Tyrone Tornabene

Student Number: S0230170

CAMLIT Intervention
Program
Assessment Task 2
Due Date: 28/05/2015

CAMLIT Reading Intervention Program Evaluation

Summary of Program:
The CAMLIT Reading Intervention Program was designed to increase the literacy levels of
struggling upper primary students. The program worked to build on three fundamental
interrelated literacy dimensions of fluency and accuracy, reading comprehension and
metacognitive awareness (Aprile, 2012). The two key aims of the program were to encourage
a love of reading for upper primary aged students and promote development of strategic
approaches to comprehending various text types (Aprile, 2012). The SCORE strategies are
implemented throughout the program to build comprehension skills for before, during and
after the reading of texts (Aprile, 2012).
Implementing the program was effortless with simple instructional teacher talk to follow with
a range of texts already picked and organized together. The program was condensed to an
intensive abridged version for the purpose of 10 sessions. The concepts of the lessons were
advanced but had significant scaffolding through the SCORE strategies to help the learner
participate.
Overview of Texts:
Grade 5 students should explore a range of texts that explore ethical dilemmas and
interpersonal relationships (ACARA, 2015). Cinderella in the 21st Century is an effective
narrative text used in the very first session which draws on a range of linguistic features.
Sophisticated understanding of punctuation in upper primary is required to increase the
accuracy of reading such as knowledge of exclamation marks, question marks, use of
apostrophe and correct use of paragraphing (Winch et al., 2010). Punctuation is a part of this
text that is explicitly taught to demonstrate interpersonal relationships and encourage accurate
reading with the use of exclamation marks, ellipses and commas. Students also use the way
the text is written and the dialogue used to engage in deep discussion about gender roles.
Informative texts such as The Science of Earthquakes and Monica Jackson on the
Earthquake in New Zealand worked on linguistic features specific to their genre. There are
digital features such as titles, URLs and the general layout of a blog that contribute to an
overall understanding of digital texts. These earthquake focussed texts had age appropriate
language features such as content technical vocabulary to engage with such as ED, CT
scanner, aftershocks and mainshock (ACARA, 2015).
The Science of Earthquakes and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid are both texts that
demonstrate visual text features. These features include graphics, pictures and cartoons which
develop predicting skills and help to create deeper meaning. Varying the ways visual
information can be presented is essential to construct evaluative stances on texts (Winch et
al., 2010). The Diary of a Wimpy Kid also works on building skills for sequencing story
events and identifying sequence words such as now, first, after and next.
Evaluation of Reading Activities:
All strategies that were implemented into this program revolved around the SCORE process
and fitted in somewhere between skimming and scanning and becoming the expert.

Before
Think-aloud activities are employed in the before reading of various texts throughout the
program. Modelled reading is used to teach specific aspects of the reading process (NSW
Department of Education, 1997). Think aloud was effectively used to demonstrate predictive
skills through identification of the organization of the text such as text boxes, pictures and
headings. Modelled talk-aloud is also used to re-read parts of a text in the readers own words
to demonstrate understanding of the text at a paragraph level structure (Bolton, 2007).
Skimming and scanning is another strategy explicitly taught through many sessions where the
focus is on activating prior knowledge. Scanning the text helps students to identify signal
words that align with a specific top level structure (Bolton, 2007).
Generally, this was directly followed by connecting and questioning where the student was
predicting rather than the teacher and shifting responsibility over to the student as compared
to modelling. Predicting activates students background knowledge and gives purpose to
either prove or disprove their predictions (NSW Department of Education, 1997). It is an
effective strategy for students who are capable of understanding what to look for and have
prior knowledge of various text types.
During
Questioning was also used during the reading of various texts to prompt students to
continually think about what they read and guide their reading (Daly, 2009). However,
sometimes the questions were worded with too much jargon and were required to be broken
down for the student to understand.
During the read and reflect stage of score, the inking your thinking explicitly taught all
phases of the reading process and developed active comprehension skills (QSA, 2010). The
main focus of the activity was on the student identifying signal words that would label the top
level structure of the text (Bolton, 2007).
Re-reading was frequently used to go over what was read to gain deeper meaning and to
increase accuracy and fluency. This strategy helps to develop understanding of main ideas on
a paragraph level structure (Bolton, 2007). Re-reading is a part of the read and reflect part of
SCORE and is an effective strategy to develop expressive reading and enhance meaning
(NSW Department of Education, 1997).
After
Be the expert was used after reading to draw conclusions and make judgements, specifically
with the rating scale resource sheet. Evaluating demonstrates higher order thinking and is
near the top of Blooms Revised Taxonomy (Blooms, 1990). When students make
judgements, they look at a text from more than one perspective and enhance their critical
dispositions (QSA, 2010).
Re-telling what has occurred so far during the text at specific intervals helps students to
remember what they have read and read for understanding (Daly, 2009). Highlighting
specific parts of the text helped Bella because she is a highly visual learner and made retelling orally easier for her.

