Interventions: Research and

Review

Johanna Cena

Dean Richards

Purpose

• Why interventions?

• What makes good interventions

• How to look for an appropriate intervention

• Gallery walk of TTSD Reading Protocol Interventions

Interventions work when used correctly

The most critical elements of an effective program for the prevention of reading disability at the elementary school level are: (a)the right kind and quality of instruction delivered with the (b)right level of intensity and duration to (c)the right children at the(d)right time.

Joe Torgesen, “Catch Them Before They Fall”, American Educator, Spring Summer 1998

Essentials of a Successful Reading Intervention

• Early intervention

• Intense instruction

• High-quality instruction

• Sufficient duration

Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia

Essentials of an effective early intervention program

• Systematic and direct instruction in:– Phonemic awareness– Phonics– Sounding out words– Spelling reading sight words– Vocabulary and concepts– Reading comprehension strategies

• Practice• Fluency training• Enriched language experiences

Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia

Thinking of Tiers

o Tier IIo The students are selected for

interventionso Tier IIIo The interventions are selected

for students

Selecting interventions• You spent a lot of time and effort

on your core curriculum, spend time on your interventions too.

• Looking at programs not instructional practices

Questions to consider: What do you already have?

What is the cost?

What are the professional development needs?

What are the material needs/cost?

Do they cover the “BIG 5” of reading?

Will these materials meet the needs of your ELLs?

Caveat emptorScientifically based research as defined by

NLCB:

employ systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment

Involve rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions

Rely on measures or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers, and across multiple measurements and observations

Be accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparatively rigorous, objective, and scientific review

Resources

• Florida Center for Reading Research– http://www.fcrr.org/Interventions/in

dex.htm

• What Works Clearinghouse– http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/

• Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, Chapter 19