Pennington Publishing Blog

Teachers often ask which assessments are appropriate for screening, placement, and diagnosis. This reading intervention flow chart should offer some guidance. All assessments are free to use! Most include audio files and Google forms for easy administration and grading. All but one assessment (the fluency) is administered whole-class. Visit the author’s Pennington Publishing store for corresponding instructional resources.

Click https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Reading-Intervention-Flow-Chart.pdf  to access all links on the Reading Intervention Flow Chart.

Grammar/Mechanics free reading assessments, MTSS, reading intervention, reading intervention flow chart, RTI

Reading Intervention Checklist

Fitting together all the puzzle pieces for an effective reading intervention program, grounded in both strands of Scarborough’s reading rope, can be challenging. A simple Reading Intervention Checklist may provide teachers with a well-deserved pat on the back or provoke an instructional adjustment or two.

“Teaching reading is rocket science,” Louisa C. Moats says. Like a rocket, effective Tier 2 and 3 reading intervention for older students has plenty of moving parts. If parts are left out of the design, Tom Hank’s “Houston, we have a problem” is more than likely the consequence.

The following Reading Intervention Checklist serves as a diagnostic tool to answer, “What instructional components should be included in a research-based reading intervention program for older students?” The checklist is comprised of program sample links to The Science of Reading Intervention Program resources. Samples include both Google slides for teachers and students and print versions.

The Science of Reading Intervention Program has been specifically designed for grades 4-adult students in Tier 2 and 3 reading intervention; ELL, SPED, and adult literacy. The flexible, scripted (no prep), and accelerated program resources focus on both stands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope: word recognition and language comprehension.

Reading Intervention Checklist

Word Recognition (Phonemic Awareness, Spelling, Phonics) 
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

1. Phonemic and/or Morphological Awareness
2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling
3. Sounds and Spellings and Heart Words Practice
4. Say It! Spell It! Read It! Word Chains
5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books
6. Elkonin Sound Box Dictations, Personal Sound Walls, and Morphology Walls

Language Comprehension  
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts
2. Vocabulary and Morphology
3. Syntax in Reading
4. Reading Comprehension Strategies
5. Literacy Knowledge, Elements, Genre

Assessment-based Instruction 
CLICK TO SEE THE QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW

Whole Class Diagnostic Assessments with Corresponding Lessons

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The Science of Reading Intervention Program

Grammar/Mechanics comprehension programs, phonics programs, reading intervention programs, Tier 2 reading intervention, tier 3 reading intervention programs

AT&T Archives, Britannica Online

Reading Rules versus Patterns?

If you’re a child of the ‘60s… strike that. If you’re a human being other than a teacher, the word “rules” tends to have a negative, or at least a mixed, connotation. Being a reading podcast and webinar addict, the “r” word is a frequent subject among two prevailing approaches to teaching reading: speech to print and print to speech. As a gross generalization (rule?), adherents to the former tend to be anti-rule, and practitioners of the latter tend to be pro-rule.

Although I have gained much from the speech to print approach to reading instruction, I find the anti-rules focus to be much ado about nothing. I recently benefitted from a wonderful set of reading intervention video trainings by an anti-rule advocate. Throughout the video series, the presenter used every synonym for “rule” in the thesaurus e.g., “generally,” “usually,” “almost always,” “most often,” “hardly never,” to teach students how to become flexible, problem-solving readers.

Now, we can certainly overly-complicate reading instruction with too many rules. We’ve all seen reading and spelling programs which major in the minors. However, my take is that reading, spelling, and syllable rules (or patterns, which I prefer) do have value. As the presenter repeated several times: “We are pattern-seeking machines.” Of course, Abe Lincoln is not all there in the featured visual; however, it doesn’t take a Gestalt theorist to complete the pattern.

If you’re a baseball fan, you understand the importance of rules. In baseball, the “rule” is that the first pitch to a batter is a fastball. Good major league batters expect the fastball and adjust to the curve, change-up, slider, etc. Poor batters apply no statistical learning and are soon sent down to the minors.

