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The Evidence Base for Being a Reader

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced No Child Left Behind in December 2015. This federal education legislation emphasizes state and local control, providing school districts with the flexibility to determine appropriate curricula and interventions for their schools. The levels of evidence define the study criteria.

The chart below identifies the ESSA evidence level for Being a Reader™.

Level 4: Demonstrates a Rationale
A program or practice, under evaluation, that is informed by research.

Level 4
Demonstrates a Rationale
Level 3
Promising Evidence
Level 2
Moderate Evidence
Level 1
Strong Evidence
Being a Reader✔︎



The Evidence Base for Being a Reader

Recommended Instructional PracticesBeing a Reader
Program Features (K–5)
Sources
Teach Comprehension Strategies● Teach and model how to use reading comprehension strategies: question generation, summarization, visualization, clarification, and prediction

● Teach reading comprehension strategies through a gradual release of responsibility
● Making meaning through analyzing the events and characters in stories, retelling, making connections, exploring
text features, and making inferences

● Comprehension strategies taught with the goal of having the students apply the strategies to their independent reading (making connections, questioning, retelling, making inferences, determining important ideas, using text features, analyzing text structure, and summarizing)

● Development of metacognitive awareness through teacher modeling and guided, independent practice

● Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) conferences

IES Practice Guides
K–3 Reading (2010)

Adolescent Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)

National Reading Panel
Teaching Children to Read (2000)
Facilitate Text Discussion, Speaking and Listening, and Social Skills


 
● Guide students through focused, high-quality discussion of the meaning of text

● Give students the opportunity to learn by collaborating with their peers
● Development of skills needed to participate in small-group discussions about texts in a meaningful way

● Discussions of text are focused using thoughtful, open-ended questions

● Development of students’ listening and speaking skills

● Cooperative structures and partner activities

● Students respond to literature in their book discussions to learn new things about themselves and others, apply what they have learned to their own lives, see the world in new ways, and bring new understanding to what they read

IES Practice Guides
K–3 Reading (2010)

Adolescent Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)
Engage Students in Shared Reading● Provide repeated oral reading with feedback and guidance to develop fluency, including questioning the text, providing feedback to students, repeating, expanding, and modeling● The teacher reads and rereads carefully selected large-format texts and/or trade books with the whole class, models effective reading behaviors and strategies, and invites the students to be involved in reading and discussing the texts

● Students wonder and answer questions before, during, and after a read-aloud to make sense of text

● The teacher models fluent reading and uses comprehension strategies. “Thinking Tools” used to guide students through texts are also modeled
National Reading Panel
Teaching Children to Read (2000)

National Early Literacy Panel Developing Early Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)

Teach About Text Features and Genres● Teach students to identify and use the text’s organizational structure to comprehend, learn, and remember content

● Teach reading comprehension with multiple genres
● Text features, text structure, and story elements (e.g., sequencing, setting, theme, character, problem and solution, compare and contrast, cause and effect) are used to understand different genres

● Genres taught: fiction, biography, expository nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, persuasive nonfiction, drama, and poetry
IES Practice Guide
K–3 Reading (2010)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)

Provide Explicit Instruction and Connected, Independent Reading● Provide both explicit instruction in specific comprehension strategies and a great deal of time and opportunity for actual reading, writing, and discussion of text

● Ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension

● Give students reading choices
Small-Group Reading (Sets 1–5):
● Students receive explicit instruction in phonics, decoding, high-frequency word recognition, and comprehension—practicing the skills immediately in appropriately leveled texts

Individualized Daily Reading:
● Students read independently in self- selected texts at their independent reading levels
● The teacher confers with individual students, helping them select appropriate books and assessing and supporting their reading

Independent Work:
● Students work independently on meaningful literacy activities (reading, writing, word work) while the teacher instructs small groups or individuals

IES Practice Guides Foundational Skills (2016)

K–3 Reading (2010)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)
Support Academic Language and Vocabulary Knowledge● Teach students academic language skills, including the use of inferential and narrative language and vocabulary

● Provide explicit and indirect vocabulary instruction
● Word Study lessons focus on developing the strategies students can use to decode polysyllabic words (e.g., base words, meaningful affixes, and identifying strategies for dividing words into syllables)

