Reading Recovery is an highly researched first grade early intervention program that aims to assist students to reach an average level of their peers in reading.  Students are selected by a test called the Observation Survey.  This assessment tests letter knowledge, sight word knowledge, book knowledge (called Concepts About Print), writing skills, letter sounds, and text reading level.  The 4 students who are indentified as needing the most intervention are selected in September, and then again in January.
    The program is a temporary intervention, lasting a maximum of 20 weeks.  At that point the goal is that for every two classes serviced, 80% of students will be at an average with the other children in their class.  Those students who have not met that goal will then move into a longer intervention with the benefit of an entire 20 weeks of one-to-one observations and records to assist in designing an individual educational plan.  Lessons are one-to-one, and last about 30 minutes
    Lessons include reading familiar books, writing, word work, fluency, and problem solving on new materials.  Books are carefully leveled to insure success.
    Parents are an integral part of this program.  Children bring home books to read each night, as well as a sentence to reassemble.  These are used to reinforce the learning from that day.  Parents are invited to observe a lesson in order to better understand the components of the lesson.

<>    TLC (Teaching for Literacy Competence) is a second tier of intervention for those students who need assistance in reading and writing.  The program is overseen by a certified teacher, who daily meets with paraprofessionals working directly with children.  Students are also identified using the Observation Survey, which is described above in the Reading Recovery section.
    Again, this program is one-to-one, and lasts about 45 minutes daily.  Components are similar to Reading Recovery (please see above), but may last longer than the temporary 20 weeks of Reading Recovery. There is also a separate component for phonics called START.  Students have daily homework of reading and illustrating a story written during the daily lesson.  Parents are invited to observe lessons early in the year.

    First graders receive flexible, small group reading instruction for about one hour daily.  This is in addition to the one hour of integrated Language Arts received in the child's homeroom classroom.  The lessons include phonics instruction, sight word practice, comprehension lessons, writing skills, and fluency practice.  Most groups have less than a 10 to 1 pupil to teacher ratio in order to assist students in making accelerated progress.  Weekly skills tests, fluency checks, and comprehension assessments help us to move students to groups that will meet their individual needs.  The program that we use in Stafford is the Houghton-Mifflin program, which integrates all of the Language Arts and utilizes leveled books to meet individual student needs.

  

Reading Rockets

Reading Recovery

Lexia

Read Naturally

         We are very fortunate to have so many levels of early intervention in Stafford. We use classroom assessments and our quick DIBELS assessments to help us identify students' strengths and weaknesses.  In addition to Reading Recovery and TLC, we also have Fundations (which gives extra help in phonics and blending in Kindergarten and first grade), Lexia (which is an interactive computer program to assist in phonemic awareness, phonics, and blending), and Read Naturally (which is a fluency program administered by our librarian, Mrs. Pat Post in the computer lab).  In addition, our literacy paraprofessionals work with Kindergarten students toward the end of the year if our Early Emergent and DIBELS assessments reveal that they may be at risk of failing in first grade.  These short, individualized lessons include letter practice, phonemic awareness, vocabulary development, concepts about print, writing skills, and reading very simple books.

          I believe that the most important thing that we can do in education is to teach first graders to read.  Without this vital skill, students are kept from the road to success that their more successful peers experience.  The earlier the intervention, the greater the chance that bad habits have not been formed, and more importantly, students' self-concept has suffered. 
          I feel very fortunate that we have so many effective interventions in Stafford.  This ensures that students are provided a safety net for success.