The team determined that she is struggling with
reading comprehension. They decided that her
reading rate was too slow so by speeding up
her reading rate and additional guided reading
intervention, she should improve her overall
reading comprehension skills.
After additional data was collected they changed
the intervention to include three days of multisyllable word reading strategies and mastery of
advanced graphemes typically found in words that
are found in middle school. They continued
guided reading but reduced it to two days a week
with a focus on transferring the spelling skills into
the reading.
Probe 3 96 WPM 93% accuracy
Probe 4 104 WPM 94% accuracy
(She hit the 4th grade expectation for the fall and
was moved to 5th grade probes)
Probe 5 88 WPM 89% accuracy
Probe 6 95 WPM 92% accuracy
Since she was making steady progress they
continued with the intervention.
Probe 7 105 WPM 94% accuracy
Probe 8 115 WPM 94% accuracy
Probe 9 120 WPM 96% accuracy
See graphs on the next page
Angela is a 6th grader in a k-8 schools. She hit her
reading benchmarks in K, 1st and 2nd Grade. She
was proficient on state testing in 3rd grade, then
dropped to partially proficient in 4th and
unsatisfactory in 5th grade. She was presented to a
problem solving team to help determine her
needs.
She was placed in a 40 min intervention group
receiving a reading fluency intervention two days
and an additional guided reading intervention
three days a week.
Progress monitoring occurred bi-weekly using oral
reading fluency measures. On the other week they
completed a running record. She was progress
monitored at her instructional level which is at the 4th
grade level.
Probe 1: 84 WPM 87% accuracy
Probe 2: 88 WPM 84% accuracy
Probe 3: 84 WPM 86% accuracy
After three weeks of not showing growth, the team
approached a special educator for advise on how they
might adjust their instruction. The special educator was
concerned about the low scores for accuracy. She
suggested a phonological awareness, alphabetic
principal screener and language comprehension
screener. Based on these screeners she is struggle with
manipulating sounds at the oral level, and with
advanced spellings and reading of multi-syllable words.
Her oral comprehension is her strength. Based on this
the team made the following adjustments.
Basic Reading Progress Monitoring
WPM 4th grade probes
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
4th grade
expectation at
50%iles is 78
WPM
Adjustment to
Instruction
WPM 4th
grade 140
probes 120
100
80
60
40
20
0
WPM 5th grade probes
5th grade
expectation at
50%iles is 105
WPM
WPM 5th
grade
probes
Julie’s homeroom teacher, after hearing
concerns from her fellow classroom teachers
convened a team to problem solve including a
building reading interventionists, a mild
moderate special educator and Julie. Julie
indicated that she is very slow at reading. When
she reads so slow, they falls asleep or has a
hard time remembering what she has read. The
Special Education Teacher recommended a
Rapid Automatic Naming screeners. Results put
her at a 5th grade level.
They regroup to problem solve why she isn’t
making robust progress. In reviewing literature on
fluency and reflecting on Julie’s practice, they
decided to scaffold back a little bit with the
repeated reading adding a different skill with each
reading that included the use of scoops, reading
by subject predicate, teaching eye span strategies,
and reading with expression. Model reads were
used as well as recording her self on the first read
and the last read to metacognitive become aware
of her reading fluency skills. She continued to
receive progress monitoring.
Probe 5 100 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 6 104 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 7 96 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 8 89 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 9 100 WPM with 100% accuracy
Julie is a high school student who struggles
with reading. She has a strong command of
the alphabetic principle and has no
concerns with spelling. Her oral language
comprehension skills are very strong. Julie
is a “thinker” more than a “talker”. She also
struggles with fact recall.
Based upon this data, they decide to do a repeated
readings intervention. They are simply starting
with high level text at her grade level, since her
decoding skills are so strong. They also decided to
look at 8th grade norms for reading speed as this is
the ceiling (it is the fastest one can possibly read
at).
The intervention teacher lead a repeated reading
program that lasted 30 minutes a day 5 times a
week. The focus was on timed readings where she
tries to increase her rate each time the reading is
read. They decided to progress monitor every two
week. Here are her results. Her target is 150 WPM
Probe 1 78 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 2 84 WPM with 100% accuracy
Probe 3 107 WPM with 97% accuracy
Probe 4 92 WPM with 100% accuracy
They were excited to see a spike on the third probe
but noticed with increased speed was a drop in
accuracy.
Reading Fluency Progress Monitoring
WPM
120
100
80
60
WPM
40
20
0
Adjustment to
Instruction
Her classroom teacher consulted with her
fellow colleagues to help her in deciding on
how to intervene. They each have one or two
students who also struggle with the same skills.
They decide to pull this group of kiddos and do
a double dose of guided reading with a focus on
strategies to improve retell skills. Once the
retell skills are in place they want to focus on
higher level reading comprehension skills.
Cathy made tremendous progress towards
improving her retell. The team decided that the
next step for her is to focus on the higher level
skills. They continued to progress monitor using
the retell portion of the ORF to make sure she
doesn’t regress in her skill development. After
three more weeks of intervention, she returned to
the general education curriculum full time.
Cathy is a 4th grader at an elementary
schools. She has excellent decoding and
spelling skills. She can figure out any
unknown word presented to her on a sheet
of paper. She is struggling with retelling a
story she recently read. She is 100%
accurate in her reading but recall of basic
facts in the story is very poor.
They decide to pull this group of kiddos and do a
double dose of guided reading with a focus on
strategies to improve retell skills. Strategies such
as visualizing and connecting the reading to past
experience are the focus. Once the retell skills are
in place they want to focus on higher level reading
comprehension skills.
They decide to focus on the re-tell portion on
DIBELS oral reading fluency. This is her progress
monitoring. Grade level expectation for spring is 33
words for retell.
Probe 1 13 words for retell
Probe 2 22 words for retell
Probe 3 22 words for retell
Probe 4 29 words for retell
Probe 5 33 words for retell
Probe 6 35 words for retell
Retell Progress Monitoring
Retell
40
35
30
25
20
Retell
15
10
5
0
Probe 1Probe 2Probe 3Probe 4Probe 5Probe 6