OES Title I Reading Services 

OES Title I Reading Services are provided to those students who qualify for additional reading support beyond the core ELA (English/Language Arts) curriculum.  Octorara Area School District has been granted funding to provide support programs in reading for children who have been identified as functioning below expected levels.  The source of funding for these programs is Title I – “No Child Left Behind.”  These programs are scheduled during the ELA block as a push-in service.  Students work with a Title I Reading Specialist and/or Reading Assistant in a small group setting in the student’s homerooms for at least 35 minutes each day. 

There are several factors we consider to determine Title I eligibility.  The grade level reading benchmarks are measured by several reading fluency and comprehension assessments and/or are observed by your child’s classroom teacher throughout the year. As students make gains or fall behind, they may be exited or entered into the Title I Reading Program. 

During small group reading time, instruction is planned to meet the specific needs of the students.  Often, there is time spent on oral reading fluency that could include anything from sight words to phrasing to repeated readings of poetry, reader’s theater, and short reading passages.  Books and other text are chosen for guided reading at the group’s instructional reading level, which is usually 1-2 levels above the students’ independent reading levels.  During this guided reading time, there is time spent learning new vocabulary, reading for a purpose, and practicing reading comprehension strategies that have been taught.  Responding to our reading in writing is also something that is practiced in this small group time. 

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of DAILY AT-HOME READING PRACTICE!  This daily independent reading MUST be at the students’ independent reading level.  If the book is too difficult, too much of the brain’s power is focused on decoding, leaving little power for comprehension.  If a child is always frustrated in a too-hard book, why would they ever want to read?

Simply put, students need enormous quantities of successful reading to become independent, proficient readers.

By successful reading, I mean reading experiences where students perform with a high level of reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. When a nine-year-old misses as few as two or three words in each one hundred running words of a text, the text may be too hard for effective practice. That text may be appropriate for instructional purposes but developing readers need much more high-success reading than they need instructional difficulty reading. It is the high accuracy, fluent, and easily comprehended reading that provides the opportunities to integrate complex skills and strategies into an automatic, independent reading process.

…motivation for reading was dramatically influenced by student reading success.

~ from The Six Ts of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction by Richard Allington   

“Reading volume predicts reading growth for struggling readers.”  ~ Richard Allington