Who needs literacy intervention?

Students receiving literacy intervention have been identified as not making expected progress – the LLLL assessments will help you to determine who these students are. Any student may require some additional help to catch-up and keep-up at some point. But there could be one or more issue holding this child back:
• Identified as an instructional casualty – has the child had research-informed explicit literacy instruction in the classroom since Foundation year? 35% of students absolutely require this explicit instruction to learn to read and spell and 60% benefit from it.
• If your school hasn’t run a ‘response to intervention’ model (read more below) – what were small manageable gaps in knowledge and misconceptions in Foundation year will compound and grow if left unassessed and unaddressed.
• Presented with a learning difficulty – for example dyslexia.
• Diagnosed special needs – for example, ADHD, autism, sight/hearing impairments, low IQ.
• Experienced absences from the classroom.
• Vulnerable students.

The Multi-Tiered System of Supports model (or Response to Intervention)

The Multi-Tiered System of Supports model (MTSS) is a whole school approach to prevention/intervention. It is also called Response to Intervention (RTI). This model comprises three tiers of intervention which increase in intensity – the premise being that 80% of students can succeed in the right whole-class environment, 15% will need extra help to keep up, and 5% will need intensive help.

Do my students need Tier 2 or Tier 3 Intervention?
Consider Tier 3 if:
- Tier 2 hasn’t worked for your student and they need a more intensive approach.
- your student is in Year 3–6 and underperforming on standard assessments such as oral reading fluency (ORF).
 “Tier 3 is sometimes described as “triple dipped,” meaning that the student(s) may receive core instruction, Tier 2 support, and a third dose of instruction in Tier 3 (Harn et al., 2007). Tier 3, like Tier 2, must complement and supplement core instruction, without interrupting, conflicting with, or cutting instructional time from core blocks. This ensures that the students in Tier 3 receive practice with the academic language and concepts demanded by grade level standards taught in the core program, while also receiving small-group instruction focused on remediation of skills.” (Harlacher, 2014)

Chapter book tips

The Fox Kid chapter books can be used in a Tier 2 intervention session to allow students to apply their knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences when reading connected text. In the example Tier 2 intervention schedule, a 5-minute session reading one chapter can be used to develop decoding and fluency skills. A vocabulary check at the back of the book for less common words and chapter-by-chapter comprehension questions provide the opportunity to build comprehension skills and vocabulary knowledge.
Tips:
• To offer students retrieval practice of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, speed sounds are listed on page 74 of each chapter book. If students struggle to recall a grapheme-phoneme correspondence, you can support students by doing a chitter chatter chant.
• Speed words and sentences feature on pages 74 and 75 of all Fox Kid chapter books. Use these to build fluency and scaffold students towards reading connected text.
• The Fox Kid chapter books feature Heart Words that align with the Little Learners Love Literacy® teaching sequence. Heart Words are words with parts students need to ‘learn by heart’ because they are not decodable yet. For Heart Word teaching support, refer to the Little Learners Love Literacy® blog, which can be accessed via our website.
• The student activities in the chapter book, such as retelling, decodable quizzes, and a Read, write and draw prompt offer further opportunities to build reading, writing and comprehension skills.
• Students can re-read the Fox Kid chapter they have read in the intervention session at home for additional decoding and fluency practice.

Workbook tips

The Fox Kid Workbooks are aligned to the Fox Kid chapter books: for each chapter book there is a companion workbook. The workbook can be used in an intervention session to provide students with practice in phonics and phonemic awareness, spelling, reading and writing, as well as further developing fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills. In the example Tier 2 intervention session shown above, 5 minutes have been allocated to allow for student to complete one activity sheet. Each activity page develops one or more of the skills previously outlined. Many of the activity pages are scaffolded, with example answers given for at least the first question. The level of scaffolding decreases as the students work their way through the activity.

Tips:
• For say the sound activities, students point to each grapheme (letter) and say the phoneme (sound). Make sure students use the pure sound – that is, without an ‘uh’. Follow the model Speed Sounds videos for each stage on the Little Learners Love Literacy® YouTube channel.
• For reading, encourage students to use their Stages 1–4 Speed Sounds knowledge to decode or ‘sound out’ any unfamiliar words. To do this, students point to each grapheme in the word, say the phoneme, and then blend the phonemes together to say the word. If students can read the word automatically, they do not need to decode it. Words are often repeated throughout the book – this is intentional. Repeated reading practice will improve accuracy, fluency and confidence.
• For spelling, encourage students to segment the word into individual phonemes and count them using their spelling fingers. Students then write a grapheme to represent each phoneme in the word. Always ask students to decode the word they have written to check their spelling.
• Speed words, phrases and sentences feature in all Fox Kid workbooks. Use these to build fluency and scaffold students towards reading connected text. • The student-directed text includes Heart Words that align with the Little Learners Love Literacy® teaching sequence. Heart Words are words with parts students need to ‘learn by heart’ because they are not decodable yet. For Heart Word teaching support, refer to the Little Learners Love Literacy® blog, which can be accessed via our website.