found eligible for additional
reading support outside of the instruction and support from the classroom
teacher. Typically these would be the students that I, as the reading
specialist, would service.
Once a student is determined to need reading support beyond regular classroom
instruction, specific areas of difficulty are identified and a plan is
developed to address interventions that will accelerate the student’s progress
towards meeting grade level expectations. As much as possible, this
instruction takes place, in a small group or individually, within the
student’s regular ELA (English Language Arts) block and is inclusionary
(within the classroom). Again, a set period of time is determined to put a
plan into action and at the end of that period, an RTI evaluation meeting is
held to determine if new assessment data indicates this more intensive
intervention with the reading specialist has been successful in moving the
student along a track of reaching grade level. If this is the case, then new
goals may be set and services continued. If it has been determined that a
student has reached grade level expectations and the classroom teacher is
seeing a difference in the level of performance in classroom assignments, a
student may be discontinued from support services but monitored to be sure
that continued progress is being made within the framework of classroom
instruction. While parents are often concerned about this “drop” of services,
the decision is not made lightly and is taken with the best interest of the
student at heart. The process is ideal when we are able to allow students to
move back into a regular model of instruction, allowing students to
participate with their peers in focus lessons and guided reading groups as
they occur and make the transition from reading guidance to independent
utilization of skills and strategies. If a student receives too much support
beyond what is necessary, there is a tendency to become too reliant upon the
instructor to monitor reading behaviors and over time they are actually at a
detriment in terms of continued acceleration because of missed lessons,
classroom discussions, and new instruction.
If, during an RTI evaluation meeting, it is determined that a student is not
making sufficient progress in reading with intervention the student may then
be referred to be presented at a Child Study Team (CST) meeting. This
referral is made when further information into a student’s learning style and
ability would be beneficial. The team is comprised of the classroom teacher,
the director of student services, the principal and/or curriculum support
personnel, and special educators. In this meeting it may be recommended that
the student be tested and evaluated with parent or guardian permission and
based on the results of those actions it may be determined that the student
would be best served by a much more individualized plan of instruction through
our special education program. At this time a meeting is planned with members
of the CST and parents or guardians to present the results of the evaluation
and to develop a student individualized plan of instruction. Once parents or
guardians have agreed to such a plan, services at this level of the RTI
process may begin.

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What is Reading "Fluency" and why is it important?

Fluency is the ability to read text rapidly with automatic recognition of
words and, when read orally, the ability to use appropriate pitch, stress, and
phrasing. Fluency allows for effortless reading of words and puts the focus
on meaning. When a reader is able to quickly and accurately recognize words as
a whole unit or use the context of text to quickly decode unknown words “on
the run” that reader is considered to have automaticity, an important part of
reading fluency. With automaticity, the reader is able to focus on decoding
(word work) and comprehension (meaning) simultaneously and studies have shown
that this skill may significantly improve understanding. When a reader has to
stop to sound out words sound, by sound, meaning is disrupted and
comprehension may be impaired. It is critical that children with reading
difficulties have lots of practice reading at their independent reading level
to practice the skills needed to become automatic or fluent in reading. It
has been found that the average child needs between 4 – 14 exposures to a new
word to recognize it automatically. Children with reading difficulties, on
the other hand, need 40 or more exposures to a new word before it becomes part
of their known sight vocabulary. Likewise, readers need practice in being
able to learn to connect with text in a way that further helps them to
understand what they are reading. Readers that are able to quickly pick up on
text phrasing and add the appropriate stress and expression to what they read
are showing that they are internalizing the intended meaning of what they
read. When this happens, they are more apt to recognize reading miscues and
be able to correct these errors quickly, without really having to stop. This
fluency seems to benefit readers in their ability to recall the necessary
details for better comprehension. Richard Allington, an important educator in
the field of reading, suggests several reasons that may impact a child’s
inability to read with fluency:
• Lack of exposure to books and reading, little exposure to modeling of fluency.
• Less positive feedback for their reading as opposed to good readers, with
instruction focused on the sound and word level rather than meaning.
• Lack of practice time reading – good readers spend more time reading.
• Frustration – poor readers tend to more frequently encounter text that is
too difficult rather than being able to read text that is at their independent
level and therefore they often just give up.
• Miss the “why” of reading – poor readers often do not understand that
reading is really about making meaning from text, not about word calling.
I would add that often there are weaknesses in the way readers are able to
process visual information that may directly effect the efficiency they have
in decoding with automaticity, making fluency a very difficult skill to
master. However, practice with strategies that develop reading fluency would
still be very beneficial in helping a reader to improve her/his reading skills
and I would highly recommend that parents provide opportunities for their
child to do so. Below are several suggestions for providing such practice.
• Allow for lots of reading practice in independent level text (text that is
easily read).
• Have many opportunities to reread known text, repeated reading gives the
necessary exposure to increase sight vocabulary, increase rate of reading, and
develop expression and phrasing.
• Provide opportunities to hear text read to them to get the necessary
modeling of what fluent reading sounds like. Listening to audio books is good
for this too.
• Have many opportunities to read aloud with proficient readers at the same
time (choral reading), to practice appropriate rate, and phrasing
• Provide opportunities to read poetry as the phrasing, pattern and rhythm of
poems is a great way to practice fluency skills.
• At word errors, rather than have the reader sound out the word as their
first strategy, prompt to use meaning by saying “what would make sense that
looks like that” – if they still have trouble see if they are able to
recognize known chunks in the word to make decoding easier.
• For readers who often lose their place, have them sweep their finger or the
end of a pencil under or above the text to keep place.
• Make a game out of reading to increase speed. Choose a passage and have the
reader time him/herself after each reading and chart their progress over time.
As passages become too easy move on to increasingly more difficult text.
• Use flash cards to build sight word vocabulary.

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What are some good reading websites?

www.stonesoup.com -
Read stories and poems written by children

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Children's_Book_Award -
lists the 2009-2010 award winners

www.ala.org/ala/awardsgrants/index.cfm - Note: after going to website
click Notable Children's Books under the Book, Print & Media Awards
heading.
annotated list of the American Library Association book awards

www. bookwink.com -
video booktalks for kids grades 3-8

www.kidsreads.com -
get suggestions for good books, information on authors, book reviews

www.mckennasmousepad.com -
language arts, and spelling activities and games

www.timeforkids.com -
sponsored by Time magazine, introduces kids to current events and
provides resources for
building reading skills

www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/storyhour/ - Note: go to left hand index and click on
internet library Reading Zone

www.ala.org/greatsites
activities in all curricular areas

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