Taking Action
The information and resources on Teaching Literacy to K-5 English Learners are designed to support improvements in policy and practice for districts, schools and classrooms. You can explore Doing What Works to understand the recommendations from the research and decide on changes in your own practice. Or, as a technical assistance provider or improvement team member, you may be in a position to help others examine their practice and make changes.
If you are looking to use Doing What Works resources as part of an improvement initiative, the tools in this “Do What Works” section may be especially helpful because they show how to use the resources in the “Learn What” and “See How” sections to develop a vision of desired practice, conduct a needs assessment, and develop local action plans. (Some of these tools link to materials on other parts of the website; here all the tools related to reading interventions are collected for easy reference.)
Whatever your role, there’s probably something here for you. Some suggestions targeted to specific role groups are provided under the heading “Uses by Role.”
Practice Tools
These tools help you use the materials in the “Learn What” and “See How” sections, as you tackle the hard work of school improvement. Each tool is a downloadable Word document that you can edit and adapt to serve your needs.
Learning Together About Providing Reading Interventions
Convene a school team to review the Learn What Works resources for Providing Reading Interventions, using these discussion questions.
Download Tool | WORD | 112 KB
——————————————————————————–
Mapping Your Practice in a Three-Tiered System
Some schools use a three-tiered graphic organizer to differentiate interventions. Use this tool to analyze your current practice with interventions and identify gaps you need to fill to create a dynamic system for meeting all students’ reading needs in real time.
Download Tool | WORD | 115 KB
——————————————————————————–
Conducting a Self-Assessment of Reading Interventions
Use this self-assessment checklist to take stock and identify next steps for your school.
Planning Templates
Screening and Monitoring Progress is also included in each of three comprehensive planning templates that include all five practices for Teaching Literacy to K-5 English Learners. An overview describes how these planning templates can be used by a technical assistance provider or other support provider working with schools on comprehensive needs assessment and planning.
Overview of Planning Templates
Download Overview | WORD | 107 KB
——————————————————————————–
Planning Template #1: Working with State Education Agencies
Download Template | WORD | 135 KB
——————————————————————————–
Planning Template #2: Working with Districts
Download Template | WORD | 131 KB
——————————————————————————–
Planning Template #3: Working with Schools
Download Template | WORD | 134 KB
Uses by Role
Educators at all levels of the system can use the information and tools on this site to ensure that all interventions designed to help English learners improve reading skills incorporate research-based practices.
Assessment Director:
Track reading outcome results for English learners who have received intensive reading interventions. Compare results for those who have received interventions with research-based characteristics to those who have received less intense interventions.
——————————————————————————–
Classroom Teacher:
Learn what English learners in your classroom may need in terms of additional reading instruction beyond the core instruction you are providing.
Implementing Reading Interventions
——————————————————————————–
Curriculum Coordinator:
Conduct an inventory of the reading interventions being used in the district. Evaluate which of those, if any, have been reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse. Review which interventions exemplify the recommended characteristics, e.g., small group, fast-paced instruction.
What Works Clearinghouse English Language Learner Intervention Reviews
——————————————————————————–
Federal Programs Coordinator:
Check the reading interventions being supported through federal grant funds (e.g., materials, tutoring, and professional development). Determine whether the funds are being used to support interventions with research-based characteristics.
Conducting a Self-Assessment of Reading Interventions
——————————————————————————–
Principal:
Observe the instruction provided English learners through reading interventions to determine how closely it aligns with recommended practice. Is it fast-paced with lots of opportunity for response, for example? Check scheduled times to determine whether students are receiving at least 30-50 minutes small-group instruction each day. Use the self-assessment checklist as a basis for observation.
Conducting a Self-Assessment of Reading Interventions
——————————————————————————–
Principal:
Form a core team of staff with different roles, including classroom teachers, reading specialists, and ESL teachers. Have them use the resources in this section to learn about the research-based recommendation on reading interventions. View the animated presentation, Providing Reading Interventions, as an introduction. Check for other activity suggestions in the tool, Learning Together About Providing Reading Interventions. Have them suggest next steps for the school.
Providing Reading Interventions
——————————————————————————–
Reading Coach:
Identify the different types of intervention and support that reading coaches already offer to English learners. Determine whether the offerings are comprehensive enough for students who need sustained intervention.
How to Manage Reading Interventions
Mapping Your Practice in a Three-Tiered System
——————————————————————————–
School Leadership Team:
Organize the reading interventions that are offered in the school by levels of intensity and discuss the criteria used to place English learners in particular interventions. Which criteria distinguish students who receive short-term focused interventions from those who receive intensive daily practice over a long period?
Mapping Your Practice in a Three-Tiered System
Getting the Most From This Area of the Website
For the most powerful effect on achievement, state, district and school leaders should work in concert to implement all five of the practices in Teaching Literacy to K-5 English Learners. The five research-based practices are inter-related parts of a schoolwide core literacy program. As all teachers use data to monitor the progress of all students, they can provide differentiation and extra support for English learners as needed.
The three Planning Templates are wide-ranging tools designed to support application of these ideas at the state, district, and school levels. Each encompasses all five practices for teaching literacy to English learners. These templates can provide a guiding framework whether you are initiating an improvement effort or want to review and strengthen an existing one.
Become familiar with the Learning Cycle structure that underlies this website (Learn to understand the research-based practice; See some ways the practice has been implemented; Do take action to align your practice with research.) A media presentation explains the Learning Cycle structure. Consider using this structure to guide your group’s extended investigation of the Doing What Works content.
Caution: Doing What Works provides suggestions, not prescriptions! You are the best judge of what will work in your particular setting.
Return to “PROVIDE READING INTERVENTIONS” Page
Return to “RECOMMENDED PRACTICE” Page
Return to Main Teaching Literacy Page