The Reading Intervention Process: 5 Tips You MUST Know
“After the district reading assessments, we had to place your child in reading intervention classes.”
No parent wants to hear those words. So, what exactly does it mean? I’ve had so many parents ask me about the intervention process. Many states have implemented some form of an intervention framework. Interventions have been created to help students maintain grade level reading standards. The state that I live in has implemented a law that all students must read on grade level by third grade. The reading laws that have been enacted in some states have parents perplexed as to what this means for the child’s literacy future. Let me help ease your mind by giving you 5 tips you MUST know if your child is placed in reading intervention.
Tip #1: Don’t Panic
Don’t panic, everything will be ok. Reassure your child that they are a great reader however they just need to focus on certain skills to help get them to reach their fullest potential as a reader. The intervention process was implemented to identify reading deficits before they become a major problem. Be sure to ask as many clarifying questions as needed during the intervention process. Your child’s teacher or intervention team will be glad that you are a partner in your child’s literacy growth.
Tip #2: Ask for your child’s Individual Reading Improvement Plan (IRIP)
Once your child has been placed in interventions the next step is to create an individualized reading plan. Now this may vary from state to state but for the most part an IRIP is a plan that is implemented after the reading data has been analyzed. It puts a plan in place to help increase your child’s reading scores. The IRIP includes: the duration of the intervention, the staff members responsible for the interventions, the reading deficit target areas, the frequency of intervention, and how often progress will be monitored. As a parent, you are entitled to this information and some schools will invite parents to attend the IRIP meetings.
Tip #3: At Home Reading Tips
During the intervention process, some schools will provide parents with a “Read at Home” kit to assist with your child’s literacy development. In the event that you are not provided with this information the following are a few tips to use for reading at home.
Review letters and sound with your child. (Insert real-life pictures of magnetic letters on the fridge, etc).
Practice blending sounds together to make words. (c-a-t) (Insert picture of phoneme blending).
Decodable readers: This is very important, be sure your child has a book that they can read at their reading level and that includes the phonics skill they are working on in class.
Practice reading fluently: Students should read at a normal rate, not too fast and not too slow. You can do choral reading with them, in which everyone reads the same text aloud at the same time. Also, echo reading is a fluency practice in which you read first then your child repeats what you read. Another great fluency resource is whisper phones. Children read into the whisper phone and they can actually hear themselves read and make the necessary fluency adjustments. https://a.co/d/0BoH7j7 (Link whisper phones from Amazon) Lastly, have your child listen to reading. Either you could read aloud to them or they can listen to audible books.
Reading comprehension: Be sure to follow up reading with some type of post reading discussion. This can be as simple as asking the “5 W questions” after reading: who, what, where, when, why and how. Or simply asking your child to summarize or tell you the gist of the story they just read.
Tip #4: Keep an Eye Out for Reading Milestones/Literacy Problems
While working with your child at home keep an eye out for reading milestones. Are they reading words without sounding them out or asking for help, do they give you the meaning of an unknown word, are they able to tell you, in their own words, everything that happened in the story. Conversely, be aware if your child is not making any of these gains or if they are remaining stagnant. If that is the case, you will want to contact your child’s teacher.
Tip #5: Follow Up BEFORE parent/teacher conference
I have been teaching for many years and this is always one tip that I HIGHLY recommend to parents. Be sure YOU are monitoring your child’s progress in the intervention program. Some schools may or may not have a policy in place to update parents on their learner’s progress. With that being said, make some time to get in touch with your child’s teacher with a quick email, chat at arrival or dismissal and ask how your child is doing. DO NOT wait until parent/teacher conferences to inquire about your child's progress because too much time has passed and that time could have been used to target the literacy deficits occurring in real time.
I hope you found these tips helpful! If you are interested in additional literacy assistance for your learner click the link to set up a discovery call to find out about tutoring services or click the link to schedule a reading tutoring session.
Happy Learning,
Shannon
