Chair, Department of Special Education

Sharing What Works Office of Academic Intervention K—12 November 2007 NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

In This Issue From the editor …

The Vocabulary 2 The field of academic intervention continues to become more Challenge by and more complex in terms of the research base upon which it Katherine Garnett, Ph.D., Chair, Dept. of Special sits and the way that administrators and teachers are bringing Education, Hunter College this research into daily practice. There is a great stress on the use of ‘research-based’ interventions, but research always A Start-Up Guide 4 requires practitioners who can translate research into To Academic Intervention everyday reality. Within the current reforms, we have a Services renewed opportunity to experiment with varied intervention in Your School by structures. The current emphasis on the concept of value Esther Klein Friedman, Ph.D., added fits perfectly with the idea of targeted and Director, NYCDOE Office of Academic differentiated interventions. Additionally, the work of the Intervention Services K-12 inquiry teams will be a complementary mechanism to the work of the academic intervention teams. The essential Working the Web 6 question for both teams is to determine which practices by Eileen Marzola, Ed.D improve the quality of teaching and learning. President, NY Branch Int’l. Dyslexia Association It’s time to focus on synthesizing the common messages that What Works in Math 7 everyone is sending our way. The strong focus on building by Linda Curtis-Bey, Director, capacity and moving student achievement one student at a NYCDOE Dept. of Mathematics time provides true opportunity for school reform. To be & Science effective, any reform must be systemic within a school building. We know that leadership is crucial in this regard and Embedded Academic 8 that effective reform, while it must pay attention to the details Intervention Resources for and be very literal in its message to practitioners, requires a Mathematics by Nickelos visionary driver to lay the groundwork each year in the life of Grant, Mathematics and Science Knowledge a school. Once that work is established at the school level, we Management Specialist, must be careful to focus continued, ongoing analysis on NYCDOE Office of Academic whether what we are doing is working. Response to Intervention Services K-12 intervention applies very broadly here as it asks us to look at whether our work is effective at the student level, but also to Rewards; Reading 11 analyze whether it is working on a school-wide level. We must Excellence Word Attack and be prepared to make mid-stream adjustments when ongoing Rate Development analysis points us in that direction. This flexibility requires a Strategies by Michael L. Schurek, Principal, great deal of knowledge and building the knowledge base in PS/MS 19X schools is paramount in the success of all academic intervention efforts.

To build capacity in schools, Katherine Garnett’s piece on building vocabulary provides a starting point for this crucial area. Other pieces address the balance between skills and strategies versus content. See what holds the most promise for your students and your school. NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 2

The Vocabulary Challenge mandate. It is doable, as long as schools acknowledge the enormity and approach it by Kate Garnett, Ph.D. seriously and head-on, weaving one Chair, Department of Special Education effective practice at a time into regular – Hunter College of the City University of NY i.e., daily, weekly, monthly – school routines. Note the emphasis here on Schooling at all levels needs to put-on-the- schoolwide persistence that integrates gas to enlarge and empower students’ effective routines – these are vital for new vocabularies. Meeting this challenge involves norms to emerge, reframing “how-we-do- school leadership and the collaboration of vocabulary.” To move from insufficient and teachers across common divides – across ineffective vocabulary practices to potent grades, across subject areas, and across common practice requires a school-culture special/general education. Effective shift whose payoff can be astounding over practices undertaken consistently will shape the long haul. And, make no mistake, students’ word minds for life. The benefits of schools can offer an exhilarating restart for accelerating vocabulary development can be the vocabulary engine--when school faculty, life-changing – from increased listening in concert, intentionally set in motion comprehension, to improved reading powerful vocabulary routines for igniting, comprehension, peaked interest in the wider activating, and expanding students’ word world, and a lifetime’s increased capacity for horizons. learning. To be clear, I am talking about increasing Large and powerful vocabularies are students’ fund of word meanings, concepts, important for success, both in school and and connections – their mental lexicons. beyond. Students’ vocabularies have not This means expanding the vocabularies in gotten nearly the emphasis they need. students’ heads, irrespective of their level of Schools rarely attend to vocabulary building reading skill. Put another way, classroom with the systematic and long-term vigor practices need to target the lexical learning required. Most teachers have few evidence- of students at varying levels of reading – by based vocabulary tools and so, ensuring oral interaction, scaffolding where understandably, tend to engage in same- reading is weak, and actually doing the old-same-old, hand-me-down, minimally reading for students, as needed. effective practices. And, even when teachers do employ one or another effective method, Note the use of the phrase vocabulary these seldom become part of the school building, which points up that this is not fabric day-after-day, class-to-class, and only about “lessons,” but also about a year-in and year-out. So, reinvigorating variety of “practices” that excite, scaffold, vocabulary-building practices across content and clarify, as well as model thinking and areas, through the grades, and in schools directly teaching vocabulary. Many and across the nation has come into focus as an varied practices are required, stitched into important “next frontier.” the structure of class periods and woven into the flow of content teaching; these can Of course, the task is formidable; the be grouped into: number of words that students need to learn is astronomical. In addition, building Things to do regularly that promote – students’ vocabularies cannot be (1) Word Consciousness – Word accomplished in one way. Clearly, this is an consciousness refers to that alertness that enormous, important, and multifaceted Continued on next page NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 3

