We are sometimes asked whether Leveled Literacy Intervention is a scripted teaching system.

Here is an example of the type of question we occasionally recieve about this topic.

"If research shows that what really matters is highly effective, educated teachers who are able to make teaching decisions based on his/her students’ needs, why would you create a scripted curriculum in a box? I understand the district’s decision to purchase a boxed curriculum. It’s less expensive than teaching the teacher, but with your Reading Recovery knowledge

I don’t understand why you would create it. Why must LLI teachers even conduct a running record or "reading record" when their next books and word work activities are already planned for them."

We consider Leveled Literacy Intervention neither a “scripted“ nor “boxed” system, but a comprehensive system for supporting teachers’ decision making when working with a small group. In our experience, Reading Recovery teachers have found the system to be very useful as designing a lesson for one child is very different from working with a small group. In fact, many have sent feedback indicating that they have appreciated having a starting point and tools to get started.

You will see as we have written on the blog elsewhere, we do not consider the LLI lesson a script, but a framework of suggested considerations and routines. Teachers learn more and more about how to make better decisions by noticing children. We hope you will have the opportunity to read the System Guide where you will learn that teachers can skip books at a level, focusing on the behaviors they notice, they tailor the suggestions to fit the children they teach, regrouping children as needed, customizing the cards and games with the Lesson Resources CD-ROM etc. They select appropriate language to use with their students from the Prompting Guide and use The Continuum of Literacy Learning to guide their teaching. Reading Recovery teachers have been especially positive as they see that LLI is a system that supports the very principles you describe and is a wonderful complement to their Reading Recovery teaching. We hope you get a chance to talk with more teachers who have had professional development in LLI so they can share with you how the system is intended to be used. As with all materials and professional resources, a teacher must bring thoughtfulness to decision-making. You should know that Heinemann provides both onsite and offsite professional development services to support LLI teachers at all levels.

We discussed the notion of scripted lessons in LLI at greater length in our forum.
http://heinemann.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=52

We hope this helps clarify any misconceptions you may have about the Leveled Literacy Intervention System.

Best regards,

-Gay & Irene

Here is a recent question about the Getting Started lessons from a Title I teacher who is implementing Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) this year:

I have a question regarding your LLI lessons - which we just purchased and absolutely love by the way! The Getting Started lessons (1 - 10) move quickly in terms of reading levels. However, once you hit lesson 11, it drops back to level A.

I have looked everyone and can't find out any information regarding this. Should we be starting every student in the Getting Started lessons and then jump them to their appropriate reading level? Do we start every student in the Getting Started and then continue them onto 11, 12, 13, etc...regardless of their level? Or do we skip the Getting Started lessons and jump to their reading level lesson? I guess we are just a little confused about the Getting Started lessons.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration with this question. I also wanted to let you know that we use your resources greatly in our schools and have much success with them.

Thanks again!

- Paul

Answer:
Hi Paul,

The Getting Started lessons were designed to help the children, who have been struggling and are probably passive, become active, engaged learners and to build a foundation of early reading and writing behaviors. These 10 lessons also establish the routines of the lessons for the students. For the teacher, it is a time to closely observe students strengths and to engage them in conversations about their reading. The Green System is primarily for first grade, so at the beginning of the year you would probably start all of your first graders with the Getting Started lessons. If you have first graders that are at a Level F or G at the beginning of the year, they probably don't need an intervention and will progress with good classroom instruction.

In the middle of the first grade or at the end of first grade, you will probably make different decisions about the Getting Started lessons because you will be taking students into LLI at higher reading levels and will start where the students are in lessons. You will still want to keep in mind the purpose of the Getting Started lessons as you start with this round of students. However, you will start where the children are (their assessment level).

We hope this helps!

~The Fountas & Pinnell Team

As you may have noticed, recently we haven't been able to update our blog as much as we'd like to. This with good reason - we have been busy preparing for our first trip to Australia to promote our Continuum of Literacy Learning, Benchmark Assessment System, and Leveled Literacy Intervention programs.