Evaluation and justification of Four Roles of the Reader:

Code Breaker
The code-breaker role breaks down the grammar of texts during the reading of the
Earthquake article, in which the student must identify pauses and clauses in the article
(MyRead, 2002). Skimming and scanning uses code-breaking skills to look for signal words
that demonstrate the structural convention of texts (MyRead, 2002). The re-around strategy
during the connecting phase of SCORE enables students to predict missing words through the
structure of the sentence and the relationship between spoken sounds and written symbols
(MyRead, 2002).
Text Analyst
The text-analyst role of the reader was presented in the be the expert after reading activity
of the rating scale, where students had to evaluate the views of the author and make their
own judgements of the characters. Bella was able to identify vocabulary that suited the
character best and highlight what language influenced her reasoning. The Cinderella in the
21st century text was analysed through the dialogue to discover that the gender roles had
been flipped and that texts can empower or disempower different groups based on their
telling (MyRead, 2002).
Text User
Texts are used through the inking your thinking activity, where the student had to identify the
purpose of the text and active comprehension skills to summarise the texts main ideas
(MyRead, 2002). The teacher in particular activities modelled reading to identify the purpose
and main ideas. Students were encouraged to highlight and retell ideas to identify the purpose
of the text on a paragraph and top structure level.
Text Participant
The text-participant role of the reader is supported by SC of SCORE through connecting prior
knowledge, own experiences and scanning the text for signal words top level structure texts
(MyRead, 2002). Predicting occurs on a sentence, paragraph and top structure level within
the program supporting the text-participant role by making meaning based on prior
knowledge (MyRead, 2002).
Recommendation 1:
The CAMLIT Reading Intervention Program increases the learners repertoire of strategies for
developing reading and comprehension skills in the short time that it is implemented.
CAMLIT aligns well with the upper primary curriculum goals for fluency, accuracy and
metacognition skills (ACARA, 2015). This program is effective for the general upper
primary student but not specific students who need continual development of literacy skills
and explicit teaching of phonemes.
However, the length of the program is not long enough to ingrain those essential literacy
skills into the long-term memory for the student. Bella had difficulty building SCORE into

her memory and even after the sessions, would have required regular practice of the reading
strategies to use them effectively. Reading intervention programs should review and decide
what is best for their students before the end of the program (Department of Education and
Early Childhood Development, 2007).
At the end of the 10 sessions, there should be a review to see if the student needs further
intervention or at least bi-termly sessions to evaluate their skillset. ACER (1999) states that
reading intervention programs must consistently monitor students literacy skills through a
variety of observation and assessment strategies whilst providing regular student feedback.
This program should be revisited at least twice a year on students who are struggling readers
but with different texts to keep engagement high.
Recommendation 2:
There are various strategies to build fluency and accuracy skills on a sentence and paragraph
level such as skimming and scanning, re-reading and re-telling (QSA, 2010). Bella did not
have trouble with semantic or syntax skills but she did have trouble with phonics and visual
cues. Upper primary students need to develop a variety of strategies to deal with unfamiliar
technical vocabulary (ACARA, 2015). The program should include more word decoding
strategies such as recognizing sight words, identifying how words and phrases are formed,
relating sounds to letters and exploring latin/greek root words (Koralek and Collins, 2009).
CAMLIT could make links to the THRASS chart and focus more on chunking strategies for
intensive vocabulary.
With the implementation of these recommendations, the program would have a higher scope
for continual success for reading long-term and bringing those students with graphophonic
fallacies up to recommended levels.

