Reading Plus
Study: Reutzel et al. (2012)

Summary

Descriptive Information

The Reading Plus® System serves all students to increase vocabulary, comprehension, endurance, memory, silent reading fluency and provides the ability to systematically master higher levels of text. Reading Plus® is a guided, silent reading supplementary intervention. Students participate in a series of online, estimator-based sessions that included a specific sequence of daily activities. As struggling students participate in Reading Plus®, the difficulty level of the reading material adjusts as a function of a student'south progress based upon reading comprehension and reading rate analyses. Students begin the intervention by completing a reading assessment (Reading Placement Appraisal, RPA) to establish the initial placement level within the program. This 20-minute placement test assesses independent reading level, rate, comprehension, and vocabulary to determine the nigh advisable practice starting level. The RPA consisted of three parts. Part I presents students with several 100-word selections followed past a set of literal recall questions. Content difficulty is adapted according to a student's comprehension operation and reading rate mastery to ascertain a student'south tentative contained reading level. Office Two with its 300-word selections and various comprehension questions serves to confirm the independent reading level. Role Iii assesses a student's vocabulary level. From the iii-office RPA cess, an instructional reading level is established for individual students and they are then placed at appropriate levels of reading challenge within each instructional component of Reading Plus®. Students go along to be assessed on like tasks throughout the intervention menses with appropriate adjustments fabricated to the level of reading selections as a result of their performances on these formative assessments. As students participate in this supplementary silent reading fluency intervention, they are provided reading lessons and continuous feedback nearly their silent reading in an individual computer-based, online environment Each lesson begins with a perceptual accuracy and visual efficiency (PAVE) warm-upwards. This action consists of two parts, Scan and Flash. In the Browse activity, students browse the estimator screen to count the number of times a target alphabetic character or number appears on the screen. The target and other letters or numbers are flashed in a left-to-correct presentation. The presentation speed increases in accordance with the student's proficiency. In the 2nd activeness, Flash, a serial of letters or numbers ranging in length from 2 to 12 depending on the students' placement level are flashed (1/vi of a second per wink, which does not permit moving of the eyes and thus provides single fixation training). The amount of numbers or messages increases in response to the students' power to correctly recreate the sequence. This warm-upwardly activeness aims to increment students' visual perception, attention, and automaticity in the discrimination and recognition of print. The next instructional component provides students with extensive structured silent reading practice to build fluency within an authentic reading experience where students read for meaning. During guided silent reading sessions, involving timed, guided, left-to-right reading do, students read selections from a diverse collection of narrative and expository texts at each student's independent instructional reading level. The work of O'Connor and colleagues (2002), as reported by Allington (2006), showed that providing daily intervention lessons using course-level texts was not nearly as successful every bit providing daily lessons using texts matched to the instructional reading levels of struggling readers. O'Connor and colleagues argued that selecting texts of advisable claiming should be a starting time step in the design of effective supplementary reading teaching and intervention. Lesson text selections are matched to struggling readers' independent reading levels using Spache, Dale-Chall, and Fry readability formulas. Reading Plus® is designed to continuously and dynamically monitor student performance using both reading rate measures and responses to comprehension questions, adjusting the reading content level to match each student's progress. In improver, Reading Plus® uses a mix of instructional formats and scaffolds to further match individualized needs and rates of progress. These include variation in the presentation of text, the length of reading segments, the location and number of comprehension questions, and the use of repeated readings. Thus, students are able to progress through levels of reading challenge based on several factors. Students must be able to read passages at their electric current levels with course-appropriate rates and good comprehension earlier they accelerate to subsequent levels. The program provides approximately 600 reading selections ranging from pre-primer to adult-level texts, including high interest/depression readability selections for older struggling students. Selections represent narrative, expository, and informational texts in a broad assortment of genres. Lesson texts are presented inside both a guided silent reading format (a moving window guides students' optics across lines of print from left-to right) and an independent reading format without any left-to-right guidance. Regardless of the nature of the lesson or action, text is presented inside a controlled format and rate parameter for each educatee. Dynamically controlled by individual student performance, comprehension questions are either interspersed betwixt individual reading segments or followed at the conclusion of the story. All comprehension questions are electronically coded by the system to continuously track student performance with 25 comprehension skills based on Blossom's Taxonomy, including literal understanding, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and appreciation. The format (wide vs. repeated readings) and rate at which text is presented on screen is then incrementally increased as a office of students' functioning on these comprehension questions and reading charge per unit performances during the reading events. As students progress through the levels, the texts read became progressively longer and more challenging. The intent of the guided silent reading lesson is to provide students with authentic reading experiences that build comprehension, fluency and stamina at a level of difficulty that will provide them the maximum dispatch of progress. Additionally, given that the difficulty of texts was established using the Spache (for primary-level texts) and Dale-Chall (centre form-level texts), both of which rely on loftier-frequency word lists, students have considerable opportunity to develop fluency with a cadre group of high frequency words reading these texts. This guided silent reading component is followed by a cloze-structured vocabulary component. This vocabulary component uses structured contextual analysis activities to assist struggling students develop comprehension competency. These cloze-structured exercises are intended to encourage students to use context clues to complete the meaning of sentences also as longer passages. Students too practice deriving the meaning of difficult or unfamiliar word meanings by analyzing the surrounding context presented in each activity, potentially enhancing broad reading vocabulary learning strategies and skills. Performance scores within each do module, the interconnectedness of the various exercise modules, integrated formative assessments following each lesson, and a highly sophisticated operating arrangement inform just-in-time instructional decisions that are sensitive to student characteristics such equally historic period, reading level, performance, progress, and instructional trajectory. The arrangement not only dynamically adjusts each pupil'south differentiated lesson format within each practice module but also provides unique adjustments for daily do sessions. The integration of these modules allows for the system to provide each student with a exercise environment that uniquely addresses his or her individual silent reading evolution needs at whatsoever moment in time during the intervention period.

