Implementing READ 180 to improve struggling student reading comprehension

¶ … program READ 180 is designed for children in elementary school through high school whose achievement of reading is not above the level of proficiency. The main objective of this program is to address the gap in the skills of the students by using direct instruction, literature and computer program in the reading skills. The goal of the software is to adapt and track the progress of every student. Apart from that, the program also includes audio books with CDs for modeling reading, paperback books for independent reading and workbooks for addressing the comprehension skills of the students (WWC, 2009).

Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI): Decision Making Process

Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) is a test of reading comprehension that assesses the reading skills of the students. The scores that come from this test help the teachers to place the students on the correct path and help the teachers to adjust their style of teaching according to the needs of the students. The SRI has 5,119 questions that are based on passages from children's literature nonfiction and fiction along with excerpts from periodicals, magazines, newspapers, classic and young adult literature. The students take the tests and answer cloze questions or fill-in-the-blank that measures how they comprehend the passage (SRI Manual, 2012).

Before implementation, I could collect the basic data through measurements of the reading abilities through the following categories; comprehension, inferences, vocabulary and literal explicit. The good thing about SRI is that it molds itself according to the needs of the students, so assembling a proper plan for it would be a good idea. The leadership team of the decision-making process involved the program managers, policy group representatives, and key staff members. (Steps to Success, n.d.).

Step-by-step timeline

90 Minute READ 180 Block Schedule

20 minutes of Whole-Group Instruction

60 minutes of Small-Group Rotations

20 minutes of Small-Group Instruction

20 minutes of Modeled and Independent Reading

20 minutes of Instructional Software

10 minutes of Whole-Group Wrap-Up

*The students in the READ 180 class will do a 100 book challenge and conferencing with their teacher, but they will receive one step during Independent and Modeled Reading (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.).

120 Minute Literacy Schedule

20 minutes of Whole-Group Instruction

60 minutes of Small-Group Rotations

20 minutes of Small-Group Instruction

20 minutes of Modeled and Independent Reading

20 minutes of Instructional Software

10 minutes of Whole-Group Wrap-Up

30 minutes of 100 Book Challenge (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.)

rSkills Tests

The rSkills Test is a curriculum assessment that is aligned with the READ 180 rBook. Every test assesses the ability of the students and they are designed to monitor support instruction and content progress. The rSkills tests are of two types which includes grade level comprehension passages and below grade level passages (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.)

Workshop Wrap-up

The students take an assessment after the end of every Workshop in which there are different literal to high level thinking questions that target the vocabulary and comprehension skills of the students. Apart from that, students also learn to be patient, and get practice for the open-ended answers (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.).

Self-Evaluation

This can help the students to learn about having a more active role and think in critical ways (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.)

Student Conferences

These conferences give a chance to track down a student's performance through the whole year. Different points discussed in the conference are:

Setting of goals, rBooks workshops, reports about the performances of the students, and Independent and modeled reading progress (Crismond, Gervasi, Harris, Kane, & Whitzell, n.d.)