Targeted Reading Intervention

In chapter one titled “The Meaning of a School,” Mara Casey Tieken begins her book and the chapter by providing a vivid account of her experience in Vanleer, Tennessee, a rural school district, and how living there influenced her as an educator. During this time, Tieken became acquainted with ‘country living’ and adapted to many lifestyle changes. Through her experience, the author challenged the written misconceptions that educators and politicians create due to their lack of knowledge regarding rural school systems. Tieken further discussed the lack of attention that rural schools received in the political and educational sphere. Unfortunately, legislative policies, politicians, and educators geared their attention towards urban school

Rural schools find it hard to recruit and retain -quality teachers and principals. The struggle that goes with the finding and hiring of employees who are okay with moving to geographic seclusion in impoverished towns are only multiplied by deficiencies in the infrastructure. For example, significant portions of rural America lack access to broadband internet. The FCC published a Broadcast Progress Report in 2016 that stated that rural areas have indignantly slower internet access, with 39% of people lacking access to broadband of 25/4 Mbps. There were only 4% of urban areas with the comparable slow speed. The result of lack of working, efficient, internet options has severely restricted rural populations from taking advantage of critical facets of modern-day life. It has also significantly limited rural students access to vital learning resources (Hudley, 2013). Transportation is another common hurdle for many students attending rural schools. The day-after-day commute, is so. lengthy, that it cuts a significant time out that would have been spent learning in the classrooms on homework. This makes teaching the material (Stroud,

Bryan Campus (mother, Edith Sanchez). Spoke to both parent and case manager (Byran has an IEP for ADD) and we have a meeting on Wednesday, December 9th at 10:00 am at Winton MS.

I found it interesting 50% of public schools are rural. We are a city school district, yet we are considered a rural district in the Mooresville Graded School District. According to our reading in Colangelo’s Handbook of Gifted Education rural schools have many benefits for students including smaller class size, lower dropout rates and more community support. I believe when you have smaller school districts and schools you have more contact with your students and you are able to individualize and accommodate more when dealing with your students.

In this paper, we will be discussing a case study in which a block three teacher candidate was assigned a striving reading student to work with for interventions. We will begin by introducing the student by discussing both her personal background as well as her educational background and the block three-teacher candidate’s observations of this student as she both worked with and got to know her. We will then discuss what assessments were administered as well the results of a pre and post intervention running records. Next, why the assessments were chosen and how the results of those assessments directed the lessons, which were taught to this student and what the lessons involved will be discussed. Finally, we will review a final evaluation of the case study as well as look at steps that could be taken by both the child’s teacher and parents to help her further succeed.

Like Joseph Torgesen, I am a fervent believer of “Catch them before they fall” (1998). Each year, a school in which I serve enlists our center to Search® scan all entering kindergarten and first-grade students. This scan is a part of an attempt to ensure future academic success by identifying children with weaknesses in pre-reading skills and then providing access to early intervention. Once the scans have been completed, parents are contacted for one-on-one interviews to discuss the results and receive recommendations for further action or intervention, if warranted. Although research is presented illustrating the problems many students experience without needed intervention, some parents, upon hearing of weaknesses noted in their child’s pre-reading skills, invariably will choose to “wait and see” what happens.

According to the graphs my reading rate has significantly, decreased from 111 words per minute to 78 words per minute. I have implemented the following strategies to try to improve my reading rate when it comes to reading. Then, my comprehension has also decreased went from 100% to 88%. I have also implemented the following strategies to improve my comprehension as well.

After looking into the statistics and reading there is a serious issue regarding students’ literacy level. Students cannot read or even if they can read they don't understand what they have read. They do not know strategies such as annotating or reading to answer an essay question.

Whitehurst, Arnold et al. (1994) employed the evaluation of intervention reading program at the beginning of school year where an adult reader, both a parent and teacher, engaged with children during the reading process at the home and school. This method of interacting with parent and teachers encouraged children to respond questions by their own words. Consequently, at the end of the year, students increased their vocabulary capacity. Moreover, the intervention of the program increased children ability to expose reading more books, (Whitehurst, Arnold et al., 1994). Wasik and her colleagues (Wasik & Bond, 2001; Wasik, Bond, & Hindman, 2006) employed similar technique of shared reading with other activities in the classroom in aim to strengthen vocabulary through evaluating an early literacy intervention program at the beginning and end of the year. The findings of the study showed the children in the high poverty who participated in the intervention performed better on tests than students in control classrooms (Wasik & Bond, 2001; Wasik et al.,

A third fact facing rural schools is the rate of poverty of the students and their families. . According to Dan Fishman, high school teacher in rural New Mexico and the former director of K--12 programs at The Philanthropy Roundtable overall, one in four rural children live in poverty, and of the 50 U.S. counties with the highest child-poverty rates, 48 are rural. This causes the school to be faced with many other problems such as nutrition and social issues.

The author explores why students struggle through reading? What are the challenges educators faces to meet the needs of all students while having a diverse classroom of learners? What causes some students to struggle with reading and what instruction practices can be use that are effective and successful? All teachers of all grade levels should promote literacy development. Teachers need to make readers “21st Century Readers” meaning students should be taught literacy skills to navigate in the classroom as well in the future. The author referred to the struggling reader as the “delayed reader.” As stated by author struggling readers attempt to make effort to read whereas delayed readers postpone learning to read. There are strategies mentioned

There are many benefits provided to students who are systemically and explicitly taught effective reading instruction and key reading skills, though children may not always have opportunities in order to benefit to the full extent. The main approach to teaching effective reading instruction can be broken down into two definitions; “Systematic instruction reflects several important characteristics. Skills and concepts are taught in a planned, logically progressive sequence” (A Closer Look at the Five Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction, n.d.). Whereas explicitly taught instruction can be defined as ”the teacher states clearly what is being taught and models effectively how it is used by a skilled reader” (A Closer Look at the Five Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction, n.d.). Children who have been taught key reading skills and strategies show more capability in simple reading tasks than those who have not been taught. There has been much debate about effective reading instruction and how teachers should be teaching the key components. These key components include phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Children who are systematically and explicitly taught effective reading instruction, key reading skills and are given opportunities to read interesting texts and apply what they have learnt become effective readers, writers and speakers in the future as well as enhance their literacy journey.

The questions that are addressed by the researcher are: what are the components of elementary school classroom reading programs that promote the reading growth of students with reading difficulties? What are the strengths of these programs and how can these strengths be used to help educators design or implement other effective reading programs? The article discusses six classroom programs that help improve reading in struggling students. The researcher’s intention with writing the article was to help other teachers and educators in implementing their own reading programs. The six elementary school classroom reading programs discussed are: the Book Club Program, Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, the Four Block Approach, the Kamehameha Early Education Program Whole Literacy Curriculum, and Success for All. The reasons for choosing the listed programs are these programs have been proven to effective with struggling readers, were used in diverse public schools, were based on reading research and practice and provided a significant amount of progress of struggling readers by the program developers and researchers through qualitative and/or quantitative measure of the success students have reached through the program.

The Bottom Up approach in reading can be used to improve reading difficulties of grade one students. The researcher has observed that the number of grade one students who are unable to read is vastly increasing. As a result, educators need to realize this and make preparations to accommodate their needs.

In rural communities, the amount of quality education that children receive is mediocre at best compared to those in urban areas. There are less school activities available, higher dropout rates, and projected higher delinquency rates in rural areas.