Likewise, identifying and applying reading and writing rules facilitates statistical learning. Sure, the consonant-final e makes the preceding vowel a long sound is not exactly 100%. However, it’s a good starting point to begin set for variability cueing. And we all know, as do our students, that even the best rules have exceptions.

Let’s not ditch all rules. Such a solution is worse than the problem.

Check out the author’s Eight Conventional Spelling Rules, each with a catchy song.

Grammar/Mechanics reading rules, spelling rules, syllable rules

I recently responded to this FB post from a middle school teacher inquiring about reading skills for ELA teachers and their students. I’ve been there and asked the same question! I was teaching high school ELA and students were simply not equipped to read and write at anywhere near grade level.

Help! I have quite a few students in my grade 7 ELA class this year who can barely read and write. Our SPED teacher’s caseload is full. I only had one reading class in my teacher credential program and don’t have the faintest idea about how to teach reading. However, I don’t want to simply band-aid their issues by giving them audio files of our class novels, etc. I want to make a difference in their lives and teach them how to read. 

What reading skills do I need to teach and how to I teach them? How much time will it take? I don’t know what I don’t know. Are their reading resources that don’t require extensive training? I looked into LETRS and OG training, but those are hundreds of hours and expensive, too.

Most of us have similar challenges in our ELA classes; however, you do have some extreme examples of kids who can barely read and write. You can’t send them “out” and, frankly, you shouldn’t. Why not?

The most current reading research shows the importance of language comprehension i.e., literary analysis, syntax and text structure, vocabulary/morphology, and writing. Stuff you do everyday.

But that’s not enough. Some of your kids desperately need the other side of Scarborough’s famous rope: word recognition. Phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, and fluency practice.

As a former MS reading specialist and ELA teacher, I’ve designed a program for you to focus on that word recognition piece.

Now, it’s going to take 15-20 minutes of explicit instruction every day, so if you can’t figure out meaningful independent activities for the grade-level readers to complete each day, this program is not for you.

Also, your struggling readers and writers are going to need 15-20 minutes of practice per day in class, at home, in study hall, etc.

I designed the program with no prep and no correction. No advanced training–you train as you teach this scripted program. The program is for secondary ELA teachers, not reading specialists, and their students. For example, the decodable booklets feature teenage characters and plots with comic illustrations.

Help for Students

Here’s the resource with both print and Google slide options. If you can’t get your principal to purchase, email me and I’ll get your students this program. You can preview the entire program. https://penningtonpublishing.com/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-1

Not sure if the program will match the specific needs of your struggling students? Administer the free vowel sounds phonics assessment, diagnostic spelling assessment, and the individual reading fluency assessment here: https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/pennington-publishing-elareading-assessments/

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Mark Pennington is a former ELA teacher at the middle school, high school, and community college levels. Mark is also an MA reading specialist and author of many fine Pennington Publishing programs.

Grammar/Mechanics ELA reading intervention resources, reading skills, reading skills instruction

Canadian English Spelling Programs

Differentiated Spelling Instruction (the Canadian English Version) consists of separate grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 full-year spelling patterns programs. Each program in the series features weekly grade level word lists, tests, and spelling sorts plus diagnostically targeted worksheets to help students master previous grade level spelling patterns. In other words, students catch up while they keep up with grade level instruction. 

With this program, Canadian teachers can truly differentiate instruction for all students with maximum instruction and practice, using minimal class time.

The research-based program resources help students orthographically map the sound-spelling patterns and retain what they have learned. Students learn the conventional spelling rules, spelling-vocabulary connections, and foreign language influences they need to write with confidence. No silly themed lists of colors, animals, or words that end with “ly.”

This no-prep program is easy-to-teach. We even provide two quick YouTube training videos to ensure your success!

This program focuses on instructional spelling patterns. Most are consistent between Canadian and American English, but where they differ, students will learn the Canadian spellings with notations that American English differs. Canadians often muse about their spelling inconsistencies; however, the vast majority of Canadian spelling patterns are quite regular and dependable.

Differentiated Spelling Instruction features 30 weekly grade-level spelling word lists and tests. Each spelling pattern has a corresponding spelling sort. Quarterly summative assessments with progress monitoring matrices help teachers monitor individual and class mastery of the grade-level spelling patterns.

