Tier 2 reading intervention: six weeks of comprehension in small groups

Some students can read every word of a paragraph and still not tell you what it was about. These packets give that small group six weeks of comprehension practice, with the texts, the questions and the records already planned.

From Pre-Check to Post-Check

• Pre-Check first. Parts A to F match Weeks 1 to 6. Each part is one short text with 4 questions, so a student's part scores show which weeks to teach.
• A Toolkit page each week with the strategy and three words to know.
• Five sessions a week. Sessions 1 and 2 use two short texts. Sessions 3 and 5 read a longer passage and finish with a written response and a "Before you hand it in" checklist. Session 4 rereads the Session 3 passage with a graphic organizer.
• A Week Check after Session 5: one text and 8 questions, done without help. From Week 3 on, its last two questions go back to an earlier week.
• Post-Check last. The same question types as the Pre-Check, with new texts.
• Records: a Pre-Check Class Summary, a Group Progress Log, a My Progress Graph that students color in, and a certificate for the end of the six weeks.
• Answer keys that name their page. Every multiple-choice answer gives the paragraph and the words that prove it, and written work has sample answers.

What each grade covers

• 3rd Grade Reading Intervention (119 pages, $9.95): Six weeks of comprehension, one skill a week: main idea, central message, inference, context clues, characters, and cause and effect, across 60 short texts, 30 fiction and 30 nonfiction.
• 4th Grade Reading Intervention (125 pages, $9.95): Six weeks of comprehension, one skill a week: main idea and summarizing, theme, inference, context clues and Greek and Latin roots, characters, setting and events, and text structure, across 60 short texts, 30 fiction and 30 nonfiction.
• 5th Grade Reading Intervention (138 pages, $9.95): Six weeks of comprehension, one skill a week: main ideas and summarizing, theme, quoting accurately to infer, context clues and figurative language, comparing characters, settings and events, and reasons and evidence, across 60 short texts, 30 fiction and 30 nonfiction.

Each packet holds 30 sessions, 60 texts (30 fiction, 30 nonfiction), 252 multiple-choice questions and 18 written responses.

The 3rd through 5th grade bundle carries all three grades, 382 pages, for $20.95, against $29.85 bought separately: 90 sessions, 180 texts, 756 multiple-choice questions and 54 written responses. It suits an interventionist or a reading specialist who works with groups from more than one grade.

What this is, and what it is not

This is comprehension practice with progress monitoring. The Pre-Check, Week Checks and Post-Check are short classroom checks of the six skills in each packet, written for it. They do not measure a reading level and they are not a formal test. Read the scores alongside your school's data, what you see in class and your intervention team's process, and treat the Teacher Guide's decision points as starting points for your judgment.

The math intervention packets follow the same shape: a Pre-Check, five sessions a week, a Week Check and a Post-Check. For a day you are out, the reading sub plans give a substitute a week of passages and questions.