RTI Institute: Reading Module
for Elementary Schools
Carroll County Schools
Sharon Rinks, Psy.D.
Lisa Sirian, Ph.D.
Michelle Avila Bolling, Ed.S., NCSP
Carroll County Schools
Team Contact Person
Please make sure we get the email address of
a contact person for each team.
Write it on an index card and turn it in to a
facilitator.
ALSO, write down the number of team
members that require a substitute.
Agenda
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Process the Application Activity
Process SARTII if info is available
Evidence-based RTI practices in reading
BREAK (10 min)
Practice progress monitoring administration
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Progress monitoring & data entry
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Oral Reading Fluency
Maze
Practice data entry
Review decision making for each case
Case Studies
Discuss Application Activity
Processing the Application Activity
 How comfortable/confident do you feel about
the level of consensus in your school?
 What kinds of things did your group find out
when you talked about core curriculum
issues?
 Does anyone feel really good about how their
school assesses fidelity of the core
curriculum?
 What kinds of changes did completing this
activity spur you to make at your school?
Exploring Evidence-Based
Interventions for Reading
Research in Reading
 5% of children learn to read effortlessly
 20-30% learn relatively easily once exposed to
reading instruction
 For 60% of children learning to read is a much more
formidable task
 For at least 20-30% of children, reading is one of
the most difficult tasks that they will have to master.
 For 5% of students even with explicit and systematic
instruction, reading will continue to be a challenge.
MacKenzie (2000), citing statistics from Lyon, Kamme’enui, Simmons, et al.
Research in Reading
 Literacy levels are not declining– demands
are simply getting higher (Torgesen, 2001)
 Standards are higher in school
 Literacy requirements are higher in
employment settings
 38% of 4th graders and 29% of 8th graders
cannot read well enough to effectively
accomplish grade-level work (National Center for
Educational Statistics, 2005)
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These numbers are even higher for states with
larger populations of low income students.
Research in Reading
 Poor readers at the end of first grade
almost never catch up by the end of
Elementary School (Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing,
Shaywitz, & Fletcher; Juel, 1988, Torgesen and Burgess, 1998)
 Verbal ability in children can be
dramatically increased by effective
reading instruction (Torgesen,
Alexander, et.al., 2001)
Prerequisite Beliefs Regarding
Reading Instruction
 The goal of reading instruction is for the child
to acquire skills necessary to understand and
learn from the written text.
 There are two general skills necessary to be
a good reader
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Language comprehension
Accurate and fluent identification of words
The National Reading Panel
 Issued a report in 2000
 Responded to a mandate from Congress
about concern over literacy skills in American
schools
 Reviewed over 100,000 research studies on
reading
 Inspired an evidence-based approach to
reading instruction
 Summarized the following “BIG FIVE” critical
skills for reading
Big Five #1: Phonemic Awareness
 The ability to notice, think about and work with the
individual sounds in spoken words.
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Phonemic awareness is not phonics
Phonemic awareness is auditory and does not involve
words in print
 Phonemic awareness can be taught.
 Training in phonemic awareness improves reading
and spelling (NRP, 2000)
 Approximately 20 hours of phonemic awareness
instruction is sufficient for most early readers.
(NRP, 2000)
Big Five #1: Phonemic Awareness
 Phonemic Awareness is a subset of Phonological
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Awareness focusing on individual sounds
It is the highest level of Phonological Awareness
Essential to later recognition and comprehension
of printed text (Torgesen & Mathes, 2000)
Phonemic Awareness helps
children learn to spell
Phonological
(NRP, 2000)
Phonemic
Phonological Awareness Awareness
Awareness
predicts reading skill
better than IQ
(Vellutino, Scanlon & Lyon, 2000)
Big Five #1: Phonemic Awareness
 Examples of phoneme manipulation activities
Alliteration
 Isolation
 Identification
 Categorizing
 Blending [/b/ /a/ /t/… what word is that?]
 Segmenting [what sounds are in the word bat?…
/b/ /a/ /t/]
 Adding, deleting, and substituting
 Instruction that focuses on one or two phoneme
manipulation activities (specifically blending and
segmenting) rather than more, results in greater
gains in reading and spelling.
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Big Five #2: Phonics
 The relationship between the letters
(graphemes) and the sounds (phonemes) in
order to read and write words.
 Differs from phonemic awareness
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Phonemic awareness focuses on the speech
sounds in words
Phonics focuses on the letters and letter
patterns used to represent those speech
sounds
Big Five #2: Phonics
 The alphabetic principle
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Denotes the systematic and predictable
relationship between written letters and spoken
sounds
Helps with word recognition and decoding
 Phonics Instruction is most effective when it is:
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Systematic- carefully selected set of lettersounds relationships organized in a logical
sequence
Explicit- precise directions for the teaching of
these relationships
Big Five #2: Phonics
 Children who are delayed in phonemic awareness do
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not benefit as much from phonics instruction.
Phonemic awareness establishes the context and
structure for phonics.
Phonics skills significantly contribute to reading
comprehension.
Phonics instruction is beneficial regardless of SES
and most effective when introduced early. (NRP, 2000)
Approximately 2 years of phonics instruction is
sufficient for most readers. (NRP, 2000)
Big Five #3: Fluency
 The ability to read a text accurately and quickly
 To read expressively involves dividing the text into
meaningful chunks.
 Provides a bridge between word recognition and
comprehension
 Often been neglected
 Fluent readers recognize words ad comprehend at
the same time
 Develops gradually over time and with practice
Big Five #3: Fluency
 What causes dysfluent reading?
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Low sight word vocabulary
Slow processing speed of known words
Low speed when decoding unfamiliar words
Using context to read words
Slow processing of word meanings
(Moats, 2002)
Big Five #3: Fluency
 One of the strongest findings in reading
research is the positive relationship between
fluency and comprehension.
