The Reading Teacher's Sourcebook - The Meadows Center for ...

The following sections include sample word recognition lessons designed to teach students to recognizeand read common syllable types and to use the consistent strategy to read multisyllable words.SELECTING AN EFFECTIVE WORD RECOGNITION PROGRAMMost students who have serious difficulties with word recognition, particularly those who need intensiveintervention—those with instructional reading levels below grade 3—will benefit from a more systematicapproach to word reading instruction than the one described above. Systematic instruction is based on acarefully designed scope and sequence, in which less difficult skills are introduced before more difficultskills and many opportunities for practice are integrated into the lesson design. This level of systematicinstruction is best provided by implementing a high-quality reading intervention program, usuallyconsisting of published materials. This section will provide guidelines for selecting such a program formiddle school students.The following guidelines are based on characteristics of instruction that are found in many studies ofeffective intervention for struggling readers. Figure 101 is designed to be used as groups of educatorsevaluate reading intervention programs.IntroductionFigure 101. Guidelines for Reviewing a Reading Program.This document was developed to assist the Curriculum and Instruction Team at the FloridaCenter for Reading Research (FCRR) as they review reading programs for grades 4–12 todetermine alignment with current reading research.Process of Using GuidelinesWhen reviewing a reading program thoroughly, it is not sufficient to examine only a sample oflessons. In order to determine whether a program is aligned with current reading research, it isessential to review all the teacher and student materials. This document was developed to helpnavigate a reviewer through the lengthy but important process of reviewing a reading program.It was designed to be utilized in conjunction with the resources listed below. When using thisdocument, place a check mark in either the yes or no column after each question. If the answeris not clear or not evident, write “not evident” in the comments column and leave the yes/nocolumns blank. It is very important to use the comments column to detail specific examples,note questions, etc. When a question is marked “no” or “not evident,” it is a concern that theprogram may not be aligned with current reading research. That is, if a reading program isaligned with current reading research, then “yes” will be marked on all of the questions withevidence to support this assertion written in the comments column.Note that this document includes the sequence of instruction from 4th through 12th grade.(figure continued on the next page)240The Reading Teacher’s Sourcebook