The best way to prevent failure to thrive as a proficient reader is to marshal the support of all involved: families, schools, and communities (Mapp et al, 2017). When everyone works together to give children meaningful literacy experiences and closely monitor their progress, students are more likely to enter the third grade as confident, capable readers who will continue to excel in school and graduate from high school. Early literacy, in other words, is the gift that keeps on giving, providing benefits that extend well beyond the primary grades and carrying students all the way through a successful school career to on-time high school graduation. Books and Strategic Intervention for Reluctant Readers “When classroom teachers provided students with easy access to a wide range of interesting texts, the effects on comprehension and motivation to read were enormous.” —Richard Allington Response to Intervention (RTI) originated in 2004 with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). THough its intent was noble—to provide a thoughtful program of sensitive support for striving readers inside the comfort of their own classrooms—it has, as outlined by Sparks (2015), failed to live up to its promise. It seems that the line between core instruction (Tier I) and intervention (Tier II) has been blurred—with too many children targeted for intervention and thus deprived of what they most need: meaning-focused, uninterrupted time with books they love to read. Easy Access to Good Books Getting the right books into kids’ hands is the key that opens the way to strategic intervention that works (Klein, 2018; Richardson and Lewis, 2018; Harvey and Ward, 2017; Howard, 2018), as well as the ultimate goal—high volume, engaged readers (Guthrie, 2008). In What Really Matters in Response to Intervention (2012), Allington reports on the striking findings of Guthrie and Humenick (2004): “When classrooms provided students with easy access to a wide range of interesting text, the effects on comprehension and motivation to read were enormous.” Easy access to books that students enjoyed reading had a profound impact on both reading comprehension (effect size 1.6) and motivation to read (effect size 1.5). To put this in perspective, an effect size of 1.0 moves achievement from the 16th to the 50th percentile rank. That’s hugely significant. As Allington notes, “No other features of classroom instruction were as powerful in improving both reading comprehension and motivation.”
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STRIVING READERS
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