To address the needs of diverse learners, the program provides the comprehensive Diagnostic Spelling Assessment with recording matrix to help teachers individualize spelling instruction (includes printables, Google Forms, and Google Sheets). The corresponding 64 remedial spelling pattern worksheets each include a spelling sort, a word jumble, rhyme, and/or book search, and a short formative assessment to determine whether or not the student has mastered the spelling pattern.

The appendix also includes these spelling resources: sound wall printables, supplementary word lists, spelling review games, proofreading activities, spelling rules, and memorable spelling songs.

Now that’s effective differentiated instruction! Your students can catch up, while they keep up with grade level spelling instruction.
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Teachers and administrators are invited to preview every page in all six spelling programs (grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Click HERE to view the programs and affordable pricing. Lifetime license per teacher. All digital. Both student workbook and teachers guide included. We also publish American English versions of Differentiated Spelling Instruction.

Grammar/Mechanics Canadian English Spelling, Canadian Grade 3 English Spelling Programs, Canadian spelling programs, Grade 4 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 5 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 6 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 7 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 8 Canadian spelling programs

Morphology | Greek and Latin 25 Power Words

Rationale and Purpose

Teachers and students are all about pragmatic tools. High utility and high frequency vocabulary words give them the most bang for the buck. Teachers want to teach both the high utility Tier 2 academic vocabulary and the the high frequency Greek and Latin prefixes, bases, and suffixes. Thee 25 Greek and Latin Power Words provide both.

Methodology

I examined the results from vocabulary research studies on high frequency Greek and Latin morphemes and chose the 60 highest frequency prefixes, bases, and suffixes. I then combined two or three of these morphemes for each of the 25 Greek and Latin Power Words. We simply remember linked items better than we remember items in isolation.

I used the More Words site to check the number of words in which each of these 60 word parts appear in the English language. The results were staggering: The 60 word parts are found in over 60,000 words, including their inflections (a conservative total). With our English lexicon of about 600,000 words, these 60 word parts constitute 10% of the words in our language.

Format

• 25 Tier 2 Academic Language Power Words Divided by Morphemes (meaning-based word parts)
• Two or Three Morphemes for Each Word with Concise Definitions
• Word Counts for Each Word Part
• Research Studies

FREE Download

25 Greek and Latin Power Words

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Mark Pennington is the author of the grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary.

Comprehensive Vocabulary

Grammar/Mechanics 25 Greek and Latin Power Words, Academic Language, greek and latin morphemes, morphology

The Science of Reading Intervention Program for Ages 8-Adults

If you were tasked with developing a secondary reading intervention program from “the ground up,” where would you start and what resources would you consider using? I’ve been there and done that a few times with plenty of mis-steps and quite a few success stories.

Disclaimer: I’m the author/publisher of a reading intervention program for ages 8-adult. The following link will allow you to access the entire print portion of the program (not the corresponding Google slides): https://penningtonpublishing.com/collections/reading/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-bundle

Now to the heart of my question: “If you were developing a secondary reading RTI program from the ground up, what materials/programs would you include?”

That is precisely the question that 23 reading specialist colleagues faced 20 years ago in a large and diverse California school district. Our reading test percentiles were in the 40s and we were locked into what became balanced literacy instruction. Enter one of the first SOR programs: Open Court. With a generous grant, our district was able to hire and train another 24 literacy coaches in Open Court for beginning readers.

Our reading scores increased dramatically into the 70 and later the 80 percentiles. However, our ages 8-high school scores remained stagnant. Our reading specialists were tasked with creating both upper elementary and secondary reading curricula for grade-level and intervention to pick up where Open Court and our fantastic teachers left off. Our progressive district incentivized those of us who took the lead in writing program resources by freeing us up from teaching duties and allowing us to retain ownership of what we created. All of this to say that I’ve had the challenge and pleasure of creating a secondary reading intervention from “the ground up.”

A few suggestions:

For trained reading intervention teachers, a “add this, use that” piecemeal approach is fine; however, not so for most secondary teachers who are content experts, but not reading experts. Although the suggested resources in this post’s comments are terrific, inexperienced secondary teachers will feel more comfortable using one comprehensive program. Less training, less juggling and coordinating programs, less time management issues.

