SOUND PARTNERS

Abstract

In kindergarten and first-grade classrooms across the country, teachers notice with concern students who struggle to learn basic reading skills. District-wide screening assessments help to identify the students with limited letter-name and letter-sound knowledge, phoneme segmenting and blending, decoding, and spelling. Schools that use Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and Response-to-Intervention (RTI) models develop plans to guide instruction for these struggling students. Classroom teachers often try to add practice for these students during their Tier I reading instruction, and to carefully monitor student rate of growth. When a student does not respond adequately to a scientifically based classroom reading program, a team of teachers often meets to consider a more intensive small group or one-to-one intervention.