 Fluent reading frees up cognitive resources to
dedicate to making sense of what you’ve
read.
 Measuring oral reading fluency can serve as
a substitute for measuring overall reading
proficiency.
 One minute reading fluency probes are
considered the best measures of overall
reading ability.
(Hall, 2006)
Big Five #4: Vocabulary
 Knowledge of words we need to
communicate effectively
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Oral vocabulary- words we use, recognize and
understand in speaking and listening
Reading vocabulary- words we use,
recognize and understand in print
 Most vocabulary is learned indirectly
 Some MUST be taught directly
Big Five #4: Vocabulary
 Language has been found to be a function of
SES
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Lower SES students hear approximately 32
million fewer words by K than children of
higher SES (professional) families.
There is a difference of 1500 fewer words/hour
spoken in lower SES than professional
families.
In lower SES families words are used for
direction and punishment rather than
discussion and sharing.
(Hart & Risley, 1995)
Big Five #4: Vocabulary
 Lack of language is a difficult hurdle to
overcome.
 Children with low levels of language need to
be in language enriched classes early on.
 Vocabulary instruction should:
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Teach specific words
Teach students to learn words independently
Foster an appreciation and enjoyment of
words
Big Five #5: Comprehension
 The reason for reading
 The ultimate goal of reading instruction
 Purposeful and active reading that occurs
during passages rather than at the end
 Instruction in comprehension strategies CAN
improve reading comprehension
 Involves making connections between prior
knowledge and the current text
Big Five #5: Comprehension
 Instruction should:
 Be explicit & direct
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Direct explanation
Modeling
Guided practice
Application
Tell students:
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(Armbruster, et al, 2001)
When and why to use strategies
What strategies to use
How to apply them
Use strategies flexibly and in combination
Big Five #5: Comprehension
 Focus should be placed on comprehension
right from the start, rather than waiting until
the basics have been mastered
 Four things influence comprehension
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Reader
Task
Text
Context
(RAND Reading Study Group, 2002)
Task Analysis
READING
Accurate and Fluent Word
Identification
Language
Phonics
Phonemic Awareness
Fluency
Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension
Universal Screening in Reading
 Tier 1 – all students screened for reading
progress
 Conducted 3 times per year
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Early fall, midwinter & spring
 Provides mechanism for identifying students
at-risk for failure
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Slightly over-identifies (false positives)
 Allows schools to intervene early, before
intensive intervention is necessary
Characteristics of Quality Screening
Instruments
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Brief and easily administered
Research-based
Highly correlated to reading
Predictive of future performance
High reliability and validity
Sensitive to small increments of change
Alternate forms available
Data analysis and reporting available
Case Study- Tier 1
In your teams, look at the school-level
data for reading. What steps will your
DAT take?
School-Level Data Analysis
Research on Universal Screening
 Use of multiple measures in a screening
battery approach minimizes false positives
(Jenkins & O’Connor, 2002)
 At-risk and typically developing
kindergarteners were differentiated better by
using a screening battery approach (Letter
Name Fluency, Phonemic Segmentation, and
Syllable Elision) than by using any single
universal screening measure
(O’Connor & Jenkins,1999)
Universal Screening in Reading
 Not expected to assess ALL of the BIG Five.
 Reading comprehension is a mixture of complex
abilities; however, research helps provide us a
direction for universal screening.
 Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
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Assesses a child's skill in reading connected text of
grade-level material using one-minute fluency probes
The most researched, efficient and standardized
measure of reading proficiency
Measuring oral reading fluency can serve as a
substitute for measuring overall reading proficiency,
especially in the lower grades.
Universal Screening in Middle Grades
 At the middle grades:
 ORF typically plateaus around 150 words
correct per minute (Torgesen et al., 2007)
 Predictive value declines
 Utility for progress monitoring diminishes
(Yovanoff, Duesbery, Alonzo, and Tindal, 2005)
 It is important to identify which students have
not reached the plateau; in this case, ORF is
still an appropriate measure to use.
 Benchmark assessments may be used to
identify the lowest performing 20%
Available Universal Screeners
 DIBELS
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Free to download at www.dibels.uoregon.edu
For grades K-6
Has a Spanish version (IDEL)
Measures
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ISF: Initial Sounds Fluency
LNF: Letter Naming Fluency
PSF: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
NWF: Nonsense Word Fluency
ORF: Oral Reading Fluency
RTF: Retell Fluency
WUF: Word Use Fluency
May over identify false positives
District data analysis indicates that it is strongly predictive of
performance on the CRCT.
Available Universal Screeners
 Curriculum Based Measurement - Free
 Letter-Name Fluency
 Letter-Sound Fluency
 Initial-Sound Fluency
 Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
 Nonword Reading Fluency
 Oral Reading Fluency
 Oral Retell Fluency
 Maze Fluency
 Vocabulary Probes
 Some CBM probe generators are available at
http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventio
ns/cbmwarehouse.php
Available Universal Screeners
 Scholastic Reading Inventory
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Grades 1-12 (should be used only if students are already reading)
Cost- $2950/200 students + $299/additional 50
Get a 50% discount if you switch from STAR reading
May be beneficial especially for older grades (7-12)
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http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/sri/
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 4Sight- Reading / Success for All
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Grades 3-11
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http://successforall.com/elementary/4sight.htm
 Aimsweb
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Uses CBM in: ORF, Maze, Early Literacy, Spelling, Early Numeracy,
Written Expression, and Math
www.aimsweb.com
Grades K-8 for universal screening
$3/student for just reading