My next suggestion will definitely get some pushback. Beware of “one size fits all” claims regarding program materials. Yes, a high school student who does not understand the alphabetic principle has the same needs as a beginning reader, but the quickest way to shut down a secondary student or teacher is to squeeze a primary “square peg” into a secondary “round hole.” For example, using childish decodables are not acceptable; my 54 decodables feature teenage illustrations, themes, and plots.

Additionally, be careful to construct or use a program which has realistic time parameters. You’re not going to be able to cram 90 minutes of instruction into a 50 minute period. Select instructional resources which will allow you to prioritize, cut, and/or expand to your instructional minutes. In other words, flexibility is key.

One last consideration: I’m sure you are familiar with Scarborough’s Rope. Make sure that you incorporate both word recognition and language comprehension instruction in your intervention. Both are essential, but the latter is critically important for secondary students.

Grammar/Mechanics fluency, language comprehension, phonics, reading comprehension, secondary reading intervention programs, word recognition

How to place students in appropriate reading intervention instruction with secondary reading assessments? Teacher/counselor/parent/cumulative file recommendations and normed or even criterion referenced tests to narrow things down (hopefully in the context of a well-structured site-wide MTSS or RtI decision-making team).

Thereafter, I suggest administering three screening assessments: phonics, spelling, and fluency. But why not a screening assessment that will determine a reading grade level–one that truly measures reading comprehension? The simple answer is that these data are not useful for the purposes of placement in reading intervention classes/groups. Grade level determinations do not tell us why students are reading at their tested levels. Grade levels are a shotgun approach, not the laser precision we need to target student literacy deficits.

Moreover, these screening assessments should be comprehensive diagnostics. Why bother administering a random sample phonics or spelling screener that simply indicates “vowel sound-spelling” issues? Why not screen and diagnose specifics with the same assessment? Teachers want teachable data e.g., they want to know which long /e/ sound-spellings have and have not yet been mastered.

My thought on further diagnostic assessment to target differentiated literacy instruction? Wait a bit.

I have found success with whole-class, accelerated, foundational, explicit word recognition (phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, fluency, morphology, and comprehension) instruction, followed by administering mid-year diagnostic assessments. For the balance of the year, those data drive small group instruction, coupled with a language comprehension emphasis.

Waiting a bit on some diagnostic assessments and/or repeating some allows secondary students to piece together past learning. Don’t we want to assess students at their best?

Waiting to assess and differentiate instruction according to the data makes far better sense than assessing from Day One. A thorough A to Z crash course often fills gaps and reminds students of what they have learned. Accelerated instruction makes use of that prior knowledge. My take is that after a coherent “refresher/reminder/a-bit-more-practice” course of instruction, the diagnostic assessments yield much more accurate data. Those data help us know what our students truly don’t know–and we can plan more efficient and targeted instruction without repeating what students have “learned” year after year.

Additionally, having taught reading intervention at the middle school, high school, and community college levels, I have learned that these older students who struggling with word recognition and language comprehension are qualitatively different learners as opposed to their elementary counterparts. Once gaps have been filled through the first 18 weeks of explicit instruction, second chance remediation via differentiated individual and small group instruction can be the focus, based upon the mid-year diagnostic assessments.

Pennington Publishing is pleased to provide free diagnostic assessments to help secondary teachers pinpoint individual literacy needs. Whole-class, easy-to-administer (most with audio files and in self-correcting Google forms or print. Data recording matrices for progress monitoring. Click to download these essential diagnostics (phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, academic vocabulary, fluency, grammar, mechanics): FREE ELA and Reading Assessments

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Instructional Resources Corresponding to the Assessments:

Targeted Independent Practice

Targeted Independent Practice: Affordable, single-focus programs.

Comprehensive Reading Intervention Programs:

The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

SCIENCE OF READING INTERVENTION PROGRAM RESOURCES HERE for detailed product description and sample lessons.

Grammar/Mechanics diagnostic reading assessments, ELA diagnostic assessments, secondary reading assessments, universal screeners