The Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI): A powerful intervention for struggling readers

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The Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) A
powerful intervention for struggling readers
Targeting instructional match in every
interaction
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TRI staff at todays presentation

• Lynne Vernon-Feagans (Principal Investigator)
• Marnie Ginsberg (Intervention Director)
• Amy Hedrick (Project Director)
• Jeanne Gunther (Doctoral student and
  literacy consultant)
• Jackie Cozart (Onsite literacy consultant at
  Northside in Warren County
• Mandy Farber (Teacher at Meadowlark in
  Nebraska via Webcam)

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The Rural Context and Poverty

• The Context for this Intervention Study
• Why is it important to study Rural Children?
• Why is it important to help struggling readers?
• Who is at risk for reading failure?
• What kinds of interventions are most effective?
• What is the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI)
• Why is it different
• Why is it appropriate for the low wealth rural
  schools
• Three Studies that show the effectiveness of the
  TRI

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Why is it Important to Study Rural Children? 1.
A greater proportion of children in rural areas
live below the poverty line
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• 2. Most of what we know about childrens
  learning and development come from studies of
  urban or suburban (college towns) children.
• 3. Rural Children have a different context for
  development that needs to be understood if
  effective interventions are to be developed.

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Understanding Rural Childrens lives The Family
Life Project  Lynne Vernon-Feagans Mark
Greenberg
2PO1HD039667 funded by NICHD with cofunding by
NIDA (30,000,000)
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4. There are different challenges and assets
Challenges
Assets

• Children are poorer
• African American families are much poorer than
  others
• Housing is poorer
• Distances to services and schools are greater
• Jobs are lower paying and in the service sector
• Parents work nonstandard work hours
• Children attend lower quality childcare
• Children have lower pre-readiness skills
• Bus rides are longer
• Teachers are less skilled
• Tax base is lower for schools

• Children are exposed to less random violent crime
• Families are more in tact and own their own homes
• Families and schools have a sense of place
• Geographic isolation is related to better
  parenting
• Teachers know many of the families of the
  children they teach
• Children display more attentive behaviors in
  school
• Teachers have more experience
• Families rate teachers and schools more favorably

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Why is it important to help young Struggling
Readers in the Rural Context?

• Fewer adults are literate and have less education
  than urban adults
• Childrens early success in reading is critical
  for their later schooling success
  (Vernon-Feagans, 2006)
• Research shows that by the end of first grade
  childrens trajectories are set for school
  (Alexander Entwisle, 1988 Juel, 1998

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• Teachers have fewer resources to help the
  children who need it most
• Teachers have more struggling students/readers
  than other places
• Teachers have less access to professional
  development to help them meet the needs of
  struggling reading students

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Who is at Risk for Reading Failure?

• Low income children are least responsive to
  interventions (Foorman Torgesen, 2001 Torgesen
  et al., 2007)
• Boys and Boys of color
• Children who have phonological processing
  problems who are often later identified as
  reading or learning disabled (Foorman Torgesen,
  2001)

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What Kinds of Intervention are Effective for
Struggling Readers? (Vernon-Feagans, Gallagher
Kainz, in press)

• 1. Explicit Instruction
• 2. Early Intervention in first few grades
• 3. One on one and small group instruction
• 4. Effective classroom teacher/child
  relationships
• 5. Diagnostic Teaching

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What is the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI)?
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A set of diagnostically based teaching strategies
geared to the specific reading level/needs of
each child

• Targeting instructional match in every
  interaction in daily 15 minute one on one
  sessions between the classroom teacher and the
  struggling reader
• Problem solving each day about the childs
  greatest needs
• Always using strategies in the context of the
  word and text

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Why is the TRI different?

• Diagnostic/problem solving teaching
• Teaching is done in the context of the word and
  text
• Classroom teacher delivers the intervention
• Teacher/child relationships are stressed
• Collaborative Consultation

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Why is it appropriate for low wealth rural
schools?

• Can be accomplished without many materials or
  people resources.
• Can be used with any curricula.
• Geared to the needs of classroom teachers.
• Supports teachers as they work with struggling
  readers

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The TRI Model of Diagnostic Teaching
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Our vision for a teachers year

• Attend our week long summer institute to learn
  the strategies for diagnostic teaching
• Work with five struggling readers (four days a
  week for 15 minutes in one to one teaching)
• Collaborative consultation biweekly with our
  literacy consultants and onsite consultants
• Problem solving and diagnostic teaching become
  part of the teaching process for all children

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TRI Framework
Re-Reading for Fluency (2 minutes)
Word Work (8 minutes)
Guided Oral Reading (5 minutes)
TRI Extensions
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Three Studies TRI in Rural Low-wealth Schools

• Study 1 TRI intervention in a in non-Reading
  First schools in kindergarten and first grade.
• Study 2 Is a two semester TRI intervention in
  Reading First Schools in kindergarten and first
  grade.
• Study 3 a two semester TRI intervention in Texas
  and New Mexico, using web-based web cams

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The TRI Studies

• Cluster Randomized Clinical Trials to assess the
  effectiveness of the TRI in a series of 3
  research studies
• Part of the National Research Center on Rural
  Education Support (Tom Farmer Lynne
  Vernon-Feagans)
• www.nrcres.org/TRI.htm
• Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences
  (IES)

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Research Design

• Randomly assigned schools to the intervention and
  the control condition. Targeted all kindergarten
  and first grade classrooms to be part of the
  study.
• 5 focal children in each classroom were randomly
  selected from those children identified by the
  teacher as struggling readers
• 5 non-focal children in each classroom were
  randomly selected from those children identified
  by the teacher as not struggling readers

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Study 1 Non-Reading First Schools
168 children in kindergarten and first grade
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Five Groups of Children

• 1. Control non-focal
• 2. Control focal
• 3. Experimental non-focal
• 4. Experimental Inadequate Fidelity Focal
• 5. Experimental Adequate Fidelity Focal

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Non-Focal Exp
Inadequate Focal Exp
Group
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PPVT

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Grade retention

• 10 children were retained in grade. No children
  from the experimental schools were retained.
  They were all in the control schools.

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Study 2 Reading First
170 children in kindergarten and first grade
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Four Groups of Children

• 1. Control non-focal
• 2. Control focal
• 3. Experimental non-focal
• 4. Experimental Focal

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WJ - Basic Reading


Group
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Effect sizes are .5 to 1


Group
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Study 3 Web cam study in Rural America
440 kindergarten and first grade children?
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Web cam consultation in Remote Locations

• UNC Consultants can see and hear the teacher
  working with target children in real time so
  teachers get feedback immediately. Teachers can
  also see and hear the consultant in real time.
• Consultants can attend grade level meetings via
  web cams. Teachers can see the consultant and
  the consultant can see the teachers.
• Teachers can download information and training
  videos from the web

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