Right now we are on our way to Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney to work with teachers and administrators on the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. It is a grueling plane trip but exciting to meet teachers who are using the system down under! We will keep you posted.

A wonderful group of teachers from Tasmania will be coming over to the mainland for our workshop. First stop - Melbourne!

Best wishes,

Irene and Gay

Dear Colleagues,

Hot in Boston and hot in Columbus, but summer brings its own change of pace. Many of you have been asking about our development work on the new levels of Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) for upper grade students. The next colors will be red and gold, taking students from guided reading levels J through T, and are targeted for grades three and four. We hope to release these in about two years. The next two colors, purple and teal, will be for grades five and six through eight, though they will also be useful for high school students reading below grade level. The purple and teal colors will take students through level Z. The book authors are sending us wonderful, engaging fiction and nonfiction manuscripts to which we respond and suggest any revisions, and we get to select the illustrators for every book which is also very exciting! Our goal is to select books and art that interests students at upper grades who are reading at lower levels - which can be tricky.

Summary of Leveled Literacy Intervention for grades 3-8:
Red/Gold: Levels J-T, grades 3-4
Purple/Teal: Levels U-Z, grades 5-8 (and high school intervention)

It always takes a long time to go from original manuscripts instead of just using existing books, but we believe you will think it was well worth the effort and the wait! In the meantime, many of you have been using the LLI framework and selecting books beyond level N, and we hope that is working well for you.

We will keep you posted on our ongoing development of these programs. In the meantime we wish a very happy back-to-school season to each and every one of you!

Best regards,

Gay and Irene

We are often asked to describe the differences and similarities between Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) and Guided Reading. While guided reading is an essential element of the instruction presented in LLI, the program itself is not a "Guided Reading program" because of the instructional contexts it is used in. Both Guided Reading and Leveled Literacy Intervention provide reading instruction with an emphasis on language learning, but they differ in the following ways:

General Context: Instruction with emphasis on language learning
Guided reading: Guided reading is one component of a comprehensive language and literacy framework for instruction. Across many contexts, students receive instruction in reading comprehension, phonics/word study, and writing. Guided reading specifically helps students develop proficient systems for strategic actions for reading.

LLI: Leveled Literacy Intervention is a systematically designed, sequenced, short, supplementary lesson that builds on high-quality classroom instruction. It includes reading, phonics, and writing about reading. LLI offers intensive instruction to help struggling readers develop proficient systems of strategic actions for reading.

Instructional purpose:
Guided reading: Differentiated classroom instruction

LLI: Supplementary literacy intervention

Students served:
Guided reading: All students

LLI: Readers who are having difficulty and are reading below grade level

Student grouping:
Guided reading: Small group instruction - usually 4 to 8 students. Students are placed in groups because they have similar instructional levels.

LLI: Small group instruction - 3 to a maximum of 4 students per group for upper grades. Students are placed in groups because they have similar instructional levels.

Duration of instruction:
Guided reading: Ongoing across elementary school years

LLI: Temporary, short-term intervention (10 to 20 weeks, with possibility of more if needed)

Instructional materials:
Guided reading: Leveled books selected by the teacher for the group

LLI: Leveled books that are designed for Leveled Literacy Intervention lessons and placed in a preplanned sequence

Assessment:
Guided reading: Benchmark assessment to determine instructional level for each student. Beginning of the year, interval, and end-of-year data recorded. Interval assessment varies.

LLI: Benchmark assessment to determine instructional level for each student. Entry, interval assessments, and exit data recorded. Interval assessment data collected every other day (1 reading record every 6 days for reach student)

Time required:
Guided reading: 15 to 20 minutes varying from 3-5 times per week (more for students who are having difficulty)

LLI: 30 minutes daily (stretching to 45 minutes for upper elementary grades)

Instructional framework:
Guided reading: Guided reading lessons include:

• Text selection
• Text introduction
• Reading with teacher support and interaction
• Discussion of the meaning
• Teaching point
• Word work (optional)
• Extending the meaning (optional)

