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A Newly Published Brief from a National Center Examines Read Naturally Live®

According to the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII), a successful intervention program is a standardized, evidence-based program that provides targeted instruction in a specific skill or set of skills (such as phonemic awareness or vocabulary). The intervention should meet the student’s needs and be delivered with fidelity. These programs are known as validated intervention programs.

When students are not making adequate progress with an initial, validated intervention, however, students require more intensive support (commonly referred to as Tier 3 intervention within MTSS/RtI frameworks). To assist educators in selecting validated intensive intervention programs, academic experts developed a Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity based on a robust body of research (Fuchs, Fuchs, and Malone, 2017). The Taxonomy is a set of dimensions educators should consider when selecting an intervention. The seven dimensions in the Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity are as follows: 

• Strength: The evidence of effectiveness for students with intensive needs
• Dosage: The number of opportunities students have to respond and receive feedback from the teacher
• Alignment: How well the intervention matches the targeted academic skills or behaviors of concern, as well as incorporates grade-appropriate standards or behaviors we would expect for a particular context
• Attention to transfer: Whether the intervention is explicitly designed to help students make connections between the skills taught in the intervention and skills learned in other contexts and environments
• Comprehensiveness: How well the intervention incorporates a comprehensive array of explicit instruction principles
• Behavioral or academic support: Whether an academic intervention incorporates behavioral strategies that may support students with self-regulation, motivation, or externalizing behaviors that may impact their ability to learn, or whether a behavioral intervention considers academic components as part of the intervention
• Individualization: Whether the intervention incorporates ongoing use of progress monitoring data and other diagnostic data sources to intensify and individualize the intervention based on student need

Read Naturally Live: Validated Intervention Program

NCII content experts reviewed and published Read Naturally’s Taxonomy Brief on Read Naturally Live to help educators examine the extent to which the program incorporates these seven dimensions. Intervention Taxonomy Brief: Read Naturally Live is available on NCII’s website. Access the brief to learn:

• What is considered a dose of intervention of Read Naturally Live (RNL)?
• What skill strands are taught with RNL?
• How does RNL teach to transfer skills beyond the program?
• How does RNL provide clear directions, model efficient strategies, ensure adequate background knowledge and skills, utilize gradual release of support, and provide adequate practice opportunities?
• What behavioral supports are embedded into RNL to build self-regulation and execute functions while limiting undesired behaviors?

While studies of Read Naturally Live have not disaggregated data specifically for students performing under the 20^th percentile, several evidence-based research studies validate the effectiveness of Read Naturally interventions for “at-risk” students (≤40^th percentile), which includes this population. See the research support on the strength of the intervention on Read Naturally’s website.

More information about the Read Naturally Live program is available on Read Naturally’s website, and we offer free 60-day Read Live trials to use with students. Start your trial today for complete access to all four curriculum options included with Read Live: Read Naturally Live, Word Warm-ups Live, One Minute Reader Live, and Read Naturally Live—Español.

References
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., & Malone, A. S. (2017). The Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity. Teaching Exceptional Children, 50(1), 35–43.