$5/student complete (reading, language arts and math
computation)
Available Universal Screeners
 GKAP/GKIDS
 For Kindergarten
 GRADE- Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic
Evaluation
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Ages 4-25
Cost- $210-$329/ set depending on grade level
Complete pricing information http://www.sedl.org/cgibin/mysql/rad.cgi?searchid=217
 STEEP- System to Enhance Educational
Performance
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K-12 Materials for purchase
http://www.isteep.com/index.html
Considerations in Selection
 What goals do you have for universal screening for
next year? Three years from now?
 What type of information do you hope to collect about
student progress in reading?
 What approach will you use?
 What resources are available?
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Time
Money
Personnel
Technology
 How will teachers be trained and provided with
ongoing support?
Team Activity
Discuss your current procedures for universal
screening in reading. What changes do you
need to make? What are your first steps?
Interventions
 Five areas
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Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary
Fluency
Comprehension
Interactive Table of Contents
Phonemic Awareness Interventions
Phonemic Awareness Interventions
 Sound Boxes
 Sound Sorts
 Kinesthetic Activities
 All Aboard!
 Blending Sounds Activities
 Segmenting Sounds Activities
 Oops Wrong Rhyme
 Phonemic Activities for Reading Readiness
 Phoneme Identification with the ABC Chart
 Rhyming Picture Sort
Oops! Wrong Rhyme
(Hall, 2006)
 Example:
Teacher points to a hat and says, “This is a cat.”
 Students and teacher together say, “Oops! Wrong
rhyme!”
 Students say the correct word, “hat”
 Teacher affirms rhyme
May be implemented individually or in small groups
Can use different themes, like objects in the room or
body parts (e.g., hand/sand, chin/pin, eye/pie)
Conduct for brief periods (approx. 10-15 minutes)
daily
Progress monitoring should focus on phonological
awareness
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Kinesthetic Activities to Increase
Phonological Awareness
 Sound Detectives
- Can be done at the word,
syllable or phoneme level
- Students are given a word,
specific syllable (e.g., prefix or
suffix), or sound to listen for
- Teacher reads a sentence and
the students count the number
of times they heard the target
sound/word
- Any manipulative may be used
for them to keep track or they
can use the Sound Detectives
work sheet
- On this sheet the children use
a pencil to connect the dots
each time they hear the target
Sound Boxes
Example:
 Teacher places a picture of a cat above a picture of three connected
squares (or boxes) – the number of sounds heard in a word indicates
the number of connected boxes and tokens given
 Teacher models for the student by slowly articulating the word and
placing a token on each box as each sound of the word is pronounced
 Then, student articulates the word while teacher places the tokens on
the connected boxes
 Finally, student articulates the word while placing the tokens on the
connected boxes
 Teacher gives feedback, correcting mistakes or modeling the task again
Teaches students to:
 Identify sequential phoneme segments within a word
Realize discrete sounds within a word
Sound Boxes – A Variation
 In the Positional Analysis phase, teacher places
tokens to the side of the connected boxes
 Teacher says a word and has the student identify a
certain segment of that word, indicating
understanding by placing a token on the
corresponding box
 For example, the teacher asks the student to identify
the /c/ sound in the word cat and the student places a
token on the first box
All Aboard!
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Provide each participant with a blank train and 5 to 10 picture cards which will
be used for sorting.
Lay out the picture cards and name each one. Students should repeat each
word when you point to the picture.
Since sorting by initial sound will be the first task, students should isolate some
beginning sounds. For example, “Everyone say snake. (the children say snake)
Now lets say snake really slowly…. /Sssssssss/nnnnnn/aaaaaaaa/k/ (hold all
sounds that can be held for a few seconds- in this case /k/ is the only sound that
cannot be drawn out). What sound does snake start with? /sssssss/. Good!
Let’s try another one.”
Once the children are able to isolate some beginning sounds, they progress to
the sorting activity. For example, “Let’s find all the pictures with the /f/ sound…
Ready... okay, all aboard!” The children look for pictures that begin with /f/
sound and place them on the train.
Repeat with other sounds. Rename the pictures for the children and help as
necessary. Introduce and practice sounds in a systematic and direct way.
Phonics Interventions
Phonics Interventions
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Fill in the Sound
Beginning Sounds Beach Ball
Practicing Word Families
Letter-Sound Association Cards
Making Words
Touch and Say
Syllable Puzzles
Word Chains
Flexing Syllables for Multisyllabic Words
Practicing Word Families
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Can be used to teach children how to read many words by
emphasizing letters in sequence that typically make the same
sound in many different words
Focuses on phonics and emphasizes onsets (beginning
sounds in words) and rimes (from the vowel to the end of the
word)
For example, words in the /all/ word family include ball, call,
fall, stall, hall, etc.
A variety of different materials may be used for this activity
including letter tiles, letter cards, or plastic letters, printed
strips, or wipe boards
Students take turns placing different onsets before the rime
stimulus and reads each “new” word
Use single sound onsets as well as blends and digraphs
Once the child demonstrates mastery with one rime, another
rime may be added to the practice
Practicing Word Families
 Almost 500 words can be derived from the
following 37 rimes:
-ack
-ain
-ake
-ale
-all
-ame
-an
-ank
-ap
-ash
-at
-ate
-aw
-ay
-eat
-ell
-est
-ice
-ick
-ide
-ight
-ill
-in
-ine
-ing
-ink
-ip
-ir
-ock
-oke
-op
-or
-ore
-uck
-up
-ump
-unk
(Joseph, 2006)
Beginning Sounds Beach Ball
(Hall, 2006)
 Incorporates kinesthetic learning, phonological
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awareness and phonics all at the same time
Using a permanent marker, write the letters of the
alphabet (upper- and lower-case) on a beach ball
Students sit in a circle and teacher tosses or rolls the
ball to the first child
When the child catches it, she looks at the letter that
her hand is touching, then says the sound, states the
name of the letter, and gives a word that begins with
that letter sound
The child then throws or rolls the ball back to the
teacher who selects the next student
Continue until all students have a turn to practice
Fill In the Sound
(Catts & Olsen, 2003; Hall, 2006)
