5 Simple Steps to Move Your Kindergarteners to Grade Level in Reading!

Are your kindergarteners having trouble one-to-one matching when reading? Are they unable to identify all upper and lowercase letters? Let’s move our kindergarteners up to grade level in reading using Tier II interventions!

Using the Common Core State Standard RF.K.1: Organization and Basic Features of Print, I will help you figure out the 5 simple steps to help your struggling students. Although we will be focusing on this standard for the purpose of this post, these steps can be applied to any standard in reading or math!

All of the resources in this post can be found in the Tier II Reading Intervention Progress Monitoring Kit For Kindergarten RF.K.1.

And if you’re looking for information about what Tier II Intervention is, check out my previous post here.

1- Baseline assessment

When monitoring progress in reading, it is essential that you get a beginning benchmark score for each of your students. This baseline data helps to inform:

1- where each of your students are in their developmental continuum of learning

2- what strengths or deficiencies each student has in their mastery of the standard(s) being taught

3- where you will start teaching in order to help your students reach mastery, and (hopefully) exit Tier II interventions.

Use simple texts like the one below with your students. You can:

Start with a picture walk.

Go through each page one by one and discuss what the students see on each page. Make sure to use the words on the page in your discussion. For example, “What do you SEE on this page?” “Yes, that is an AIRPLANE. We can also just call it a PLANE.”

Give the student the book and ask them to read it.

After doing a picture walk, and using all of the language from the page in your discussion, the students may be able to read it. If not, then model reading the entire book, and give it back to the student. Have them reread it to you.

Track the data.

Record whether or not the student could read the book on their own. Whether they read it on their own the first time or reread it after you a second time, you can use a running record or any other type of tracking system of your choice to record any errors in their reading.

2- Identify the standard you will teach

Use the baseline assessment to determine what skills your student has already mastered and where they need some intervention. Standard RF.K.1 states that the student must be able to:

– Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

– Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

– Understand that words are separated by spaces in print

– Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

If your student is struggling with any of those aspects of the standard, that will be the focus of your intervention for your student.

3- Create intervention groups based around the standard

If you have multiple students who are struggling with the same standard, group them together in a Tier II intervention group.

Find a space for your group to meet that has as few distractions as possible and use your time to focus on intensive instruction around the skills they are lacking.

Tier II instruction should take place 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. A typical intervention cycle will last 6-9 weeks.

4- Regular progress monitoring

Every 2-3 weeks, depending on how long your intervention cycle will last, reassess your students’ progress. For 6 week cycles, assess every 2 weeks; for 9 week cycles, assess every 3 weeks.

If you would like, include your students in the process by using a “My Progress” chart, and goal setting and reflection pages. Studies have shown that students can make more gains when they take ownership over of their learning.

A progress tracking chart helps students see their growth.

5- Exit a student from intervention and celebrate!

When a student has successfully met the standard three times in a row during your progress monitoring sessions, they can officially exit the intervention group! Don’t forget to celebrate their successes with certificates when they reach their goals!