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Reading: Provision and Intervention

oap-provision

Provision

All teaching and learning take place in the context of accessible classroom approaches. Accessible curriculum with a clear progression from the child or young person (CYP) starting point.

Teachers to use the child’s attainment level when planning for their needs; this may mean referring to the expectations of lower or younger age groups.

  • High-quality teaching, for example repetition and overlearning of key concepts.
  • Adjust the level of challenge and adapt the curriculum content.
  • Pre-teach, for example, the provision of a Teaching Assistant to help prepare the CYP for the new topic.
  • Check hearing and sight; arrange formal tests if the CYP appears to have difficulties.
  • Provide opportunities for reading throughout the school day.
  • All provisions are linked closely to the school’s graduated approach (APDR).
  • Check pupils’ reading skills and refer to reading strategies if appropriate.

Provide additional support and ensure there is a clear focus to the session (refer to the How-to page on strategies for reading).

Intervention

  • Interventions must be carefully matched to the area of reading that a CYP is struggling with (e.g., accuracy, fluency, comprehension).
  • Reading interventions are activities and strategies that help students develop their reading skills to achieve reading proficiency and gain confidence in reading texts of varied texts. Reading interventions may be designed for groups or 1:1 work.
  • Some interventions require specific training and resources whilst others are free or self-guided by school staff.
  • It is not an expectation that schools offer any of the following interventions, however, there would be an expectation that schools offer time-limited, evidence-based interventions for children and young people with literacy needs.
  • Individual programmes or interventions are planned and overseen by class teachers (based on advice from the Special Educational Needs Coordinator where necessary).
  • Interventions are usually, structured, and regular (three sessions of 15 minutes are likely to have more impact than one 45-minute session).
  • Interventions should be identified, recorded and progress monitored on the pupil Assess Plan Do Review (APDR) within the context of the response to intervention framework [Size: 264 KB, File: DOCX].

Skills-based interventions are closely matched to areas of need and their impact is carefully monitored according to the following solution focussed principles:

  • If what you are doing is working, continue until the purpose of the intervention has been achieved.
  • If what you are doing is not working (and you are sure you are doing it properly), stop it and do something else.

Many literacy interventions are listed and evaluated in Brooks’ report: Brooks’ What Works for Literacy Difficulties? [Size: 4.8 MB, File: PDF]. The effectiveness of the intervention scheme edited by Gary Lavan and Joel Talcot, the School Psychology service, and the Dyslexia SPLD trust.

Below are some examples of interventions that have a good evidence base including training offered by SEND Services 0-25. Individual schools may use approaches which are not on this list.

  • Expanded Rehearsal Technique - a phonics and whole word literacy program which focuses on improving children’s reading fluency and confidence.
  • Precision Teaching - aims to teach pupils to recognise medium and high-frequency words in the text. Aims also to re-engage pupils in learning to read.
  • Reciprocal Teaching - aims to teach children comprehension skills including summarising, clarifying, and predicting.

Glossary

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Glossary page