 Helpful to practice sounds as they are being introduced
 Child begins decoding by filling in the initial sounds in three
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letter, phonetically-spelled words
Place a sheet with Elkonin boxes in front of the child
Fill in the ending sounds to make the rime, for example: ___ a t
Place four letter cards, tiles or plastic letters in front of the child,
such as b, c, r, and s
Review the letter sounds and names
Ask the student to select a letter for the missing space from
those four letters provided
Have the student read the new word
Have the student then identify the sound and name of each
letter individually after they have read the whole word
Vocabulary Interventions
Vocabulary Interventions
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Semantic Word Webs
Word Meaning Sorts
5 Steps for Building Vocabulary
Flash Card Practice
 Traditional Drill and Practice
 The Spiral Notebook
 Front and Back Flashcards
 Photo Flashcards
 The Recipe Word Box
Scaling Antonym Pairs
Vocabulary Map
Semantic Feature Analysis
Human Word Web
If it Fits
SWGC
Semantic Feature Analysis
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Teacher places two or three similar
objects in front of the student (e.g.,
pencil, pen, highlighter)
Students are given a chart that lists
the three objects across the top
Students then think of features of
objects to list down the side (lead,
gray, eraser, etc…)
Students compare the two or three
objects by adding + or – signs in
columns to determine which objects
have the stated features
Then a definition is created, based
on the different features that help
distinguish each object
For example, a pencil has lead in it,
has an eraser, and is used to write
Cat
Dog
Animal
+
+
Barks
-
+
Furry
+
+
Meows
+
-
Whiskers
+
+
Scaling Antonym Pairs
 Students choose two words from a list of antonym pairs
 These words are placed on either end of a spectrum
 Working alone or in teams, students try to figure out what
words could fit in between these two antonyms, and
place them in the right space along the continuum
 For example:
Furious --- Displeased --- Unhappy --- Happy --- Pleased --- Excited
Spiral Notebook
 4th – 12th graders
 A vocabulary-building activity that can be engaged in
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throughout the year, whenever there are new
vocabulary words
A 3” x 5” spiral note card book is cut vertically down
the center
Vocabulary words are listed on the stack to the left
Their definitions are listed on the stack to the right
The student can review the words and, if he can’t
remember the definition, he can consult the stack on
the right
Selecting Interventions
 Oral Reading Fluency and Maze Fluency
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Very low scores suggest a need to focus
intervention on decoding and word
identification
Somewhat low scores suggest a need to focus
on fluency
Average scores suggest that ongoing
vocabulary instruction and text comprehension
strategies are appropriate
Fluency Interventions
Fluency Interventions
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Assisted Reading Practice
Error Correction
Kids as Reading Helpers
Listening, Practice, Preview
Paired Reading
Repeated Reading
Choral Reading
Duet Reading
Repeated Oral Readings
Radio Reading
Word Study/ Speed Sorting
Poetry Coffee House
Flash Card Drill & Practice
Memorizing Nonphonetic Heart Words
Repeated Reading
(Rasinski, 2003)
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For any age
Requires a student to read aloud a selection that is
at or near the student’s current instructional reading
level until criterion reading rate achieved
Reading passage should be 50 – 500 words, at or
near student’s instructional reading level
Once student has achieved target criterion level,
assign a new passage that is as difficult as or
slightly more difficult than the passage just
mastered
Use Repeated Reading Log to keep track of the
passages the student is working on daily and the
dates they are mastered
Repeated Reading Log
(Rasinski, 2003)
How to Determine the Difficulty Level
of a Passage
Adapted Fry Method: Determine the average number of syllables per sentence
in the target passage.
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Count the number of syllables in the words in the first 10 sentences.
Divide the total number of syllables by 10 (or just move the decimal point
one place to the left).
Compare your figure against the chart below.
Grade Level
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Syllables per Sentence
less than 8.4
8.5-11.8
11.9-14.5
14.6-16.3
16.4-18.1
18.2-2.9
22.0-26.7
26.8-29.4
29.5-33.6
33.7-37.4
37.5-37.8
37.9-39.3
Memorizing Nonphonetic “Heart
Words”
 Can be use to help readers memorize non-phonetically spelled
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words or “sight words”
Teacher assists the children with identifying the pieces of words
that must be memorized “by heart”
Word cards or white boards with markers can be used
Variation: cut hearts out of red cellophane
A think aloud dialogue should be used with each word to identify
which parts of the word follow normal patterns and which parts
require memorization – to know them “by heart”
Example: The word “friend”
f r ie n d
The ‘ie’ in friend must be memorized, or learned by heart.
Choral Reading
(Rasinski, 2003)
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Three or more participants of any age
Provide each student appropriate text
Have students read text independently first
Then read all together, pointing to the word as it is
spoken, reading known words aloud
 Hearing others read aloud at the same time helps “fill
in the blanks”
 Variations: alternate slow and fast, loud and soft
lines, emphasize key lines, clap at end of lines, etc.
Choral Reading Checklist
(Rasinski, 2003)
Did you ... (circle your answer)
1) read aloud all the words that you knew how to pronounce?
YES
NO
2) try to say words you did not know when you heard others?
YES
NO
3) speak loudly enough to be heard, but not too loudly?
YES
NO
4) use an expressive voice?
YES
NO
5) pause at the punctuation?
YES
NO
6) follow the pace set by the instructor or model student?
YES
NO
7) point at the words as they were being spoken?
YES
NO
8) make an effort to improve your performance?
YES
NO
Comprehension Interventions
Comprehension Interventions
 Keywords: A Memorization Strategy
 Main Idea Maps
 Mental Imagery: Improving Text Recall
 Oral Recitation Lessons
 Prior Knowledge: Activating the Known
 Question Generation
 Reciprocal Teaching
 Text Lookback
 Question Generation/Question Answering
 Response Cards
 PQ4R
Comprehension Interventions
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PQ4R
Advanced Story Maps
Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR)
Green, Yellow and Red Question Cards
5W’s and 1H
Click and Clunk
Self-Monitoring Reading Comprehension
Graphic Organizers for Comprehension