LLI: Even-numbered lessons include:

• Preparation (text analysis; goals)
• Rereading and assessment
• Phonics/word work
• Writing about reading (instructional text from yesterday)
• Reading a new text (independent level)
• Classroom and Home Connection

LLI: Odd-numbered lessons include:

• Preparation (text analysis; goals)
• Rereading text
• Phonics/word work
• Reading a new text (instructional level introduction, reading, discussion, teaching point)
• Word work
• Classroom and Home Connection

Instructional elements:
Guided reading:

• Books matched to readers to support efficient processing and good comprehension
• Comprehension supported by introduction, discussion, and specific teaching
• Fluency explicitly taught and prompted
• Writing about reading used as an option to extend comprehending
• Phonics/word study demonstrated, taught, and reinforced during reading and taught in specific teaching points after reading - word work at the end of the lesson is optional
• Vocabulary build through encountering new words in texts
• Motivation fostered by selecting engaging texts and matching books to students' current reading levels

LLI:

• Books matched to readers and carefully sequenced to support efficient processing and good comprehension
• Comprehension supported by introduction, discussion, and specific teaching
• Fluency explicitly taught and prompted; rereading assists fluency; reading a new book at independent level also supports fluency
• Writing about reading used every other day to extend comprehension
• Phonics/word study is preplanned, sequenced, and explicitly taught twice in every 30 minute lesson
• Vocabulary built through encountering new words in texts
• Motivation fostered by selecting engaging texts and matching books to students' current reading levels; series books (fiction and nonfiction) build engagement; books not in classroom use

Teacher materials:
Guided reading: Professional books (see Fountas & Pinnell at Heinemann.com), Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide 1

LLI: When Readers Struggle, Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide 1, Lesson Guides

Professional development:
Guided reading: Professional books, professional development sessions, literacy coaching in classrooms where available

LLI: Specific 6-day training at The Ohio State University and Lesley University, built-in professional development lessons and guides, DVDs demonstrating lessons and routines, tutorial on reading records

Teacher:
Guided reading: Classroom teacher

LLI: Intervention, reading specialist, or classroom teacher

The Response to Intervention (RTI) framework is helping change the way schools approach intervention and remediation. Guided reading instructional programs and assessments such as Leveled Literacy Intervention and the Benchmark Assessment System have embedded features to enable their use in the RTI framework. Below are answers to some typical questions about using the LLI and BAS guided reading programs in RTI systems. For more information about using guided reading instruction to support the Response to Intervention framework, please see the following:

• Audio Podcast: Principles for Success with Response to Intervention (RTI)
• Document (.pdf): Benchmark Assessment System and Leveled Literacy Intervention in Your Response to Intervention (RTI) Plan
• Document (.pdf): 10 Month Progress Monitoring by Instructional Text Reading Level

Questions about using guided reading instructional programs for Response to Intervention:

Question: How does the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System address RTI compliance?

Answer: With the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, you can monitor reading level three times each year. This assessment will yield level (with equivalent grade levels), accuracy, fluency, and detailed information and scores on comprehension. This system has been extensively field tested. You can have students complete a writing prompt to further assess comprehension. You can use optional assessments to monitor progress in phonemic awareness, phonics, letter learning, and high frequency word knowledge. You can establish expectations in each of these areas based on your own district's requirements. A grid is currently in development to establish criteria for each grade level, beginning, middle, and end.

Question: We are looking very seriously at purchasing the Benchmark Assessment System for our K - 8 grade teachers (198 total), however, I was curious as to how/if other school districts are using these materials for bi-weekly progress monitoring. (RTI Tier 3) Since the materials are limited in regards to repetitive assessment, would the results gleaned from using these assessments 2x/month be valid? I look forward to your response.

Answer: You would not want to use the Benchmark Assessment System as often as every two weeks. You can, however, select Optional Assessments included in BAS which can provide valuable diagnostic information. On this website, you will find Instructional Level Expectation Charts that will be useful for RtI progress monitoring. Another strategy is to take regular reading records using leveled books. You can take these records as a regular, integral part of small group instruction or intervention groups.

