Donna M. Scanlon’s research while affiliated with State University of New York and other places

Established text and teacher resource is now in a revised and updated third edition, with a broader focus on whole-class instruction as well as small-group and individualized intervention. The evidence-based Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) provides a clear framework for supporting literacy development in grades K–3, particularly for students who experience reading difficulties. The book gives teachers the knowledge needed to more effectively use existing curricular materials to meet core instructional goals in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, word solving/word learning, vocabulary and language skills, and comprehension. Twenty-six reproducible forms can be copied from the book or downloaded and printed from the companion website. Of special value, the website also features approximately 200 pages of additional printable assessment tools and instructional resources. Prior edition title: Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties.

As you set about reading this column, you already know how to read most, if not all, of the words you will encounter. If you first learned to read in English, you are likely a highly proficient decoder, yet you may not even use this important skill. Rather, you will be more or less propelled through the text on the basis of your sight vocabulary— the tens of thousands of words you can read automatically and effortlessly. A critical question in early literacy instruction is how individuals transition from having little or no ability to read words to having the vast sight vocabulary that characterizes proficient readers. Clearly, this many words cannot be explicitly taught. Related to this question is the ongoing controversy over how beginning and developing readers should be instructed to solve unfamiliar words while reading. Currently, many advocate an exclusively code-based approach, whereas others advocate teaching children to use both code-based and contextual information. In this column, we explicate the theoretical and practical advantages of the latter approach and provide guidance on how teachers can help readers attain the needed level of sight word proficiency.

Recently, there has been growing concern about how to most effectively support the literacy development of beginning and struggling readers with regard to helping them learn to effortlessly identify the huge number of words that proficient readers ultimately learn to read with automaticity. Some, noting the critical importance of phonics instruction in learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, take the position that students should attend only to alphabetic information in word-solving attempts. However, long-standing theories of the development of word-reading skills support the value of teaching students to use both alphabetic and contextual information in word solving in interactive and confirmatory ways. The authors summarize 25 years of research in which beginning and struggling readers were taught to use both code- and meaning/ context-based strategies for word solving and were provided with explicit, responsive instruction focused on the alphabetic code. The authors present brief summaries of theoretical explanations of the word-learning process. Then, the authors summarize six experimental studies that, together, included students in kindergarten through fourth grade and involved the implementation of the Interactive Strategies Approach in the primary grades and an extension of the approach with middle elementary students with reading difficulties. The studies resulted in substantially improved reading outcomes among treatment versus business-as-usual groups. The authors contend that using both phonics and context-based information facilitates the ability to build sight vocabulary, which in turn enables readers to turn their attention to the most important goal of literacy learning: meaning construction.

Grounded in a strong evidence base, this indispensable practitioner guide and text has given thousands of teachers tools to support the literacy growth of beginning and struggling readers in grades K–2. The interactive strategies approach (ISA) is organized around core instructional goals related to enhancing word learning and comprehension of text. The book provides guidance for assessment and instruction in whole-class, small-group, and one-to-one settings, using the curricular materials teachers already have. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download and print 26 reproducible forms in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size. Of special value, the website also features nearly 200 pages of additional printable forms, handouts, and picture sorts that supplement the book's content.

When literacy instruction uses books selected on the basis of thematic content, it can foster the attainment of literacy goals while developing readers’ knowledge. This paper provides a rationale for the use of thematically-related texts in literacy instruction and describes some thematic units that have been a part of literacy intervention research with struggling readers. Examples illustrate how to begin with simple texts, read multiple texts on a topic to develop knowledge, include a more challenging, culminating text, and use themes to develop useful genre knowledge. Tips for teachers who wish to develop their own content themes are suggested.

To implement Response to Intervention with intermediate-grade struggling readers, there is a need for interventions that are responsive to individual student needs, and sufficiently comprehensive to support the many dimensions of the reading process. This research examined the efficacy of such an intervention, the Interactive Strategies Approach—Extended (ISA-X), which was provided by public school teachers in a daily, one-to-one format to grade 4 struggling readers with individualized education programs. Half the students received the intervention in the fall semester while the others served as a wait-list control group who received the intervention in the spring. After the fall intervention, struggling readers had significantly higher scores than control students on measures of reading comprehension and accuracy; effects on New York State's high-stakes language arts assessment approached significance. Regression analyses showed significant intervention effects on measures of basic reading skills and social studies vocabulary; effects on a measure of fluency were not significant.

This study examined the effectiveness of two tiers of intervention for preventing early reading difficulties among kindergarten children who qualified as at risk of experiencing difficulty in the early stages of learning to read. Participating schools were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: Professional Development for classroom teachers which served as a Tier 1 intervention, small group supplemental Intervention for children which served as a Tier 2 intervention, or both Professional Development for teachers and direct intervention for children. Three cohorts of children were followed from the beginning of kindergarten to the beginning of first grade. The first cohort served as a Baseline Cohort. The experimental treatments were instituted for the second cohort (Implementation Cohort). The third cohort served as a Maintenance Cohort which allowed us to evaluate whether effects of PD were still evident in the year following the implementation of the PD program. Data were gathered on both student achievement and classroom language arts instruction for each cohort. Outcomes suggested that all three treatments were very effective in reducing the number of at risk kindergartners who remained at risk for reading difficulties at the end of the school year although differences in the effectiveness of classroom instruction observed for the Baseline Cohort made it difficult to confidently compare the relative effectiveness of the three treatment conditions. However, comparisons between the Baseline and Maintenance Cohorts clearly revealed characteristics of classroom instruction that were associated with reductions in the number of children who qualified as at risk for reading difficulties at the beginning of first grade.