Reading

Through this CEM, participants will learn about intervention practices and assessments that can be integrated within a comprehensive, evidence-based reading intervention program.

These tools and practices involve multiple levels of interventions, including classwide, small group, and individual reading practices. Candidates, who gain knowledge about how to use these tools and practices effectively, will become proficient in using reading data to guide intervention decisions, and design reading interventions to align with the intensity of a student’s needs. The CEM guides candidates in becoming proactive, positive problem-solvers who anticipate and design interventions to prevent instances where students are likely to experience academic failure.

teacher with students

Purpose

This CEM is designed to build the knowledge and capacity of educators working with pre-service and/or in-service teachers teaching a diversity of students to read. The module can be adapted and is flexible to accommodate faculty and professional development provider needs. The anchor module and speaker notes can be used in their entirety to cover multiple courses or professional development sessions. Alternatively, specific content, activities, and media can be used individually to enhance existing course and/or professional development content.

Rationale

Developing highly qualified teachers is the responsibility of teacher-preparation programs, which must produce educators who have in-depth knowledge of the science of teaching reading. Yet, too many teachers have limited in-depth knowledge of how to teach struggling students to read (Joshi et al., 2009).

It is urgent that the instruction of students is improved. The 2013 NAEP scores of 4th and 8th graders have changed little over the years; 58% of fourth graders and 64% of eighth graders fall below proficient in their ability to comprehend text. Although black and Hispanic students have improved scores, a significant gap continues to exist, and students with disabilities read far below non-disabled peers (IES, 2013).

Tiered Organization

The Learning Resource parts of this CEM, which begin on the next page, are broken into increasing levels of intensity of interventions.

Reading CEM

A special thanks to the Meadows Center for Preventing Education Risk at the University of Texas at Austin for permission to use and adapt material from a module created by the Higher Education Collaborative: Foundations of Reading Instruction. ©2009 University of Texas System/Texas Education Agency.  www.meadowscenter.org