Title I Second Grade Reading

In 2001, District 203 was notified it would receive a Title I federal grant under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The premise of the No Child Left Behind legislation is to provide dollars for local school districts to improve the basic programs in existence in order to improve the academic achievement of all students. Title I Second Grade Reading was developed and continues to be funded using the dollars from this federal grant. The second grade program is based on the research of Dr. Darrell Morris.

Title I Second Grade Reading is a one-to-one intervention program for second grade students in Title I buildings who need extra support to further develop their literacy skills. The primary focus of the program is the development of fluent reading by students. Students work with a trained paraprofessional tutor for 30 minutes per day, four days a week. The total number of tutoring sessions varies by child. This tutoring is in addition to the child’s classroom reading instruction. The classroom teacher retains the primary responsibility for reading instruction.

Program Goal

The goal of Title I Second Grade Reading is to release fluent, on-grade-level readers.

Upon release, Title I Second Grade Reading students should:

• Problem solve using a balance of strategies: meaning, illustration, oral language/grammar, letter/sound relationships.
• Demonstrate self-monitoring (self-corrects while reading).
• Demonstrate efficient, automatic decoding.
• Demonstrate an expanded core of easily recognized high-frequency words (sight vocabulary).
• Attend to punctuation, use appropriate phrasing and expression and an appropriate pace to match text.
• Demonstrate comprehension of text.
• Demonstrate a reading rate that meets district guidelines for second grade.

Title I Second Grade Reading strives to promote student reading confidence as well as foster an interest in and enjoyment of reading.

How are children selected for Title I Second Grade Reading?

Children are referred for this extra literacy support by building reading specialists in collaboration with their former first grade teacher or current second grade teacher. Students are selected for service based on screening assessments administered by reading specialists, Title I personnel and classroom teachers. Teacher observations provide additional information for assisting in this referral and selection process.

What happens during a tutorial session?

Session components are designed to reflect research in early literacy development. The student reads new and familiar text and engages in phonics and word-related activities. These activities help students strengthen their letter/sound relationships and build automatic decoding skills. During the reading of new and familiar text the student has the opportunity to further develop reading strategies and build sight vocabulary which leads to more fluent reading.

How is communication handled?

A student is evaluated by the classroom teacher based upon performance within the classroom setting. As paraprofessionals, Title I tutors do not meet with or conference with parents. The child’s classroom teacher is in the best position to ascertain if the student is applying the skills being practiced in the one-to-one tutoring sessions. Questions regarding an individual student should be directed to the child’s classroom teacher.

Questions of a general nature concerning the Title I Second Grade Reading program may be directed to the Title I Second Grade Reading Office (630-983-2144).

Title I School-Parent-Student Compact

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