Cornell Note Making
KWL
 RAP-Q
 RUD-PC
Click or Clunk?
(www.interventioncentral.com)
 Provide students with something to read
 Instruct students that when they come to:
 The end of a sentence, they should ask themselves,
“Did I understand this sentence?”
 If they did understand, they say “Click!” and keep
reading
 If they did not understand, they say “Clunk!” and refer
to Reading Check Sheet
 The end of a paragraph, they should ask themselves,
“What did the paragraph say?”
 The end of each page, they should ask themselves,
“What do I remember?”
Click or Clunk: Reading Check Sheet
(www.interventioncentral.com)
Self-Monitoring Reading
Comprehension
(Joseph, 2006)
 Can be adapted for all ages
 Self-monitoring can be direct or indirect, quantitative
or qualitative
 For example, self-monitoring duration:




Students are given a Duration Tracker
Students are instructed to read the assigned text
Once reading is completed, students are timed on how
long it takes them to retell the story
Students keep track of their results and are
encouraged to increase the length of their retold
stories
Duration Tracker
(Joseph, 2006)
Passage 1 Passage 2 Passage 3
Passage 4 Passage 5 Passage 6
Green, Yellow & Red Question
Cards

Asking students to answer a series of questions before, during and after reading
increases their cognitive involvement, focuses attention on important concepts
and facilitates active engagement with the text.
GREEN- Pre-Reading
What does the title tell me about the story?
What do the pictures tell me?
What do I already know about …? (the topic)
YELLOW- During Reading
Who is this about?
What’s going on? (state the problem)
When is this happening?
Where is this happening?
Why did … happen? (describe why something happened)
How was the problem solved?
What will happen next? (predict)
RED- After Reading
Tell about the characters.
Tell about the setting.
What was the problem?
How was the problem solved?
Progress Monitoring
Reading
Progress Monitoring (PM) in Reading
 Frequent teacher assessment of student