The Vocabulary Challenge continued personal connections, laughter, fun, interactive discussion, verbal rehearsal and tunes kids into words, stimulates their word sufficient attentive practice. thirst, and fuels enduring engagement with words in the world. On the one hand this is a daunting task; on Things to do regularly that develop – the other, there are newly available (2) Flexible Strategies – The kinds of evidence-based resources* to support this mental moves teachers model and discuss endeavor – to correct misguided teaching before, during, and after reading to students notions, provide grounded instructional as well as in the course of students’ reading understandings, and lay out extremely on their own – basically, the mind’s practical means for building students’ interactions with the intentions of written vocabulary. The thing is, though: we cannot text, e.g., pausing, self-questioning, re- dabble in this work, trying out a bit here-’n- reading, out-loud articulating, connecting there, when we can fit it in. Being serious what’s known to what’s unknown, slicing off about vocabulary building means doing it. prefixes and/or suffixes, etc. * Below are resources I suggest schools make Things to do regularly that focus – use of as they take up the vocabulary challenge, (3) Vocabulary Instruction – In ratcheting up their students’ vocabulary growth particular, making use of graphic organizers, day-by-day and year-by-year: definition-plus-multiple-examples, and highlighting word relationships and word  Graves, M. F. (2005). The vocabulary book: parts. Learning and instruction. New York: Teachers College Press. (800/575-6566; Things to do regularly that ensure – www.store.tcpress.com) (4) W-i-d-e Reading  Hiebert, E.H., & Kamil, M.L. (Eds.) (2005). Wide reading (or being-read-to) has Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing incalculably powerful effects on vocabulary research to practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. growth. In fact, the major determiner of (800/926-6579; www.erlbaum.com) word haves and have-nots is how broad a range of words their minds are exposed to,  Stahl, S., & Kapinus, B. (2001). Word power: What every educator needs to know year-in and year-out – exposure that is about teaching vocabulary. Washington predominantly through reading/being-read- D.C.: National Education Association to. Obviously, hooking kids on reading is a (800/229-4200; www.nea.org/books) bedrock mission of schooling (…would that it were equally obvious that this requires  Stahl, S. A. & Nagy, W.E. (2006). Teaching word meanings. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ready access to written language via audio- (800/926-6579; www.erlbaum.com) renditions – live, taped, and digital…). A challenge, should your school choose to  The Co-Build series of Dictionaries – undertake it: specify six ways your school HarperCollinsPublishers will, over this school year, go after this www.cobuild.collins.co.uk target – hooking kids on wide Two fabulous online booklets: reading/being-read-to – specify two ways at  Hiebert, Lehr & Osborn, 2004, the schoolwide level, two more at each downloadable from www.prel.org, see grade-level and yet two more specific to under “Products” each content-area.  An outgrowth of the Texas Reading Initiative, scroll down to “Promoting Vocabulary Growth” at Plus, doing 1-4 effectively – http://www.tea.state.tx.us/reading/p Effectiveness, of course, involves many ractices/practices.html NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 4