The schedule below indicates the way one school district has made this practice operational. Optional assessments could vary by grade level. For example, K and Grade 1 students could use Phonemic Awareness, Letter Knowledge, Word Writing, and High Frequency Word Recognition. Older readers could use assessments like the Word Features Assessment.

Week 1 -- Full Benchmark Assessment system, including text-reading level and selected optional assessments (four selected)
Week 2 -- Text reading level using any leveled book
Week 3 -- BAS Optional Assessments #1 and #2
Week 4 -- Text reading level using any leveled book
Week 5 -- BAS Optional Assessments #3 and #4
Week 6 -- Text reading level using any leveled book
Week 7 -- BAS Optional Assessments #1 and #2
Week 8 -- Text reading level using any leveled book
Week 9 -- BAS Optional Assessments #3 and #4
Week 10 -- Text reading level using any leveled book
Week 11 -- BAS Optional Assessments #1 and #2
Week 12 -- Text Reading Level using any leveled book
Week 13 -- BAS Optional Assessments #3 and #4
Week 14 -- Benchmark Assessment Text Reading Level

Question: We are already implementing LLI. Some of our teachers are questioning the idea of doing the informal running records on children after they have read the book previously. They are used to doing the DRA with children on a cold read. Could you share the philosophy behind doing the assessments after children have read the book?

Answer: Tools like our Benchmark Assessment System and ongoing progress monitoring (running records) are similar procedures with two different purposes.

Benchmark Assessment is conducted at specific intervals throughout the school year (e.g., beginning, middle, end of year). It is always conducted in a highly standardized way and the results are recorded. These results provide a starting point for instruction and also measure achievement over time. Reading records are taken on a first reading of a previously unseen text, with a highly standardized introduction. This reading provides a very conservative estimate of what a child can do without teaching.

Ongoing running records (or reading records as we use them in LLI) are taken at regular intervals as an integral part of instruction. They provide an assessment of a child’s performance on the second reading of a text. We would expect a child to demonstrate more effective reading on a level after he has experienced teaching and a first reading. This gives us an ongoing check on what we are teaching him to do as a reader. It informs ongoing teaching as well. So, the teacher is getting immediate feedback on the effectiveness of her teaching. She is always working for greater and greater independence so that the student will ultimately demonstrate those effective behaviors on higher levels during Benchmark Assessment.

Both are standardized, and both provide information about reading behaviors and the appropriateness of the level. Ongoing running records have the additional value of showing us what the reader can do with teaching. Often, the teacher is working on the child`s benchmark tested instructional level and finds that on the second reading, the child is demonstrating accuracy and comprehension as if this is the independent level. That, in fact, is what we want. The teaching has made the difference--making it possible for the child to be an extremely proficient reader on a level that would be a little harder without the teaching.

Question: We are looking to successfully implement RTI while philosophically maintaining the balanced literacy approach--being sure to continue to place value on all areas of reading. Will the new LLI system allow for intervention as well as weekly progress monitoring that can be shown as data?

Answer: LLI is an intervention system. It is designed to be used with readers who need extra help to learn to read up to level N (first part of grade 3). It can be used with any kind of literacy curriculum, but it is certainly compatible with a balanced approach since each 30-minute lesson includes a great deal of reading continuous texts (really good books!), phonics/word study, and writing about reading. There is an intensive focus on teaching comprehension, but you will also find daily phonics lessons. In the guide you will find plans for implementing LLI within a layered, comprehensive literacy curriculum. Teachers use lesson guides with 300 specifically designed lessons to guide teaching. The system has a Data Management CD that makes it easy to track progress. Students` scores on text reading would be taken and record every 6 days (for a group of 3). You will also be advised on "check up" assessment of phonics skills and word knowledge. Please take a look at the RTI Charts we’ve developed for further information on this subject.

Question: It seems like this system fits best as a Tier I intervention. In the field study districts that implement an RtI model, at which tier(s) did they implement the program? Are there different implementation guidelines/suggestions for different tiers?