● Introduction of challenging vocabulary embedded in read-alouds

● Explicit instruction of Tier 2 vocabulary words and independent word-learning strategies (e.g., affixes, antonyms, synonyms, multiple-meaning words, context clues, idioms, roots, and compound words)

● The teacher is alerted at the start of each lesson to address vocabulary terms and definitions that will be used with students
IES Practice Guides
Adolescent Literacy (2008)

Foundational Skills (2016)

National Reading Panel
Teaching Children to Read (2000)

National Early Literacy Panel Developing Early Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)

Provide Assessment and Differentiation● Provide time for differentiated reading instruction for all students based on assessments of students’ current reading levels

● Adjust or differentiate instruction based on assessments of student progress
Small-Group Reading:
● Students are matched with texts at their assessed reading levels and instruction is provided to address their differing needs

Placement Assessments:
● Small-Group Reading Placement Assessments (Sets 1–5 and Sets 6–12)
● Placement and Grouping Support Record (Book Clubs)

Formative Assessments:
● Group Progress Assessments
● Class Assessments
● Individualized Daily Reading (IDR) Conferences
● Independent Work Observations
● Group Discussion Observation for Small-Group Reading and Book Clubs
● Exit tickets and recordings of book club discussions

Summative Assessments:
● Student Progress Assessment
● Mastery Tests (Sets 1–5)
● Letter Name Assessment (Kindergarten)
● Word Study Assessment (grades 2–5)
● Social Skills Assessment

IES Practice Guides
RTI (2009)

K–3 Reading (2010)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades 4–5 (2016)

Establish Early Reading Foundational Skills

Recommended Instructional PracticesBeing a Reader
Program Features (K–2)
Sources
Phonological Awareness● Develop awareness of segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters

● Teach students to manipulate phonemes
Small-Group Reading (Sets 1–5):
● Oral phonological awareness activities (whole class and small group)
● Oral segmenting and blending
● Identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds
● Blending onsets and rimes
● Identifying and producing rimes
● Identifying syllables
● Dropping first and last sounds and initial blends
● Word building exercises (letter-sound relationships)
● Sound sorts (small group)

IES Practice Guide Foundational Skills (2016)

National Reading Panel
Teaching Children to Read (2000)

National Early Literacy Panel
Developing Early Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)
Phonics and Decoding● Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, recognize sound-spelling patterns, and write and recognize words

● Provide systematic phonics instruction

● Support detecting or manipulating small units of sounds in words and alphabetic knowledge
Small-Group Reading (Sets 1–5):
● Single consonants
● Short vowels/CVC patterns
● Consonant blends
● Long vowels/CVCe pattern
● Complex vowels
● Inflectional endings
● Two-syllable decoding

Guided Spelling (Sets 1–5, 7, 8 and Grade 2 Word Study):
● Spelling-sound relationships
● Polysyllabic words
● High-frequency words
IES Practice Guide Foundational Skills (2016)

National Reading Panel
Teaching Children to Read (2000)

National Early Literacy Panel
Developing Early Literacy (2008)

GELN 
Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy, grades K–3 (2016)

Connecting Being a Reader to Hattie’s High Yield Practices

Guided by the work of Fisher, Frey, and Hattie (2016), the table below identifies the most prominent influences that occur in the Being a Reader program and their corresponding effect sizes. To keep the table concise, effect sizes greater than .40 are listed with a brief explanation.

