Page 26 - iRead EL in Research Paper

Students also receive customized support for persistent areas of difficulty. For instance, if a beginning reader is having difficulty with a particular phoneme or sound-spelling in isolation, that sound- spelling will appear more frequently in subsequent lessons to provide further opportunities for guided practice. Throughout iRead, the corrective, adaptive feedback is tailored to individual student errors.
English language learners are supported too, as iRead builds
on the language abilities that they already possess to promote comprehension, conceptual understanding, and contextual knowledge of information presented in the English language through photographs, animations, videos, and audio support. Vivid examples and images give Spanish-speaking students at various stages of English language acquisition access to Tier 1, 2, and 3
words, to ensure meaning and develop transfer of cultural knowledge. Spanish translations and/or cognates for all target words help Spanish speakers connect new words to known words in Spanish.
To support teachers, iRead ’s Professional Guide o ers advice from leading early literacy educator, for example:
• Ted Hasselbring on individual pacing and software supports for special education students
• Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan on children’s language proficiency, language supports, and use of iRead ’s Word Gallery for English language learners
Screening for Individualized Interventions
Students are administered in an initial assessment of skills in order to determine appropriate placement points and identify at- risk students. In this way, remedial and/or enrichment activities can be tailored to meet the needs of each individual student at his or her instructional level.
Research Evidence and Expert Opinion
Early identi cation and appropriate intervention strategies have been shown to be e ective at helping struggling readers make progress (IES, 2009; Lyon & Chhabra, 2004; Shepherd & Marzola, 2011; Wagner, 2008). Delays in proper identi cation and intervention can have damaging consequences: “at least 70% of students who do not learn to read by age 9 will never catch up to their typically developing peers” (Shepherd & Marzola, 2011, p. 436). A longitudinal study reveals that 23% of students who were reading “below basic” by the end of third grade failed to graduate from high school by age 19, compared to only 4% of students identi ed as “pro cient” by the end of third grade (Hernandez, 2012).
Thus, research and expert opinion strongly suggest that students be regularly evaluated in the classroom so that appropriate and timely interventions can be provided as soon as the need is recognized (IES, 2009; NRC, 1998; Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011). In its RTI Practice Guide, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES, 2009) speci cally recommends that reading “teacher’s screen all students for potential reading problems at the beginning of the year and again in the middle of the year” (p. 9).
Shepherd and Marzola (2011) further note that while the foundational literacy skills of
phonemic awareness, phonics, uency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension should all be addressed, assessing each area must be conducted in a manner that is appropriate to the grade level of the child. In addition, issues of cultural and linguistic di erences in this population must be addressed (p. 437).
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