Target Grades:
3, 4, v, 6, 7, viii, 9, x, xi, 12
Target Populations:
  • Students with learning disabilities
  • English language learners
  • Any student at risk for academic failure
Expanse(south) of Focus:
  • Comprehension
  • Fluency
  • Vocabulary

Acquisition & Toll

Where to Obtain:
Taylor Assembly
110 Westward Canal Street, Suite 301 Winooski, VT 05454
1-800-732-3758
www.readingplus.com
Initial Cost:
$23.00 per pupil
Replacement Cost:
Contact vendor for pricing details.

Reading Plus® Commitment Formats and Costs Reading Plus® costs are based on a Concurrent User (CU) model. CU seats have ii component costs: license and web hosting. A Reading Plus® CU license is a permanent purchase and has a one-fourth dimension fee. Web-hosting fees, which are paid annually, provide 24/vii access to CU seats from anywhere with Internet access and include unlimited technical support. In addition, web-hosting fees include seamless delivery of all Reading Plus® updates and upgrades. Professional development, which includes initial and follow upwards preparation, as well as ongoing implementation support, is calculated at $135 per CU. Cost per student based on CU seats The number of CU seats purchased determines the maximum number of students who can access the system simultaneously. By scheduling multiple students for each CU seat, a Reading Plus® site tin significantly lower the per student cost of the installation. If a schoolhouse uses a rotation model that allows five students to share each CU seat, the cost for the kickoff three years is approximately $23 per student (based on 25 CU seats). Total Cost of three-Year Initial Purchase CU Seats License Hosting x $7,500 $1,800 25 $thirteen,000 $4,000 50 $20,000 $7,500 100 $32,500 $14,000

Grooming & Technical Support

Staff Qualified to Administer Include:
  • Special Instruction Instructor
  • General Education Teacher
  • Reading Specialist
  • Math Specialist
  • EL Specialist
  • Interventionist
  • Student Back up Services Personnel (e.grand., advisor, social worker, school psychologist, etc.)
  • Paraprofessional
  • Other:
Training Requirements:
4-8 hours of preparation

