During my years as a classroom teacher, and later as a reading specialist, I tried many new teaching methods and kept data to determine which of them had the most positive effect on my struggling readers. I was constantly watching my students to see who was learning and who wasn’t. Then I adjusted my instruction to ensure that everyone made progress. Today, that’s called progress-monitoring. When I adjusted my program, I was responding to the child’s need with a more appropriate intervention. In other words, I was “responding to intervention.” It wasn’t difficult, but it took time. Through the analysis of that constant data, I learned what works for struggling readers and what doesn’t. (I will always be grateful to the staff at Kennedy Elementary School for supporting me so completely, and to the administrators in Medford who encouraged me to explore the best practices for teaching literacy.)

My past research supports the methods I’m suggesting through Rainbow Readers, and my new book, “Help, I Can’t Read!” Please take the time to look at my results through the links on the side menu. I’m very proud of what my students achieved. While you’re reading, please keep in mind that the groups of children represented in this data were all struggling in reading and had failed to pass the district’s reading assessments (or I wouldn’t have been working with them). For them to make even one year’s growth would have been great. They usually did much better than that! (Click on the links for more information.)