Supporting All
Readers
in Small Group
Instruction
Providing Equity in Literacy Instruction
Beth Estill
Creating a Comprehensive
Literacy Program
 Enhance your knowledge of instructional
practices that promote reading success
for all students

Share research proven strategies that can
be implemented to increase reading
achievement for all students

Provide methods for differentiated
instruction that targets the individual
needs of all learners
The Gap Between Research
and Classroom Practices




Most research on reading is published in
scientific journals and is outside of reading
journals and textbooks
Hundreds of articles are published yearly
Many undergraduate and graduate textbooks on
literacy draw little from empirical findings on
reading which results with inadequate training
of teachers (Joshi, 2009)
Varying philosophies of literacy instruction; i.e.
whole language or literacy-based instruction
What Works
“By operating on a ‘what works’ basis, scientific evidence can help
build a foundation for instructional practice.
Teachers can learn about and emphasize methods and approaches
that have worked well and caused reading improvement for large
numbers of children.
Teachers can build their students’ skills efficiently and effectively with
greater results than before.
Most importantly, with targeted ‘what works’ instruction, the
incidences of reading success should increase dramatically.”
-National Institute for
Literacy, 2001
National Early
Literacy Panel, 2008
“Early, explicit, and systematic
instruction in phonics, along with
direct instruction in phonological
awareness, can prevent reading
difficulties and can also remediate
reading difficulties.”
Let’s Look at the Stages and
Instructional Examples of
Literacy Development
Emergent
Beginning
Transitional
Instructional
State Standards for Small
Group Instruction
Unpacking the “Reading” Standards
Emergent Learners
Beginning Learners
Phonological
Awareness
Phonological Awareness refers to the more general
understanding of the sound structure of words and
sentences.
Phonemic Awareness is an awareness of individual
sounds in spoken words. It represents the most
precise subcategory of phonological awareness. It
is essential for reading.
The facts for learning to read . . .
and why some students struggle.

Children who lack phonological awareness are
likely to become poor readers.

25% of incoming students lack this awareness.

Early instruction that includes phonological
awareness with a focus on phonemic awareness
facilitates reading and spelling.
Instruction that emphasizes
the alphabetic code
promotes accuracy and
fluency of word
identification –skills that are
essential to becoming a
proficient reader.
(Blachman, 1997)
Phonological Awareness
Continuum

Phonemic Awareness

Onsets and Rimes

Syllables

Sentence Segmentation

Alliteration and Rhyme
Assessment Helps to Determine

Whether students are applying word
study skills and strategies

What kinds of errors students are making

How to group students to target similar
needs and to address student progress
Let’s take a look at assessing
kindergarten students.
 Letters
 TOPA:
and Sounds
Test of Phonological
Awareness
Letter and Sound
Recognition

Identify upper and lower case
letters.

Identify beginning sounds

Five word Kindergarten list
Test of Phonological
Awareness
1.
Rhyme
2.
Sentence and Syllable Awareness (COW)
3.
Syllables
4.
Blending Sounds
5.
Segmenting Sounds
Activities for the Emergent
Learner

Phonological Awareness that is Direct and
Explicit

Concept of Word that Promotes Orthographic
Mapping

Systematic Instruction in Letters and Sounds

Opportunities to Connect the Two with Text
Assessments for the
Beginning Learner

PALs for word knowledge and reading
level

TOPA: Test of Phonological Awareness for
Beginning Learners: Assessing Levels of
Phonemic Awareness

Developmental Spelling Assessment for
word knowledge
Early Intervention
1st and Early 2nd Grades

Intensive Phonemic Awareness
Training

Systematic & Explicit Instruction in
Phonics

Opportunities to Read Connected
Text
Intensive Phonemic
Awareness Instruction

Identifying number of phonemes

Isolating individual phonemes:
beginning, middle, end

Blending and segmenting phonemes

Adding and deleting phonemes
New Read
Cueing Strategies
Get
Your Mouth Ready
Skip
the Word; read to the
end; reread
Does
it look right?
Does
it sound right?
Does
it make sense?
Look
for Chunks You Know
Introducing the
New Read
Introduce
with brief
summary statement
Brief
picture walk (not the
whole book)
Retell
Assessments for the
Transitional and Instructional
Learner
Reading
Inventory (RI): assess comprehension and vocabulary;
provides Lexile Level
Spelling
patterns
Assessment: assess knowledge of words and word
Developmental
fluency
Reading Assessment: assess word accuracy and
Phonological
Awareness Screening Test (PAST): assess higher levels
of phonemic awareness
Listening
level text
Test
Comprehension: assess ability to comprehend grade
of Nonsense Words: assess ability to decode
Spelling Assessment
Assessing
Comprehension
“Best practice in reading comprehension assessment will involve
multiple subtests and the assessment of the key skills that underlie
reading comprehension and general language comprehension.”
(Kilpatrick, 2015)

Reading Inventory: assesses ability to comprehend text
along with vocabulary knowledge

Running Records: identify the ability to read text with
accuracy and at an appropriate rate to include retelling
Listening
Comprehension
“An assessment of listening
comprehension is highly recommended for
any student who displays difficulties with
reading comprehension.”
Kilpatrick, 2016
Tier One Instruction
Intervention with
Older Students

Intensive instruction in phonemic
awareness

Explicit and systematic phonics
instruction

Opportunities to Read
Connected Text
Activities that Promote
Orthographic Mapping

Provide students with the academic vocabulary

Develop a rime-based word wall

Introduce words orally to direct students to oral properties

Use look-alike words

Highlight onset and rime units and syllables in words

Use oral spelling to reinforce mapping

Incorporate oral decoding (Identifying orally spelled words)

Read nonsense words (5-10 per lesson)

Spell nonsense words

Build words with letter cards and letter tiles
Kilpatrick, 2016
Tier Two Instruction
Shape Up a Summary
Circle: What is still going “around” in your head?
Triangle: What do you see from a new angle?
Square: What do you have “squared away?
Final Thoughts. . .
“Changing people’s perspectives regarding literacy practices
that have been entrenched in our educational system for well
over 100 years is a daunting task.”
“Do we continue with repackaged versions of the classic
approaches that yield a high rate of struggling readers,
supplemented by intervention approaches that produce an
average of 2 to 5 standard score point gains on nationally
normed assessments? Or, do we shift to scientifically validated
approaches that can prevent 75% to 80% of the reading
difficulties we see as well as produce 12 to 20 standard point
gains among students with reading problems?”
David Kilpatrick, 2015