Instructors receive ii-part training that takes place via either face-to-face or live webinar. Instructors receive Initial Grooming before they get started with Reading Plus® and Follow-Upward Training once students have completed at to the lowest degree viii sessions in the program. The Initial Preparation covers content in five areas: ane) Why Reading Plus®?: Instructors acquire how and why Reading Plus® leverages technology to provide students with effective scaffolded silent reading practice (which incorporates the essential elements of scaffolding, structure, motivation, and accountability) as well every bit development in foundational visual perceptual skills that are essential for efficient and effective silent reading. 2) Student Experience: Instructors learn about the component programs of Reading Plus® and what their students will feel from the beginning time they log in. During the face-to-face up training, participants engage in a hands-on mock student session. 3) Getting Started: Instructors learn about their Reading Plus® teacher direction interface. They acquire how to navigate through the interface, how to read the student data. Teachers are taught what they can do to assist students who are non achieving ongoing success with the program. During the confront-to-confront training, participants get easily-on feel with the teacher management interface. 4) Motivation: Instructors learn about the motivation tools built into the Reading Plus® system and what they can exercise to create a fun and engaging classroom surroundings for Reading Plus®. 5) Accessing Assist: Instructors are told how to access live support via phone, email, or live webinar throughout their Reading Plus implementation. In add-on, they receive a tour of the comprehensive Reading Plus® Assist Site and all of the resources information technology provides. The Follow-Up Grooming enables participants to clarify detailed data and introduces them to the course-level and educatee-level reports that assist them gauge the growth students are making inside Reading Plus®. They acquire almost the best written report(southward) to access for varied purposes, including the best educatee reports to pull every bit they look for specific information regarding a student's response to the intervention. Instructors too learn how to analyze the information to determine how they can accommodate the program to best serve specific educatee needs.

Reading Plus® delivers training materials in impress and online formats. The basic principles of product function and usage are captured in printed materials. In 2008, Reading Plus® revised its Inquiry & Reports Binder training materials to align with the release of v3.6 of the product. The preparation materials included new and revised information for administrators, lead teachers, and individual instructors on the utilise and functionality of the product. Following extensive in-house review of these preparation materials, a pocket-size-scale live beta test of training materials binders was conducted in June 2008 by Computer Generation in Arizona schools. A second beta was conducted in June-August 2008 by Educational Learning Systems in schools in northern Florida. In Baronial 2008, a total-calibration live test of training materials was conducted by Educational Endeavors in a broad range of Miami-Dade Canton Schools. In addition, Reading Plus® delivers extensive online preparation and support to instructors and students bachelor on demand. Online materials include a library of resources, training movies, and webinars (live and recorded) to provide instruction and assistance that ensure optimal results with the program. Online resources are monitored constantly and evolve to meet the continually changing needs of 21st century educators. Reading Plus® has learned what structure and sequence of training materials works all-time by listening to the feedback and suggestions of the tens of thousands of teachers who have tested these materials in classrooms and reading labs across the land. Both print and online materials are supported by a squad of implementation and preparation specialists who ensure that Reading Plus® resource are optimized for ease-of-use, vetted for accuracy and relevance, and modified, as needed, to arrange irresolute needs of professional development.

Admission to Technical Support:
We provide ongoing back up to Reading Plus® instructors. A Reading Plus® staff member is dedicated to each Reading Plus® site; this person serves to provide individualized support to the site for the duration of their implementation. Support includes checking in via email or phone between one to four times per calendar month to provide relevant and timely tips and to remind users that Reading Plus® staff are available to respond questions, engage in data chats, or provide additional training.

Administration

Recommended Administration Formats Include:
  • Individual students
Minimum Number of Minutes Per Session:
45
Minimum Number of Sessions Per Week:
4
Minimum Number of Weeks:
16
Detailed Implementation Manual or Instructions Available:
Yes