Setting
The interventions were implemented in small groups of three students. It occurred during the normal school day but outside of the core reading classroom activities. It was offered in addition to the enhanced classroom instruction.
Intervention Group
"Both the Proactive Reading and Responsive Reading interventions took place in 40 minute sessions, five days per week, from October to May. Both interventions were administered in addition to the enhanced classroom instruction in reading that the comparison group also received.
PROACTIVE READING
In the Proactive Reading intervention, teachers follow detailed lesson plans that typically contain 7 to 10 short activities, each covering multiple topics. The lessons gradually progressed from learning alphabetic principle to deciding multisyllabic and irregular words to reading narrative stories. Teachers modeled new content, allowed for individual practice, and provided immediate corrective feedback. While the study does not indicate a particular order of the lessons, they cover the following:
1. Learning and reviewing letter-sound correspondences
2. Sounding out words or reading words rapidly
3. Spelling words in isolation
4. Reading decodable connected text
5. Applying comprehension strategies to decodable text.
- There is no indication of a home component.
- The intervention is implemented by a teacher specially hired for the study.
- Materials include detailed lesson plans and fully decodable connected text.
- The intervention is scripted.
- The study does not indicate that this intervention uses a formative assessment.
RESPONSIVE READING
In the Responsive Reading intervention, teachers designed each lesson by choosing among a menu of activities. In each lesson, the teacher focused lesson planning on an individual student, so that each student was a ""focus student"" once every three days. The lessons contained five components:
1. In fluency building, (8-10 minutes, combined with assessment) students read a passage with teacher modeling. The instruction was directed primarily towards the focus student.
2. In assessment, (8-10 minutes, combined with fluency building) the teacher assessed the reading performance of the focus student.
3. In letter and word work, (10-12 minutes) teachers provided explicit instruction in phonological awareness skills, including letter sounds and sounding out words.
4. In supported reading, the focus student read a new book, followed by the entire group reading the book together. The teacher assisted the students and asked questions about the text's meaning.
5. In supported writing, (8-10 minutes) students wrote sentences about the new story with assistance from the teacher.
- There is no indication of a home component.
- The intervention is implemented by a teacher specially hired for the study.
- Materials used include instructions for a wide range of activities and reading selections that vary in difficulty.
- The intervention is not scripted.
- Teachers adjust each lesson based on the performance of the focus student."
Comparison Group
"For the only contrast that meets standards, Proactive vs. Responsive, there is no comparison group.
In the third group, enhanced classroom instruction; teachers used one of two basal reading programs adopted by the district but were given latitude to supplement or modify the material. The research team provided classroom teachers with student assessment data and a one-day training on how to use assessment data to provide differentiated instruction in the regular classroom. The research team, including the six intervention teachers hired for the study, also offered to help classroom teachers with any concerns they had about literacy instruction or student needs. Note however, that contrasts with this group did not meet standards due to high attrition and lack of baseline equivalence."
Support for implementation
"The intervention teachers received 42 hours of training from the authors of each intervention before the study began, as well as an additional 12 hours in the second year. They also participated in half-day in-service meetings each month and received frequent onsite coaching from the developers.
The classroom teachers who delivered the enhanced classroom instruction received one day of training on how to use assessment data to provide differentiated instruction. In the second year of the study, classroom teachers received an additional one day training on how to provide differentiated instruction."