Early literacy program focuses on teacher-child connection

Research on literacy shows that children who aren't reading at grade level by the end of first grade face eight-to-one odds of ever catching up, according to research highlighted in a recent issue of School Board Journal. That statistic illustrates the essential need to reach children with reading help in the early grades.

Barbara Taylor, professor in curriculum and instruction in the College of Education and Human Development, has developed a successful program to deal with this educational challenge: the Early Intervention in Reading program (EIR).

Eleven hundred Minnesota teachers have used EIR since 1989 in their literacy work with more than 7,500 children. Between 1992-2001, 150 teachers from 10 additional states and the Canadian province of British Columbia have used the program successfully with 1,100 children.

How EIR works

EIR is a daily reading program that helps struggling students in kindergarten through grade four learn to read with fluency and comprehension. Five to seven children work together as a group for 20-30 minutes in the classroom. Teachers emphasize both phonic skills and reading comprehension and use picture books and stories that directly engage the students. Parents are encouraged to work with their children at home using materials from the classroom. Taylor and colleagues train teachers and support staff in the EIR approach, mainly through an online instructional program.

What the research shows

Eleven years of research with schools across the country show that, on average, 72 percent of at-risk first-graders in the EIR program are reading independently at the end of first grade and 85 percent of second-graders who start the year at primer level are reading at grade level by the end of the year. Results in schools where more than 50 percent of the children participate in the subsidized school lunch program show that after one year in EIR, 61 percent of at-risk first-graders are reading well by the end of first grade and that 70 percent of second-graders who start the year not yet reading at primer level are reading at a second-grade level by May.

What others say about EIR

Jack Pikulski, professor of education, University of Delaware, past president of the International Reading Association, calls Taylor's development of the EIR program "groundbreaking. It is a unique contribution to the challenges we face in literacy education. Other models use specialists who work with a child for a half-hour then go away. Barbara's model says the classroom teacher should be the one to deliver the intervention strategy."

Judy Parizek, a teacher at Webster Open School in Minneapolis where EIR has been used for three years, says the reading scores of students at Webster show the effectiveness of the program. "It's flexible. It allows us to bend it and adjust it to work with our specific population. Every teacher and specialist in kindergarten through second grade was trained. We're all on the same page, unified in our approach. The teachers like it. The kids like it. It clips along and holds their interest. And the assessment tools are there to move the kids along as they gain the skills."

Patricia Cunningham, education professor at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, says the teacher training is what sets EIR above other early literacy programs. "EIR is based in the school and the teachers work together," she says. "They videotape their own classrooms as they use EIR and then review each other's tapes to help critique and coach one another to use the program in the most effective ways. They not only help the children-the statistics shows that-but they also are contributing to one another's learning as well."

What this research might mean for classroom practice

The key implication of Taylor's work is that additional human resources and extra-curricular scheduling need not be the only routes to improving children's reading abilities.

While many effective early reading intervention programs involve one-to-one tutoring or require specialists, the EIR program emphasizes small groups led by the classroom teacher. More children can be served than with a one-to-one model and there are fewer and less time-consuming transitions in the classroom.

By involving classroom teachers instead of tutors or other outside resource people, the program benefits teachers as well because they gain knowledge of useful strategies that they can apply in their regular reading instruction.

August 2001