A Start-Up Guide to Academic Intervention Services Building a structure In Your School >Establish an AIS team. This team is separate from your inquiry team, although by Esther Klein Friedman, Ph.D., some members may overlap. The AIS team Director, Office of Academic Intervention typically consists of AIS service provider(s), Services K-12, NYCDOE a member of the administration, as well as [email protected] classroom staff. One member of the team is designated as the team leader/facilitator. We all know the true purpose of academic This person establishes meeting dates and intervention services (AIS) – specifically that generally facilitates meetings, maintains it is provided as a service that moves team documents, and provides oversight of struggling students towards successful the process – particularly regarding follow academic achievement. New York State up of students. provides specific guidelines for AIS provision (http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/top/AISQAweb >Establish a regular schedule of meetings .pdf), but these are sufficiently broad to that take place weekly. These should be allow schools to create AIS structures that noted on the principal’s master calendar of meet the needs of their school community. school meetings. The goal of these While almost all schools have AIS programs, meetings is a review of AIS-qualifying these can vary widely in terms of where the student cases, including the development of service takes place, staffing, and the actual recommendations for targeted assessments, methods and materials that are used. targeted treatments and ‘temperature Because of this variability, principals often checks’ to determine if the treatment is ask for a set of suggested guidelines to working over time. ensure that students are well served in this area. The following is a suggested list of >Establish the documentation you wish to activities that will assist in building both the maintain, including the development of structures and content needed for a strong meeting agendas (typically listing the AIS program in any school: student cases to be reviewed that day), sign-ins for meeting participants, and Establishing the AIS Population templates for recording AIS suggestions made by the team. Determine the type of >By analyzing ARIS and other data sources, accountability structure you might wish to establish a master list of all students in need maintain. Typically this takes the form of an of academic intervention services in the core ‘intervention binder’ in which forms are areas of literacy, mathematics, social maintained with tabbed sections that include studies and science. These would include such items as: students in general education, special education and English language learners.  List of eligible students  List of AIS team members, with lead >Determine how much capacity you have at facilitator noted both the Tier II level (AIS provided by a Continued on next page specialist) and Tier I level (AIS provided in the classroom by the classroom teacher). NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 5 >Parents of students receiving AIS service must be notified at start date for service, as well as at exit date, in writing. AIS Start-Up Guide continued

 Meetings dates for the AIS team  AIS team agendas for each meeting  Meeting participant sign-in forms mathematics and listed in the principal’s master professional development calendar,  Attendance forms for AIS Tier II on such topics as provision (which each AIS teacher maintains)  Targeted assessment  Assessment tools section  Specific research-based academic  Compliance forms section (i.e., PIPs, intervention methods addressing the start-up and exit letters) five pillars of reading  Tabs for each AIS student with o Phonemic awareness relevant documents in it such as o Phonics assessments tools, PIPs, Response to o Fluency intervention (RTI) mechanisms, list o Vocabulary of targeted needs cross-walked with o Comprehension list of available targeted treatments  Writing Interventions provided to the student, student’s  Mathematics interventions parent start-up/exit letters  Literacy support across the content  RTI structure forms (ways of areas reminding the team to recheck a  Organizational Skills student to monitor progress and  Motor skills (handwriting and/or determine if a treatment is working) keyboarding)  The school’s intervention toolkit – the list of specific methods and materials >Toolkit Development, specifically building a that target specific intervention repertoire of research-based methods and needs materials within the school that address targeted student needs. Scheduling for AIS services In a nutshell, the provision of academic >AIS can be provided before, during and intervention services relies on good after school (including during the 37.5 structures, strategic planning, strong minutes), however the State cautions that professional capacity, use of reliable and students should not be taken out of regular proven methods, frequent ‘temperature classroom instruction checks’ to see that the intervention is working, and – most importantly – constant >Principal creates guidelines for acceptable critical analysis of and response to student times to schedule AIS (i.e., what are learning and progress. suitable times in the day for pull-out or push-in) For additional information, calendars of professional development events, or to be Building capacity placed on our mailing list to receive a variety of resources that support academic >Professional development in academic intervention services, contact Dr. Esther interventions built upon a strong Klein Friedman, director, Office of Academic foundational program in literacy and Intervention Services K-12 at [email protected]. How well are your academic interventions working? How do you know? NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 6 Is it time for a ‘temperature check’? \

WORKING THE WEB: A column devoted to tracking down useful websites for teachers and administrators facing intervention challenges in their schools.

by Eileen Marzola, Ed.D. President, NY Branch International Dyslexia Association

WHERE: www.fcrr.org The Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR).