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


performance using brief measures
Catches potential false positives from universal
screening
Is not meant to be diagnostic
Tier 2 – conduct PM every 2-3 weeks
Tier 3- conduct PM every 1-2 weeks
Tier 4- conduct PM of IEP Goals

Goals and schedule established by IEP committee
 Assist in establishing instructional goals
 Help make intervention decisions
Progress Monitoring (PM) in Reading
 Meant to be
 Fast
 Inexpensive
 School-friendly
 Provides continuous measurement of performance
 Measures rate of growth
 Can often be accomplished using alternate forms of
your universal screener
 With adequate training, may be administered by
pararprofessionals
Advantages
 PM versus norm referenced data
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Based on district curriculum
Students are compared against their own
progress versus state or national norms
Compared against students own grade level
peers
Continuous measure of direct performance
Highly sensitive to growth or lack thereof
Teacher and parent friendly
Guidelines for PM
 All the probes are different, but should assess
the same skills at the same grade level
 PM data must be graphed to easily make
decisions
 Ambitious goals lead to greater improvement
Progress Monitoring Measures
 DIBELS (free)
 AIMSWEB
 CBM (free)
 Edcheckup
 Monitoring Basic Skills
 STAR
 CTB/McGraw-Hill Yearly Progress Pro
● Met criteria
○ Did not meet
Important Notes on ORF
 Even though ORF is frequently used to monitor
progress:


Kids reading faster is not the ultimate goal of reading
instruction.
We use it to gauge if kids are becoming better readers
 ORF is an overall indicator of reading competence
 Students who have higher ORF rates
 Are better decoders
 Are better at sight vocabulary
 Are better comprehenders
 ORF correlates highly with high stakes tests
Useful Websites for PM Info
 National Center on Student Progress
Monitoring www.studentprogress.org
 Research Institute on Progress Monitoring
www.progressmonitoring.org
 Curriculum Based Measurement Warehouse
http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/int
erventions/cbmwarehouse.php
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic
Early Literacy Skills)
 Standardized, individually administered measures of






early literacy development
Short (one minute) measures
Based on the National Reading Panel (2000) and
National Research Council (1998) reports
Assesses phonological awareness, alphabetic
understanding, automaticity and fluency
Reliable and valid
Predictive of later reading proficiency
Provides comprehensive data management and
reports for district, school, grade, class, and
individual student level (costs $1/student)
Initial Sounds Fluency
 This is what an ISF Probe looks like:
 This is what the ISF measure sounds
like:






This is mouse, flowers, pillow,
letters.
Mouse begins with the /m/
sound. Listen, /m/, mouse.
Which one begins with the
sounds /fl/?
Pillow begins with eth sound
/p/. Listen, /p/, pillow.
What sound does letters
begin with?
Here are some more pictures.
Listen carefully to the words.
Letter Naming Fluency
This is what the LNF probe looks like:
This is what it sounds like:
Here are some letters" (point).
"Tell me the names of as
many letters as you can.
When I say 'begin', start
here" (point to first letter in
upper left hand corner), "and
go across the page" (point).
"Point to each letter and tell
me the name of that letter.
Try to name each letter. If
you come to a letter you
don't know, I'll tell it to you.
Put your finger on the first
letter. Ready?"
Phoneme
Segmentation
Fluency
 This is what you
(the examiner)
look at 
 There is NO
PROBE for the
student to look at.
Nonsense Word Fluency
 This what the student probe
looks like:
 This what the examiner record
looks like:
Oral Reading Fluency
 This is what the
examiner booklet
looks like 
 The student sees the
passage copied on an
8 ½ by 11 sheet of
paper.
CBM
 Scientifically validated
 Based on 30 years of research
 Sources of CBM Materials
 The ABCs of CBM: A Practical Guide to CurriculumBased Measurement (Guilford Publishing)
 AIMSweb/Edformation
 DIBELS
 Edcheckup
 McGraw-Hill
 Pro-Ed, Inc.
 Vanderbilt University
CBM Probes
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Letter-Name Fluency
Letter-Sound Fluency
Initial-Sound Fluency
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
Nonword Reading Fluency
Oral Reading Fluency
Oral Retell Fluency
Maze Fluency
Vocabulary Probes
CBM Maze Fluency Probes
 Given a grade level passage from which
every 7th word has been deleted, the
student selects a word from three
choices provided.
 Scoring requires counting the number of
words replaced correctly in 2.5 minutes
 May be group or individually
administered
CBM Maze Probes
Place the silent reading passage in front of each student and say:
“When I say ‘begin’ I want you to read a story. You will have 2.5 minutes to
read the story. Some of the words in the story are replaced with a line that
has 3 words under it. Your job is to circle the one (1) word that makes the
most sense in the story. Only one (1) word is correct.”
“When I say ‘begin’ turn to the first story and start reading silently. When
you come to a group of three words, circle the one (1) word that makes the
most sense. Work as quickly as you can without making mistakes…”
Vocabulary Matching Probes
 Sample broad vocabulary domains
 Typically 60 words with definitions
 20 words and definitions per page on 3 pages
 Five minutes per probe
 May use academic vocabulary or topic
specific/technical vocabulary
 May establish local benchmarks by randomly
administering to a sample of successful students
(Espin et al, 2005)
Vocabulary Matching
1. A small green insect
2. Small drops of water
3. Delightful, fascinating
4. An animal like a small
5.
6.
7.
8.
horse with big ears
To have, to own
Make a short, sharp
sound
A song, a tune
Strongly attracted
a. Chirp
b. Enchanted
c. Charming
d. Melody
e. Dew
Donkey
g. Grasshopper
h. Possess
f.
Possible cut-off scores for CBM
Grade
CBM Probe
Cut-off
Kindergarten
Letter Sound Fluency
< 10 letters/minute
Grade 1
Word Identification
Fluency
< 15 words on list/minute
Grade 2
Passage Reading Fluency
< 15 words in text/minute
Grade 3
Passage Reading Fluency
< 50 words in text/minute
Grade 4
Maze Fluency
< 10 Maze replacements/
2.5 minutes
Grade 5
Maze Fluency
< 15 Maze replacements/
2.5 minutes
Grade 6
Maze Fluency
< 20 Maze replacements/
2.5 minutes
(Mellard, 2008)
Goals for Academic Growth (ORF)
Grade
Realistic
Ambitious
1st
2 words/week
3 words/week
2nd
1.5 words/week
2 words/week
3rd
1 word/week
1.5 words/week
4th
0.85 words/week
1.1 words/week
5th
0.5 words/week
0.8 words/week
6th
0.3 words/week
0.65 words/week
(Fuchs & Fuchs, 1993)
Goals for Academic Growth (Maze)
Grade
Rate of Improvement
1st
0.4 maze replacements/week
2nd
0.4 maze replacements/week
3rd
0.4 maze replacements/week
4th
0.4 maze replacements/week
5th
0.4 maze replacements/week
6th
0.4 maze replacements/week
CBM End of Year Goals
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K: 40 correct letter sounds per min (LSF)
1: 60 words correct from list per min (WIF)
1: 50 words correct from text per min (ORF)
2: 75 words correct from text per min (ORF)
3: 100 words correct from text per min (ORF)
4: 20 replacements to text per 2.5 min (MAZE)
5: 25 replacements to text per 2.5 min (MAZE)
6: 30 replacements to text per 2.5 min (MAZE)
LSF= Letter Sound Fluency, WIF= Word Identification Fluency,
ORF= Oral Reading Fluency, MAZE= Maze Fluency
Case Study- Tier 2
In your groups look at the grade-level
data provided for reading.
Class-Level
Data-Analysis
Based on this first grade data
•How well does your core address
phonemic awareness?
•How well does your core
address phonics?
•How does it come
•together in ORF?
•Look at these teachers
what can we learn here?
•Look at these two teachers
How can we help them?
Entire Grade
Teacher 1
Teacher 2
Teacher 3
Teacher 4
Teacher 5
Teacher 6
Teacher 7
Teacher 8
Progress Monitoring
& Graphing Data
Please turn on your laptop.
Research on Progress Monitoring
 In making decisions about instruction, the use
progress monitoring results in:



Increased student achievement
Better decision-making
Greater student awareness of their progress
(Fuchs, Deno, Mirkin, 1984; Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett,
& Ferguson, 1992; Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005)
Progress Monitoring Your
Intervention Plan
 You have to monitor your plan to make sure
that it is having the desired results.
 This helps you make decisions about your plan.
 The Excel data tool on your CD will allow you to
graph progress.
 Ideally, the majority of the progress monitoring
data will be collected and entered by the
student’s teacher(s).
Progress Monitoring in an
RTI Framework
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Step 1: In the Progress Monitoring Folder,
open “Progress Monitoring_MB.xls”
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Important Points to Highlight
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter correct intervention Tier
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter student information.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Specify the intervention.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Establish the goal.
Writing Goals for Progress Monitoring
 Set the target for outcome



Realistic, yet challenging
The minimum expected performance
Example for 6th grade student:


reading 52 wcm at baseline (August)
GOAL to read 120 wcm by Midwinter (December)
 Do NOT wait until the next Universal
Screening or Benchmark Assessment
 Prorate your goal by doing a little math.
Writing Goals for Progress Monitoring
 Subtract the baseline rate (52) from the goal
(120) and divide by # of weeks until
benchmark assessment to get ROI.
120-52= 68 wcm
17 wks until midwinter assessment

