Reading intervention that works
Reading intervention is extra, targeted teaching for students who are behind in reading. It works best when it is explicit, matched to the skill the student is missing, given often enough, and checked every couple of weeks to see whether it is working.
In most schools intervention is organized in tiers. Tier 1 is the core lesson every student gets. Tier 2 adds small-group teaching, often three to five students for 20 to 30 minutes several times a week. Tier 3 is more intensive, with smaller groups or one-to-one teaching and closer monitoring.
The articles in this section explain how to plan an intervention lesson, how to group students, how much time intervention needs, how to adjust when progress stalls, and what Orton-Gillingham style teaching means as an approach. They also cover how to document intervention so the record is useful at a meeting.
Each article is written for the person doing the teaching: interventionists, reading specialists, tutors and special education teachers.
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Reading intervention that works: tiers, dosage and group size
What reading intervention that works looks like: how tiers fit together, how many minutes and days, group sizes, what to teach, and how to judge progress.
All articles
Tier 2 vs Tier 3 reading intervention: what actually changes
How Tier 2 and Tier 3 reading intervention differ in group size, minutes, teaching and monitoring, and how teams decide when a student moves up or down.Small group phonics intervention: a 30-minute lesson plan
A ready-to-use 30-minute small group phonics intervention plan: what to teach in each part, a sample week, error correction scripts and how to adjust.Reading intervention schedules: minutes, days and weeks
How to build a reading intervention schedule: minutes per day, days per week, cycle length, where it fits in the school day, and sample grade-level blocks.The Orton-Gillingham approach: what it is, what it isn't, and what the research says
The Orton-Gillingham approach in plain terms: its principles, what a lesson looks like, what the research says, and how it fits within structured literacy.Structured literacy intervention, step by step
What structured literacy intervention includes, how it differs from guided reading, and a step-by-step plan for teaching struggling readers with it.When a student is not responding to reading intervention: what to check
What to do when a student is not responding to reading intervention: a checklist of causes, how to intensify instruction, and when to consider an evaluation.Reading data meetings that lead to decisions
How to run a reading data meeting that ends in decisions: who attends, what to bring, a 45-minute agenda, decision rules and follow-up.Grouping students for reading intervention by skill
How to group students for reading intervention by skill, not score: using diagnostic data, group sizes, regrouping every 6 to 8 weeks and mixed-grade groups.Exiting reading intervention: when a student is ready and how to step down
When a student is ready to exit reading intervention, how to step down support gradually, what to monitor afterward, and how to explain it to families.