WHY : It is an overwhelming task to evaluate and choose effective programs that have a sound research foundation for the development of literacy, yet the call for including “evidence-based” programs is increasing.

WHAT: A primary mission of this website is to disseminate information about research- based practices related to literacy instruction and assessment for children in pre-school through 12th grade. FCRR also serves as a National Technical Assistance Center for Reading First, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and involves a partnership with the University of Texas and the University of Oregon. FCRR’s role is to provide technical assistance in implementing Reading First to the entire eastern seaboard.

One of the most useful features of the site is the FCRR Reports link. Although this link is designed specifically to help schools in Florida choose reading programs, the information presented is extremely useful to other areas of the country, including New York. Currently, the FCRR reviews pre-K curricula, K-3 core reading programs, intervention and supplemental programs, middle and high school programs, and professional development in reading. Reports may be found for many programs currently in use in New York City schools including Great Leaps, Headsprout, REWARDS, Wilson Reading System, and Voyager Passport. The reports include the following components:

• Description of the reading program • Assessments related to the program • Alignment with Reading First (in terms of the five essential components of reading and professional development) • Review of research (in terms of instructional content and design as well as empirical research on the efficacy of the program) • Strengths and weaknesses of the program • Link to the program’s website • References

WHO: Dr. Joseph Torgesen, the director of the FCRR as well as the Director of the Eastern Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center, is one of the most respected researchers in reading in the country. He has been conducting research with children who have learning problems for over 25 years and is the author of over 170 articles, book chapters, books and tests related to reading and learning disabilities. For the last 15 years, he has been part of the effort supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to learn more about the nature of reading difficulties and ways to prevent and remediate reading problems in children. NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 7 What Works in Math

by Linda Curtis-Bey, Director, Department of Mathematics and Science NYCDOE [email protected]

Knowing and understanding mathematics means being able to use math in purposeful ways. A teacher’s role is to provide experiences that are meaningful and related to real-life situations. When students build knowledge derived from these experiences, they are more likely to retain and use what they have learned. No matter how students use mathematics when they enter our classrooms, our responsibility is to provide the supports necessary to improve their conceptual understanding and skills. With thoughtful teaching, every student can learn the habits of mind needed to be successful in mathematics.

The best approach to mathematics teaching and learning is a comprehensive, balanced one. Such an approach leads to students achieving a balance among understanding of concepts, proficiency in skills and knowledge of problem-solving strategies. Interactive instruction gives students an opportunity to be active learners, become effective problem solvers, and develop mathematical communication skills. In a standards-based mathematics classroom, students are encouraged to communicate through reading, writing, listening and speaking. Assessment is ongoing – both formal and informal -- and integrated with planning and teaching and learning.

A standards-based classroom:

. Challenges students with intellectually and academically rigorous instruction . Reflects a core of knowledge that is important, organized around major concepts . Makes interdisciplinary connections between and among subjects . Gives students opportunities to engage in tasks that are authentic and meaningful . Provides students with an opportunity to evaluate and revise work with peers and teachers so that the work meets standards . Engages students individually, in groups, and as a whole class or community . Involves the use of a variety of resources and appropriate materials . Engages students in accountable talk and high level thinking and motivates them to ask questions, solve problems, and apply reason to a problem/task . Requires teachers to be learners who know and understand the content and underlying concepts

NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 8 Embedded Academic Intervention Resources for Mathematics

by Nickelos Grant, Knowledge Management Specialist, Mathematics and Science, Office of Academic Intervention Services K-12 NYCDOE

Academic intervention services, by design, help students achieve the learning standards in mathematics by responding to student needs through additional instruction that supports the general curriculum, and student support services that address barriers to improved academic performance. The New York City Department of Education’s Comprehensive Approach to Balanced Mathematics, http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Mathematics/EducatorResources/, continues to offer rewarding strategies for teaching and learning for students with diverse developmental needs in a strong instructional sequence.

Elementary (K-6) Resources

This year, the 3rd edition of the Everyday Mathematics program offers strong academic intervention support with its Differentiation Handbook. The Everyday Mathematics differentiation philosophy, aligned to the instructional sequence, offers deeper investigations of each mathematical concept for students that require diverse pathways to learning. With its vocabulary development, games, concept and skills maintenance, the Differentiation Options in Part 3 of the Lesson intervene for targeted students at the point in the instructional sequence where the student demonstrates an academic need with the opportunities to “go deeper” into the teaching and learning.

