Intervention for Mary

11. Instructional focus based on the assessment results

·         Mary was able to read the passage with good accuracy, but struggled with comprehension. In particular, Mary had difficulties remembering any details beyond the main ideas of the passage. Thus, I suggest giving Mary phrase-cued text lessons. These lessons focus on breaking up the phrases of a passage in order to highlight the details that often hide within phrases,

22. Length of Intervention (How many weeks? Daily lessons? How long is the lesson while maintaining the rest of your class?)

·         Phrase-cued text lessons should be implemented 3-4 times a week in 10-15 minute segments. After two weeks of phrase-cued text lessons I would give Mary a passage that is not phrase-cued in order to assess her ability to pick out the details without the help of phrase-cues. Depending on the results, I would determine whether Mary needed further intervention.

33.  Intervention structure (intervention components, such as repeated reading, decoding, encoding, expository structure and details, writing…)

·         Typically I would model a massage first, and then have Mary read the passage. Then, we would discuss details of the passage. If necessary, Mary would reread the passage 1-2 times to understand the most important ideas.

44. Create one sample mini-lesson that addresses Mary’s areas of need. 

·         Find a passage and mark the phrase cues. I chose a passage on Lewis and Clark.

More than 200 years ago, / in 1804, two explorers made an important journey. // They were named Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. // Today, / people know a lot about the places they visited. // But 200 years ago there were no maps of that part of the United States. // They would travel by boat. // They were going to see where a great river went. // They were traveling on a river called the Missouri River. // They took many people with them to help. // There were more than 40 people on the trip. // First they had to pack a lot of food. // They took many supplies with them. // They had three boats. // It was summer. // They traveled slowly. // They had to row their boats on the river. // They would only travel a few miles every day. // They traveled for months. // Then it was winter. // They made a camp for the winter. // They camped along the river. // They waited for spring. // Snow and ice made it hard to travel in winter. // Native Americans helped them along the way. // They helped them get food. // And they showed them where places were. // The explorers had never been to this area before. // The Native Americans had lived there for many years. // A Native American woman helped them travel. // She became their guide. // Her name was Sacajawea. // She traveled with them for months. // It was hard work. // The explorers needed her help to find their way to the West. // They wanted to find out how to get to the ocean. // As they traveled, / they made maps. // Their maps showed the way the river went. // It passed through grasslands. // Then they were in mountains. // When they got to the mountains, / they had to leave their boats and walk. // It took more than a year for the explorers to get to the ocean. // When they got there they had made maps that would help many people. // But they had to bring the maps back. // It had taken more than a year to make this first part of the trip. // It took a long time to get back. // When the explorers came back, / they had been gone two years. // In 1806, they returned. // They were heroes. // They would not make such a great journey again. // They had done their job. // Their maps would help people settle in the new land. // Long after their trip, people would build roads to the west. // They would travel quickly by car. // Today people can travel their route by plane. // If you look out the window from the plane you will see those high mountains. // You will see what a difficult journey it was. //

·         Explain to the student how the phrase cues mark natural pauses in the reading and that there are often key details in the phrases.

·         Give the student a copy of the phrase-cued passage and have him/her to read along while you read the passage aloud one time.

·         Ask the student to read the passage aloud.

·         Ask the student comprehension questions about the passage.

                                                              i.      What was the passage about?

                                                            ii.      Did Lewis and Clark travel alone? Who helped them?

                                                          iii.      Did they travel in winter? Why not?

                                                          iv.      What were they doing on their journey?

                                                            v.      How long did the journey take them?

                                                          vi.      Why was their journey important?

·         If the student cannot answer these questions, allow the student to reread the passage 1-2 more times, stopping to discuss key details with the student.