Answer: LLI can be implemented as a Tier 1, 2, or 3 intervention and various school districts have made their plans in different ways. A classroom teacher can provide more intensive small group instruction with LLI. The most common use is as a supplementary tier two or three intervention as it involves close diagnostic work for the short term. You will find many RTI documents on this website so you can review various options.

Question: I have a question about the grade-level specific Expectations for reading charts for the Benchmark Assessment System. The charts show, for each grade level, in the Fall, Winter and Spring, which Tier (1, 2 or 3) students would fall under based on their scores on several assessments (leveled text, Word Features tests, etc.). What information were these levels based on? Is there any data available about what percentage of students in a grade are likely to fall in Tier 1, 2 or 3? More information on the development of these charts would be useful, as we would like to use this data to implement RTI in our schools.

Answer: Beginning and ending grade level expectations are based on typical levels at each time period. They are consistent with state standards. If they are met, then student should be assured of making adequate progress across grades. (Note, that text levels are based not only on accuracy but on satisfactory comprehension.) Expectations at time points within grade levels have been created for the purposes of RTI monitoring. They provide a guide for constantly checking to see whether students are making satisfactory progress towards the end-of-year goal. This progress monitoring gives the teacher information on when and how much intervention might be needed. The percentage of students at each tier will vary greatly depending on the overall achievement in the school. We do not have numbers because of this variation. However, your expectation should be that when you have excellent classroom instruction and layers of effective interventions in place, about 80% of the students will fall into tier 1; that is; they will make sufficient progress with good classroom instruction. About 20% would need intervention (possibly a choice of several tier 2 interventions); and only about 5% would need intensive tier 3 interventions. When you are initially developing your literacy program, you may find many more students needing intervention. As you work together over time, you should find that the percentages change.

Question: Am I correct in understanding that these LLI kits were developed to use for Tier 2 & 3 instruction, not for classroom teachers to use for Tier 1?

Answer: LLI was designed to supplement good classroom teaching. This intervention can serve to close the achievement gap and bring children to grade level because they are getting something extra. Your district can decide how to use it as supplementary, intensive support for the children below grade level. Many schools use it for tier 2 or 3, though some schools have managed to provide coverage for the classroom teacher to provide extra lessons beyond the regular classroom instruction before school, after school, or even during the day while someone else works with the other children.

With the limited funding available for purchasing classroom materials today, more and more teachers and educational administrators are relying on research to help guide them to the best programs to invest in.

Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention was developed over a five-year period during which it was implemented in 70 districts in 15 states. You can refer to the Research Base document for more information. During the development of LLI, a field study was conducted at sites around the United States to assess the LLI framework. Please refer to the field study for more information about the research connected with the development of LLI. Additionally, the student data from three of the sites that participated in the field study (Newark OH, Boston MA and Manchester NH) was analyzed for a pilot research project that examined student progress. Please refer to the pilot study, for the results from this study.

"I am interested in finding out more about any research that has been done demonstrating LLI effectiveness. Are you aware of any independent research that has been done with LLI?"

In the 2009-2010 school year, an independent LLI Efficacy Study is being conducted in two low-performing U.S. school districts. The LLI Efficacy Study is being conducted in the 2009-2010 school year by an independent research group, the Center for Research in Education Policy (CREP) at the University of Memphis. This study will involve two U.S. school districts and will examine the impact of LLI instruction on struggling readers. A control group will allow the researchers to assess what the LLI uniquely contributes to student growth. An evaluation of year 1 of the LLI Efficacy Study is currently available from the CREP. A final report will be published in late 2010 and will be available through Heinemann.

"Will there be a request to the What Works Clearinghouse to have your research studies of this program reviewed. It would be helpful to districts wanting to implement LLI if there was a positive review of LLI research available?"

Although What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has not yet approved LLI, an LLI Data Collection project is also underway to look at progress of students in schools that have implemented LLI. Many districts have volunteered to participate and the data coming in is very exciting.