 Rate of Improvement (ROI)= 4 wcm/wk
 ROI x number of intervention weeks (6) = 24
 GOAL = 52 (baseline) + 24 = 76 wcm
Goal Example
 Fall benchmark = 55 wcm on 9/1
 Winter Expectation = 105 on 12/1
 Number of weeks from 9/1 – 12/1 = 17 weeks
 GOAL = baseline + (ROI)(6)
 What is the needed ROI to meet winter
expectation?
 What should the Goal be for the intervention
period?
Writing Goals for Progress Monitoring
 A possible format

In (time frame), (student) will (describe what
they will do) on (name the progress monitoring
measure), to achieve (desired performance
level).
 Example

In six weeks, Michelle will read second grade
text on DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency probes,
to achieve a rate of 76 words correct per
minute.
Don’t Worry…
 We will show you how you might go about
establishing and writing goals for the other
areas:



Writing
Math
And Behavior
in our future modules.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Write your goal in the “Goal” box.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Specify your intervention.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter end date and outcome goal.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Note the goal line has moved.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter your baseline data.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Data points automatically graph.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Notice the aim line in red.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Intervention is definitely needed.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Begin your intervention.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter progress monitoring data.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter progress monitoring data.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Continuously evaluate progress.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Make a data-based decision.
Data-Based Decision Making
 When the trend line is above the aim line,
adequate progress is being made
 When the trend line is below the aim line (or
flat), instructional changes are necessary
 Other rules of thumb


3-4 consecutive data pts below the aim line
may indicate a need for change
If 6 consecutive data points are above the aim
line, the goal is likely too low and should be
increased.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Enter committee decision.
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
What if it looked like this?
Progress Monitoring in an RTI Framework
Note the different decision.
Team Work
Take a moment to enter the data from one of the
case studies. Let all team members participate
so you all are comfortable with the graphing tool.
Discuss the data and make a decision about your
intervention.
Example #1- Annaliese
Example #2- Jason
Example #3- Barry
Example #4- April
Example #5- Ruth
There are other ways to
graph data.
DIBELS
Intervention Central
Paper & Pencil
Progress monitoring in Math and
Writing
 You can make graphs just like the DIBELS
ones by hand. Just make sure you have the
essential data on it.
 You can also go to
http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/chartdog
_2_0/chartdog.php#obsv0 to make a chart
for progress monitoring just about anything.
Chart Dog graphs will look like this. The trouble is
there is no goal or aim line, so you’ll have to draw
these on it.
I’ve added them.
Is the child making adequate progress?
You don’t need anything fancy.
 Graph paper and a pencil will do.
 Remember to include:
 Y axis (what you are measuring)
 X axis (dates of data points)
 Baseline (where the student started – before
you began intervention)
 Goal (where the child needs to be)
 Aim line (connects baseline to goal)
 Data points (one every 2 weeks)
Progress Monitoring
 Data points should be collected not less than every
2-3 weeks for students who are having difficulty.
 Every 1-2 weeks is best for students who are having
a lot of difficulty.
 Students who are at benchmark do not need
frequent progress monitoring. (1x/mo if cautious or
even the 3x/year benchmarks are fine)
Important Points
 Progress monitoring is used to see if interventions
are working.
 You must be able to




Identify the intervention period
 Date began: _____ Date ended: ________
Identify the evidence-based intervention
 ______________________
Identify the schedule of the intervention
 ______minutes, _______ times per week
Identify the intensity of the intervention
 # ____students: __ teacher/parapro
Team Work: Case Studies
Tier 3
Look at the individual student data in the case
studies. Use your CD and team knowledge to
complete a Tier 3 intervention plan for one of the
students.
Class-Level Student Data Analysis
 Data for Teacher 1’s Class
for Reading Fluency
 This is a first grade class.
 89% of students were at
Benchmark (40 wcm)
 11% of students (2
students) were below
benchmark
Student #1 Midwinter Benchmark (Baseline)
12/12/2007- 9 wcm, 8 wcm, 10 wcm
Student #2 Midwinter Benchmark (Baseline)
12/12/2007- 0 wcm, 0 wcm, 0 wcm
Student #1- Tier 2 Intervention Form
Student #2- Tier 2 Intervention Form
Application Activity
 Select a student with a reading concern
 Collect baseline data using an appropriate progress







monitoring tool
Establish a goal
Enter the data into the Excel graphing tool
Determine the intervention strategy and the schedule
of implementation
Determine who will do it
Establish a method and schedule for progress
monitoring
Document on the appropriate Tier Intervention Form
Begin the intervention
Resources
 To generate progress monitoring reading
probes visit OKAPI

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/too
ls/okapi/okapi.php
 To generate progress monitoring reading
probes for letter identification and word
list/Dolch idenitification probes visit

http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/too
ls/cbaprobe/cba.php