Early reading skills are the cornerstone of academic success, and for students struggling with foundational skills like phonics, timely intervention is critical. By leveraging assessment data, educators can pinpoint specific deficits and design targeted interventions to support struggling readers. In this post, we’ll explore a case study of a 1st-grade student, demonstrating how to use progress monitoring data to create a 1:1 phonics intervention. This approach is grounded in evidence-based practices and is adaptable for students with diverse learning needs, including those at risk for reading difficulties.
The Case Study: A 1st Grader’s Assessment Data
Consider a 1st-grade student, referred to as Student C, whose progress monitoring assessment results highlight challenges in foundational reading skills. The data provides performance levels across key areas:
- Print Concepts: Developing
- Phonological Awareness: Developing
- Phonics & Word Analysis: Beginning
- Fluency: Beginning
Focusing on the Phonics & Word Analysis strand, Student C is at the Beginning level across all related benchmarks, which include skills such as:
- Decoding words with consonant digraphs (e.g., sh, ch, th), trigraphs (e.g., tch), and blends (e.g., bl, st).
- Decoding words with r-controlled vowels.
- Decoding and encoding one-syllable words.
- Decoding words with inflectional endings.
- Decoding two-syllable words.
- Decoding words with long-vowel patterns (e.g., final -e, vowel teams).
This data reveals a significant gap in phonics skills, which are essential for decoding words and building reading fluency. Student C’s performance indicates a need for intensive, individualized support to progress toward grade-level expectations.
Step 1: Determining the Need for 1:1 Intervention
Student C’s Beginning level in Phonics & Word Analysis and Fluency suggests they are not meeting 1st-grade reading benchmarks. Phonics is a foundational skill that enables students to decode unfamiliar words, a prerequisite for fluent reading and comprehension. Without mastery of these skills, Student C is at risk of falling further behind. A 1:1 intervention is ideal because it provides targeted, explicit instruction tailored to the student’s specific needs, offering more intensive support than small-group or whole-class settings. This approach aligns with Tier 3 support in the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework, designed for students with significant skill gaps.
Step 2: Identifying the Intervention Focus
The data points to Phonics & Word Analysis as the primary area for intervention, given Student C's consistent Beginning-level performance in this strand. Phonics skills build sequentially, with basic decoding serving as the foundation for more complex patterns. By targeting phonics, we address the root of Student C's reading challenges, paving the way for improvements in fluency and overall literacy.
Step 3: Prioritizing a Phonics Skill
With all phonics benchmarks at the Beginning level, selecting a foundational skill is key to building a strong base for future progress. The skill of decoding words with consonant digraphs, trigraphs, and blends is an ideal starting point. This benchmark focuses on recognizing and blending letter combinations like /sh/ (ship), /ch/ (chip), /tch/ (catch), and /bl/ (blend), which are critical for early reading. These patterns appear frequently in 1st-grade texts, and mastery here will support Student ABC’s ability to decode a wide range of words.
For example, if Student C struggles to decode “shop” because they don’t recognize the /sh/ digraph, they’ll face barriers in reading many common words. Starting with this skill ensures the intervention targets an essential, high-impact area of need.
Why This Skill Matters
Proficiency in decoding consonant digraphs, trigraphs, and blends is vital for several reasons:
- Prevalence in Early Texts: These patterns are common in 1st-grade reading materials, making them a high-priority skill for independent reading.
- Foundation for Fluency: Accurate decoding reduces the cognitive effort required to read, allowing students to focus on meaning and improve fluency.
- Support for Diverse Learners: Students with phonics deficits, including those at risk for specific learning disabilities like dyslexia, benefit from explicit instruction in these skills to prevent long-term reading challenges.
For Student C, mastering this skill will enable them to read and spell a broader range of words, boosting confidence and engagement. It also lays the groundwork for tackling more advanced phonics skills, such as decoding multisyllabic words or long-vowel patterns.
Designing the Intervention: Practical Strategies
- Explicit Instruction: Introduce digraphs and blends systematically, starting with high-frequency patterns (e.g., /sh/, /ch/, /bl/). Use visual aids like letter cards to demonstrate how letters combine to form a single sound (e.g., s + h = /sh/).
- Multisensory Activities: Engage Student C with hands-on tasks, such as sorting words by digraph (e.g., “ship” vs. “chip”) or tracing letters in sand while saying the sound.
- Decodable Texts: Provide short, controlled texts that emphasize target patterns (e.g., a story with words like “shop,” “thin,” and “blast”) to practice decoding in context.
- Progress Monitoring: Use brief assessments, such as reading a list of 10 words with digraphs and blends, to track mastery and adjust instruction as needed.
These strategies draw on evidence-based practices, such as those endorsed by the National Reading Panel, and can be adapted for students with learning disabilities or processing challenges.
Reflection for Educators
Assessment data is a powerful tool for identifying student needs, but the real impact comes from translating that data into action. For Student C, prioritizing a foundational phonics skill like decoding digraphs and blends ensures efficient progress and builds a pathway to grade-level reading. As educators, we must balance urgency with precision, using data to craft interventions that meet students where they are and guide them forward.
How do you use assessment data to support struggling readers in your classroom? Share your strategies in the comments, and let’s continue building a global network of support for our students!
About the Author: This article is inspired by professional development materials focused on data-driven instruction, adapted for the Special Education Global Network audience.
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