For example, a game is used to support the objectives in Everyday Mathematics Grade 4, Lesson 3.1, Multiplication Facts. This lesson is designed to review strategies for multiplication facts and to have students work toward instant recall of these facts. For intervention, Math Bingo is a game where students pick their own numbers for use in the game. As a number, called a target factor, is selected from a deck of number cards, students place a counter in the squares on their game mat if the target factor is a factor of the number written in the squares. This intervention activity helps students learn to identify factors of numbers.

Middle Level (6-8) Resources

For middle level academic intervention services the New York City Department of Education Comprehensive Approach to Balanced Mathematics continues to guide the teaching and learning of targeted students with diverse developmental needs. In addition to the IMPACT Mathematics program, academic intervention resources found in the Math Handbook Hot Words Hot Topics, and Skills Interventions for Middle School Mathematics, Pre-Algebra and Algebra, with their alignment to the instructional sequence, also support deeper investigations of the mathematical concepts that challenge students in their developmental settings. Continued on next page

NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 9 Embedded Academic Intervention Resources for Mathematics continued

The Math Handbook Hot Words Hot Topics provides the students and intervention teachers with a conversation piece to use when discussing the key concepts embedded in the developmental program. These conversations help build the foundations necessary for improved concept understanding and process ability. It also provides students with a comprehensive reference of important mathematical terms and concepts to help them build their mathematics literacy.

The Skills Interventions for Middle School Mathematics, Pre-Algebra and Algebra offer targeted students guided practice at the point of academic need. Having these resources aligned to the New York City Department of Education’s Comprehensive Approach to Balanced Mathematics supports the acquisition of the key concepts in mathematics at the point when targeted students demonstrate an academic need.

IMPACT Mathematics investigates and develops the concepts of exponents in the Grade 7 Lesson 3.1 Stretching and Shrinking Machines. The Stretching and Shrinking Machine model was developed by Peter Braunfeld and Max Beberman in 1963 at the University of Illinois. Intervention opportunities to support this investigation are provided in the Math Handbook Hot Words Hot Topics Book 2. A concept-based discussion about Powers and Exponents with supporting examples is offered to support the context by which exponential investigation is developed and practiced in the developmental setting. As the instructional sequence moves through this unit of instruction the Skills Intervention for Pre-Algebra resource offers guided practice in Prime Factorization for additional instructional support correlated and aligned to the developmental instructional plan.

NYSED Assessment Correlations

These differentiated philosophies also support the diverse academic intervention service structures found in our intervention settings. Classroom teachers, co-teachers, intervention team members, coaches, and administrators benefit from the correlations found in the instructional sequence. The alignment of our instructional sequence to the intervention resources and the New York State Education Department Mathematics Standards Performance Indicators provide a comprehensive guide for our intervention practices. Continued on next page

NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 10 Embedded Academic Intervention Resources for Mathematics continued

The New York State Education Department Mathematics Standards Performance Indicators addressed in each lesson and supported by the interventions can be further correlated to actual New York State Education Department Mathematics Assessments for Grades 3 through 8 by accessing the Item Maps for the 2006 and 2007 assessments through the New York State Education Department website: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/elintmath.html . This correlation will help to demonstrate mathematics assessment expectations aligned to the instructional sequence to provide assessment support as an ongoing academic intervention.

High School (9-12) Resources

The assessment correlation strategy is also shared at the high school level. By visiting the www.jmap.org website, you can find correlations to New York State Mathematics Regents items for the lessons in the instructional sequence in the New York City Department of Education’s Comprehensive Approach to Balanced Mathematics for High Schools. The Prentice Hall Mathematics Algebra I program provides broad diagnostic assessment opportunities, a Skills Handbook as part of the student textbook, differentiation options in each developmental lesson and the Grab & Go chapter support resource. In Grab & Go you will find practice, reteach, enrichment and project options, by chapter, to support your students’ academic intervention needs.

Additional resources

Additional support resources have been reviewed for the New York City Department of Education Mathematics AIS Toolkit. The Toolkit is an examination of academic intervention materials in mathematics most closely aligned to citywide mathematics programs and initiatives.

For further information on any of these resources please contact Nickelos Grant at [email protected] .