High Yield Practices Embedded in the Being a Reader Program
ES + InfluenceExplanation
.82 Classroom Discussion● Facilitation questions and discussion prompts 
● Open-ended questions invite a variety of responses and encourage students to listen to and respect the ideas of others
● Wait time gives students the chance to think before responding and encourages participation
.75 Feedback● Embedded corrective feedback routines are provided
● Teacher-Student conferences provide regular opportunities for individualized feedback
.72 Teacher-Student Relationships● Consistent, clear instruction builds trust
● Teachers build strong relationships with students and facilitate and strengthen relationships among students
● Students learn procedures in which they are responsible for one another; they regularly discuss and solve problems related to their work together
● Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and to be aware of the effect of their behavior on others
.69 Metacognitive Strategies● Students learn to self-monitor to check their comprehension
● Formal instruction in self-monitoring and self-correcting 
● Students learn strategies for self-correcting including rereading, reading ahead, using a reading strategy, looking up words in dictionaries, using thinking tools, and using word-analysis strategies
.67 Vocabulary Programs● Vocabulary lessons teach high-utility words found in or suggested by the read-aloud texts
● Strategies that can be used to unlock word meanings when reading independently are taught
● Students learn to identify meaningful parts of words and analyze how words are constructed, which supports vocabulary development and builds strategies for decoding polysyllabic words
.65 Prior Achievement● Placement Assessment is used to determine entry point
● Mastery Tests allow teachers to track what students know compared to the content that has been taught
● Lessons include ways to draw on students’ experiences, backgrounds, and prior knowledge and to build on those during instruction
.64 Self-Verbalization & Self-Questioning● Students are encouraged to think critically and share their ideas and opinions
● Students are encouraged to build on one another’s thinking, explore and respond to different viewpoints, and generate independent thinking
● In grades K–2, two units are dedicated to Wondering/Questioning, while in grades 3–5 Questioning is revisited in every unit
.63 Teaching Students to Summarize● A developmental build in summarizing is evident across grades, beginning with retelling and sequencing and then summarizing
.60 Comprehension Programs● In grades K–2, each unit of whole-class instruction is focused on a comprehension strategy while in grades 3–5 students are introduced to all strategies in Units 1 and 2, and then practice and apply using them in the remaining genre units (Units 3–7)
● Comprehension strategies are taught directly through read-aloud experiences
● Read-alouds, strategy, and guided and independent strategy practice lessons are used to teach and practice comprehension strategies.
.59 Direct Instruction● Instructional routines provide consistent instruction
● New skills are explicitly introduced, modeled, and practiced
.57 Mastery Learning● Mastery Tests occur every 2 weeks
● Reteaching options are included
.54 Student-Centered Teaching● Opportunities to reteach are provided and guidance on when to reteach is based on student performance
● Student engagement and response to each routine determines the instructional next step (i.e., to insert a correction routine, to slow the pace, to increase practice, or to reteach)
● The program is designed with educational equity in mind to ensure every student receives what they need in order to develop to their full academic and social potential 
● Embedded assessments inform the teacher of individual students’ area(s) of growth
.54 Phonics Instruction● The program is built upon a systematic scope and sequence
● Instruction is explicit and targeted to each student’s developmental level in grades K–1
● Students learn about the structure of words at the syllable and morpheme levels to further develop word recognition, spelling, and vocabulary skills during the Word Study component in grades 2–5
.52 Classroom Management● Instructional routines offer consistent structure
● Support is provided for strategic classroom arrangement
● Setting the Foundation Lessons (grades K–2) support the development of Independent Work structures so students successfully learn to self-select activities, negotiate with others, think about how to share and handle materials, and consider how their choices affect those around them. 
● Explicit instruction is provided for classroom procedures, routines, and social skills
.49 Small_Group Learning● Small-Group Reading (grades K–2) targets instruction to match each student’s developmental level 
● Heterogeneous grouping and random pairing occur throughout the year
Book Clubs (grades 3–5) offers three strands: Independent Reading, Small-Group Reading, or Book Clubs, which allow for flexible student placement
.48 Questioning● As students progress along the phonics continuum, they are encouraged to ask questions about spelling sounds in words that lead them to correct spelling
● Questioning/Wondering is a focus for two Units in each grade level in grades K–2, is revisited in Units 1–2 in grades 3–5, and is practiced and applied in each of the remaining units (Units 3–7) 
● Students learn to ask questions before, during, and after reading
.45 Mnemonics● Mnemonic devices are used to introduce, practice, and encode spelling-sound correspondences
.42 Cooperative Learning● Students engage in regular discussions to reflect on classroom values and community
● Ongoing peer partnerships and the use of cooperative structures allow students to regularly express their thinking and listen to others’ thinking
.39 Social Skills Programs● Students think about and act on five core values: responsibility, respect, caring, fairness, and helpfulness
● Students learn how their actions affect the community
● Students work in pairs, small groups, and as a class to listen to and learn from one another
Reference
Fisher, D., Frey, N, & Hattie, J (2016). Visible learning for literacy, grades K–12: Implementing the practices that work best to accelerate student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.