90 Minute Reading Block Instructional Design from Santa Rosa Literacy Plan
1. Provide whole group instruction using Harcourt Journeys for approximately 25-45 minutes, depending on the
focus of the day’s lesson.
2. Implement small group differentiated instruction for the balance of the 90 minute block.
 Group students based on educational need determined by a variety of assessments including
 FCAT and FAIR scores, SuccessMaker reports, SRI, STAR reports, Journeys assessments,
ERSI, fluency assessments, teacher-made checklists, observations, Tyner word study
assessments, Rigby Benchmark assessment, Discovery Education Assessments, and
informal running records.
 Use Harcourt Journeys’s small group materials when appropriate for students’ reading and skill levels.
Beverly Tyner’s small group model and recommended materials may also be used.
 Align differentiation to the scope and sequence of Journeys whenever appropriate for students’
reading and skill levels.
 Use Harcourt’s leveled readers when the students’ reading level matches or very nearly matches the
level of the Harcourt readers because they highlight the weekly core skills and vocabulary.
 Below level Harcourt readers are appropriate for students as much as ½ grade level below.
 If more than ½ grade level below, use other leveled texts, such as Rigby, that are on the
students’ instructional level.
 Also use other leveled texts, such as Rigby, to provide on grade level and above grade level
readers opportunities to read authentic text.
 For the most struggling students and ESE students reading on a K-4 level, use Beverly Tyner’s small
group differentiation approach and materials with fidelity 30 minutes daily.
 Small groups should be flexibly grouped depending upon the lesson focus and should change
throughout the year, based on assessment results.
 Small groups may range from 1—6 students, according to student’s needs. However, groups for the
most struggling readers should not exceed 5 students.
3. Provide differentiated literacy center activities that reinforce whole group and small group instruction.
Literacy Center recommendations:
 Avoid excessive use of worksheets.
 Provide opportunities for independent and shared reading and writing in response to literature.
 Provide differentiated literacy-based activities that correlate with the week’s targeted skills.
 Use Harcourt literacy centers, Harcourt’s Leveled Readers Response Activities, trade books, teachercreated materials, SME, etc.
 Use leveled readers previously introduced in small group lessons.
 Use extensions from the small group lessons: word study/word work activities, leveled readers,
writing in response to reading, etc.
 Incorporate Daily Five workstations as desired.
1/14/14
Page 1
90 minute Reading Block Instructional Design Santa Rosa continued
4. Who must receive immediate intensive intervention? Provide immediate intensive intervention (iii) 15-30
minutes a day in addition to the 90 minute reading block five days a week to students demonstrating need,
based on the criteria below:
(1) Students whose FAIR Probability of Reading Success Score is 15% or less at any time during the year.
(2) Students in grades 1,2, and 3 who scored Level 1 or Level 2 on the end of year Discovery Education
Assessment
(3) All students who score Level 1 or Level 2 on FCAT reading or any student who scored at the 30th
percentile or below on the previous year’s Stanford 10
(4) Any student retained for a reading deficiency
(5) Any other students with reading deficiencies identified through assessments such as FAIR, ERSI, informal
rubrics, profiles, checklists, DAR, CCRP assessments, SIRP assessments, Discovery Education Assessments,
intervention assessments, running records, fluency assessments, and teacher observation.
Note: If a student scored a Level 3 or above on the previous year’s FCAT, that score supersedes other
assessments. However, teachers should use professional judgment about providing iii for these students
and should continue to monitor their progress.
Points to remember about iii:
 The classroom teacher, special education teachers (for ESE students only), reading resource
teachers—including Academic Intervention Specialist, University of West Florida tutors, and/or
trained paraprofessionals—can provide immediate intensive intervention.
 Plans and materials for intervention begun in the 90-minute block should be coordinated and
continued during immediate intensive intervention to ensure continuity and acceleration of
reading gains for struggling readers. All personnel that provide instruction and/or intervention
should use common terminology with students to avoid confusion.
 Materials may include Rigby leveled books, My Reading Coach, SuccessMaker, Howard Street, Tyner
materials, or other approved supplements.
Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program (CIRP) is a program intended for students who are reading
one or more years below grade level and who are struggling with a broad range of reading skills. The CIRP
replaces the core reading program for the entire 90 minute reading block and should be implemented with
fidelity according to the publisher’s research-based design. Immediate Intensive Intervention (III) must be
provided in addition to the 90 minutes of the CIRP.


1/14/14
The instruction provided through these programs should accelerate growth in reading with the goal
of returning students to grade level proficiency.
CIRPs include instructional content based on the essential components of reading instruction
(phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension).
Page 2

CIRPs also provide more frequent assessments of student progress and more systematic review to
ensure proper pacing of instruction and mastery of all instructional components.
90 minute Reading Block Instructional Design Santa Rosa continued
The Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program (CIRP) implemented in most of Santa Rosa elementary
schools is Scholastic’s READ 180. Santa Rosa relies primarily on this research-based program to serve
disfluent Level 1 and Level 2 students and selected ESE struggling readers.