NOVEMBER 2007 SHARING WHAT WORKS 11 BEST PRACTICES IN INTERVENTION ENHANCEMENTS: REWARDS: Reading Excellence Word Attack And Rate Development Strategies by Michael L. Schurek, Principal, PS/MS 19X, CSD 11, LLSO

Good schools are continually striving to find subject matter and seemed to be struggling new ways to meet the needs of their with independent reading. It was this students. Targeted intervention programs realization that caused us to seek the can help schools move forward academically “missing link” in our school’s menu of by enabling at-risk students to overcome targeted intervention programs. In the difficulties and participate in the curriculum spring of 2006, one of our intervention team on a more rigorous level. Our school’s members attended a Rewards workshop intervention team had been generally conducted by Dr. Anita Archer. Our team pleased with the effectiveness of Fundations member returned very enthusiastic about and the Wilson Program within our K – 8 the possibilities that the Rewards Program setting for students reading below a fifth presented to our school at that time. grade level. However, we did observe that many students who had mastered Wilson The Rewards Program consists of twenty word attack strategies displayed scripted teacher-directed lessons. The first reading/writing difficulties upon their 12 lessons are considered pre-skill lessons transition into the general education setting. that concentrate on oral blending, vowel Many of these students still demonstrated combinations/ conversions, prefixes and word recognition/decoding problems, suffixes, phonetic “chunking”, vocabulary especially with the multisyllabic words more and spelling. These skills are then used in prevalent in the upper grades. lessons 13-20 to develop and practice a flexible strategy the students will use to read longer multisyllabic words. Increasing a student’s ability to decode longer words reduces reading errors and increases comprehension.

Our intervention team decided that this program might help to meet the needs of many of our struggling middle school students. We chose to pilot this program with our neediest group of students, our eighth grade. This was the largest grade in the school with the highest numbers of special education, at-risk and ELL students. We wanted to send our students off to high school in the best academic shape possible while at the same time get a feel for the In addition to our “at-risk” students, we also Rewards Program and consider its expanded use for the upcoming school year. felt that many ofNOVEMBER our level 2007 2 and low level 3 SHARING WHAT ContinuedWORKS on next page 12 students were not reaching their greatest potential. They showed difficulty in mastering their seventh and eighth grade REWARDS continued All students in the grade were tested for their oral reading rate. As we suspected, many of our students scored below the 150 words per minute standard. We decided to include students who read below 130 words per minute to participate in the program. Thirty-one out of a class of 64 students qualified as a result of their lower fluency rates.

At our school SETSS teachers provide a large portion of AIS services to our “at-risk” students in addition to the special needs students. In the middle school grades they are almost the sole providers of our targeted intervention programs. Our intervention team decided to have two SETSS teachers and post-assessment process were provided team teach the 20 Rewards lessons to the in the Rewards program. entire group of 31 students. This model enabled both teachers to take turns We were most impressed with the progress delivering lesson components to the our students made regarding their fluency students while the other both observed the rates. Many of the students who lesson and interfaced with the students. participated reported an improved ability to The teachers, as well as any visiting spell which made it easier for them to write. observers, made a point to debrief on a Almost all of the participants stated that daily basis to improve lesson delivery and to their experience in the Rewards program discuss student feedback. enabled them to become better readers. This program contains many exercises in It took approximately five weeks to structural analysis that will ultimately complete the 20 Rewards lessons. Each improve student comprehension through Rewards period took about 50-75 minutes expanded vocabulary understanding. While and was conducted four to five times each we did not have the time to conduct pre- week. Lesson continuity was sometimes and post-test comprehension measures, we interrupted because the students were are confident that those results would have seniors with many senior activities taking been positive. place in May and June. The program began on May 9, 2006 and ended on June 19, Our intervention team plans to expand its 2006. Comparisons of pretest and posttest use of the Rewards program by using it oral reading rates indicated that 28 out of where appropriate with students in grades 31 students increased their reading fluency 5-8. We also plan to pilot the Rewards Plus with an average increase of 26 %. The programs in Science and Social Studies to Reading Fluency Tests utilized for this pre- determine their effectiveness and possible inclusion in our school’s continuum of targeted intervention programs. Sharing What Works A Publication of the Office of Academic Intervention Services K-12 New York City Department of Education

Joel I. Klein, Chancellor Dr. Marcia V. Lyles, Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning Esther Klein Friedman, Ph.D., Director of Academic Intervention Services, Editor