The MultiLit Reading Tutor Program (RTP) caters for students who have not acquired the basic skills needed to become functional readers. Children who have failed to learn to read in the first few years of schooling need intensive, systematic reading instruction if they are not to fall further behind, or even become complete non-readers.
Key features
RTP reflects a contemporary approach to best practice literacy instruction as identified by international reading scientists and as reflected by the reports of the US National Reading Panel (2000), the (Australian) National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (2005), and the (UK) Rose Report (2006).
Research shows that the most effective programs of reading instruction for low-progress readers involve intensive, systematic and explicit instruction in three main areas:
1. ‘Phonics’ (or word attack skills);
2. Sight words recognition; and
3. Supported book reading.
Teachers, tutors and parents opting for remedial programs that incorporate these three elements are far more likely to be satisfied with the progress their students (or children) will make. The Reading Tutor Program incorporates all three key features: Word Attack Skills, Sight Words and Reinforced Reading.
Word Attack Skills
When teaching students with learning difficulties to become independent readers, teaching phonic word attack skills is an essential component of any literacy intervention program. These skills help students to decode text by associating sounds with letters or groups of letters.
The three components of Word Attack Skills are accuracy, fluency and spelling.
A placement test is used to determine the appropriate starting point in the program. A specific sequence is adhered to and is presented in hierarchical order of difficulty, where essential pre-skills knowledge is taken into consideration.
It should be noted that the teaching intervention used in Word Attack Skills is explicit and systematic and takes a ‘synthetic’ approach in line with contemporary best practice.
Sight Words
The basic premise behind teaching a bank of high frequency sight words is to enable low-progress readers, who have previously had very little exposure to text, or indeed success in reading, to access text quickly. Knowledge of the most frequently occurring words in text allows poor readers to access a great deal of the text they encounter without having to resort to decoding skills that they might not have yet mastered.
Sight Words includes 200 words presented in 20 groups of 10 cards at each level. Sight Words is organised into three teaching sections: Current List, Revision, and Cumulative Review. These sections incorporate learning the new words, achieving automaticity, and ensuring the words are in the student’s longer-term memory.
A placement test is used to determine the appropriate starting point in the program.
Sight Words is an important component of the Reading Tutor Program but it is important to note that the implementation of Sight Words should not replace instruction in phonological recoding skills, the remedy for the key deficit in reading. Rather it should function as a complementary component, along with Word Attack Skills and Reinforced Reading.
Reinforced Reading
One of the single most important things we can do to help low-progress readers is to hear them read every day, for as little as 15-20 minutes, using a set of tutoring strategies known as Reinforced Reading. We call it Reinforced Reading for three reasons:
- The reader and the reading is supported or reinforced by a trained tutor;
- The low-progress reader is positively reinforced for good reading by means of highly specific and contingent tutor praise; and
- The learning of sight words and word attack skills is reinforced by the supported reading of real words in real text in context.
Reinforced Reading is predicated on the set of tutoring strategies for use with low-progress readers known as Pause, Prompt and Praise (PPP), a technique used and researched extensively since the early 1980s, and has been revised in the light of current research and the findings of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy.
Our research has repeatedly shown that most low-progress readers can make major gains when this essentially very simple procedure is employed properly on a regular basis.
In addition, free resources for supporting and encouraging the implementation of Reinforced Reading in homes and schools have been devised by and have made available in the Members’ Area on our website.
Kit Contents
The Reading Tutor Program Kit includes the following components:
- DVD – An introduction to the Reading Tutor Program
- Word Attack Skills
- Manual
- Sound Prompt Cards (one card for each letter of the alphabet)
- Word Attack Skills Recording Booklet (1 copy. Note: a separate booklet is required for each student undertaking the program. Additional booklets may be purchased separately from MultiLit)
- Sight Words
- Manual
- Sight Words Cards (200 cards in 20 sets plus an additional 20 blank cards are included for use in Cumulative Reviews sessions)
- Sight Words Recording Booklet (One copy. Note: a separate booklet is required for each student undertaking the program. Additional booklets may be purchased separately from MultiLit)
- Reinforced Reading – Using Pause, Prompt and Praise
- A 45-minute training DVD for detailing the skills necessary to provide supported book reading in a one-to-one context using this powerful intervention strategy
- Using Pause, Prompt and Praise booklet describing, in detail, how to implement Reinforced Reading to improve reading accuracy, reading fluency and reading comprehension
Membership Program
Access to the Basic membership level is automatic with the purchase of the RTP Program and can be accessed via the MultiLit website.
The program gives access to exclusive members-only content that provides additional support and which will help you get the most out of the program.
These resources are not available anywhere else on the MultiLit website, nor are they available on the MultiLit TV Channel on YouTube. Available resources include:
- Word Attack Skills
- Word Attack Skills Placement Test Recording Forms for screening multiple students for placement on Word Attack Skills
- Recording forms for Oral Blending
- Segmentation Exercises
- Fluency Sprints
- Word Attack Skills Achievement Certificate
- Sight Words
- Sight Words Placement Test Recording Forms for screening multiple students can be screened for placement on Sight Words
- Self-Presentation Sprints Record Sheets
- Match to Sample sheets
- Sight Words Achievement Certificates
Pricing
Please click here for the Price List and Order Form.
Please note: The use of MultiLit publications and attendance at professional development workshops is for personal education use in schools with State/Territory accreditation (‘Accredited Schools’). Other commercial use, hiring or lending, or other use as part of any commercial, not-for-profit, or fee-paying program of instruction or tuition not carried out within an Accredited School is strictly prohibited.
Workshop
- RTP PD One-Day Workshop. Although the materials in the RTP Kit are very comprehensive, training is highly recommended to give the user the extra confidence to get started.
Click here for more information on Reading Tutor Program Professional Development