Alternative Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program (CIRP): In some schools, SRA Reading Mastery
Signature is used as the Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program for students eligible for services in an
ESE classroom for whom the Comprehensive Core Reading Program (Harcourt Journeys) or READ 180 is not
appropriate.
 SRA Reading Mastery is a research-based Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program and is not
appropriate to use solely for short periods of reading intervention. Curriculum used for ESE
resource should be coordinated to reinforce and enhance the core reading instruction and/or
intervention.
 EXAMPLE: If an ESE teacher has a pullout or self-contained 90 minute block of students in a
Varying Exceptionality (VE) classroom, who are performing one or more years below grade levels
and READ 180 has not met the needs of the students, then the SRA Reading Mastery Signature
series would be the students’ CIRP. Fidelity of the SRA Reading Mastery Signature
series requires 100% of student mastery of skills.
 Therefore, SRA is not appropriate for a student in a pull-out or resource model for 30 minutes
of support instruction. Instead, intervention materials for that student should support the
student's identified core program (e.g. , READ 180, Harcourt). Additional time, frequency, or
duration with research-based materials (Tyner, My Reading Coach, FCRR activities, Earobics,
Simon Sounds It Out, etc.)should be implemented during the resource block to reach skill
mastery of student core reading program.
Alternative Comprehensive Intervention Reading Program (CIRP): An additional CIRP that may be
implemented, funds permitting, is Voyager Passport, which will be used for K-3 intervention.
1/14/14
Page 3
Using the Comprehensive Core Reading Program (CCRP) “With Fidelity”
1. The adopted comprehensive core reading program (Harcourt Journeys) serves as the basis for whole group
reading instruction in elementary schools. The core should be considered the framework and a basic guide for
whole group reading instruction. Use Harcourt Journeys’s small group materials when appropriate for students’
reading and skill levels. When students’ reading or skill levels do not match the levels of Harcourt’s below, on,
and above grade level readers, choose leveled readers that do. Beverly Tyner’s small group model and
recommended materials may also be used.
2. Teaching should reflect careful selection of the activities offered by the CCRP and utilization of only the most
powerful instructional strategies that support the research-based strategies identified by the National Reading
Panel: Oral Language, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension, and Fluency.
3. Teaching “with fidelity” is NOT to be interpreted as using every activity including workbook pages and
worksheets suggested by the CCRP. There are more materials in the program than are needed, or even possible
to use. Thoughtful and prudent decisions based on students’ needs should drive instructional decisions.
4. Teaching “with fidelity” requires the adherence to the sequence in which reading strategies and focus skills
are presented in the CCRP; however, “with fidelity” does NOT imply that the selected readings are the only
materials by which to teach these strategies and skills. Teachers may choose to replace a reading selection with
other reading material so long as reading instruction complies with the prescribed sequence.
5. CCRP reading stories should usually be implemented as a read aloud. The teacher serves as the lead reader and
the students can whisper read and follow along. For many students, the instructional level is too difficult for
students to successfully read without teacher support.
6. Repeated readings of the CCRP story may not be beneficial to all students. Research is clear that in order to
build fluency, the reading must be at the instructional or independent reading level.
7. To glean maximum comprehension opportunities, the teacher should guide the readers through the first reading
of the story using the CCRP teacher guide. Listening to the story on CD or online should not take up valuable
instructional time. Instead, students could listen to the story as an independent literacy activity while students
are not in small group.
8. The goal of quality literacy instruction should not be to pass the selection test on Friday. Instead, the goal
should be to “grow” each student in his/her literacy development.
9. The major focus for small-group instruction is to differentiate literacy instruction to meet the developmental
needs of all students.
10. Independent reading and writing activities should be closely related to each student’s developmental level.
11. Whole group grade level phonics instruction should be taught using the CCRP scope and sequence, as
appropriate for the skill level of the class. Assessment should reveal if students have already mastered phonics
skills targeted in the CCRP. Teachers must use assessment and professional judgment to avoid teaching phonics
skills students already know. A quick review may be all that is necessary. Additional phonics instruction to meet
the developmental needs of students will be assessed and taught in small group instruction.
12. Consider using interactive read-alouds to enhance the teaching of vocabulary, comprehension. Include a
variety of genres, including informational text.
13. Research shows that reading and writing have a reciprocal relationship. Writing in response to reading is an
appropriate and an effective strategy for vocabulary and comprehension development. However, writing
instruction not related to text should take place outside of the 90 minute block. Spelling instruction should
focus on morphology rather than a preselected list of words.
14. The two research-based strategies that are the most powerful in terms of whole group instruction are
vocabulary and comprehension.
15. We must go beyond the CCRP story vocabulary for maximum student growth. Specifically, reading aloud from a
variety of genres with systematic vocabulary instruction is effective and research-based.
1/14/14
Page 4