Appendix 1 Intro to Learner and Reading Context

Bella (change of name for privacy reasons) is a 10 year old, grade five reader who is below the expected level of
reading for her year level. Bella was recommended for the CAMLIT program by her teacher. She is a very
easily distracted student who the teacher knew would do well with some one-on-one explicit teaching. Bellas
family were overjoyed to hear that she was getting some personal attention to help in her reading.
I queried the teacher about the student in order to build on some prior knowledge on her reading practices and
gauge where her ability level was currently at. Bella achieved a Stanine 5 on her Pat-R school wide testing
which was an average for her grade. However, she received the expected reading level of between 8.5 and 9.5
years old on her PROBE test.
Bella is an avid reader, who borrows regularly from the library specifically with an interest in books that have
cartoons or little drawing additions to them. The teacher said that Bellas specific reading interests were based
around Deltora Quest and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Despite her interest in reading, Bella lacks a lot of
comprehension skills and finds it difficult to find meaning in texts and that is why this CAMLIT program would
be great to get her back up to scratch. She does not lack the enthusiasm, merely the skills necessary to achieve
success.
Bellas fluency in reading is not as big of a problem as her accuracy. She will often misread a word and continue
without realising her mistake or she will skip the word entirely to keep the flow of her reading going. Strategies
taught by score such as skimming and scanning, connecting and questioning and re-reading would be effective
in building up a repertoire of skills for Bella to go back to for future reading.
Date/Session
04/05/2015 Session 1
Focus: Intro to program
and SCORE. Scaffolding
through the process.

What was achieved? (All Texts in the program were implemented in these sessions).
Bella practiced predicting skills, identifying the meaning of pictures, titles and the overall layout of
the texts to provide understanding about what the text is about to make the reading process easier.
She identified the types of text that the Rules page was, making comparisons to lists and how the
lightbulb represent ideas and facts. Bella was able to identify the difference in gender roles from the
past and present. She developed expressive reading skills as well as fluency and accuracy through
repeated echo reading of the Cinderella text.

05/05/2015 Session 2
Focus: Practicing SC
skills through
highlighting.

Bella had great prior knowledge on Earthquakes text and a deep interest in the subject which she
brought to the reading sessions. Justified main ideas by explaining that they didnt tell the reader
much. Understood that reading on helps to understand and gain meaning. Through re-reading
Cinderella text she gained fluency and developing skills of Skimming and Scanning and
Connecting and Questioning of SCORE.
Bella recalled ideas from previous session. She needed teacher intervention to help create concept
map questions and bring together main ideas. Retelling paragraphs in own words was difficult and
she kept referring back to the paragraphs to confirm the words she wanted to use. She analysed
Billys text and concluded that he did not use a range of sources for his homework.
Bella was able to identify prior knowledge of Earthquakes to picture what an EQ would be like.
She was able to make connections that there would be valuable items that are irreplaceable. She
noted that the article was more of a story and less informal than the medical report.
Bella found identifying sequence words to be an easy task but describing words was far more
difficult. Great expression in final reading of text and used re-reading skills to try and break down
large vocabulary. She found reading the text with pauses easy once she had marked them.
Easily identified all the speaking roles of a news reporter and was very enthused in her role. She
understood that the book text flows in a way that is different to a magazine. Matched pictures
perfectly with the paragraphs of text but later revealed she had deep prior knowledge of the content
and had seen the movie and read the book before. She found it quite difficult to separate her prior
knowledge and make predictions (because she already knew what would happen). However, we
found that the sequencing of the pictures and text to be a useful activity that developed her ability
to work with sequencing words.
Watching trailer was unnecessary as the student had seen the movie already. She could recall the
plot effectively. Demonstrated a love of literature through the vast amount of childrens books she
reads. Bella predicted a car crash in the CRASH! text. She was able to identify the character
descriptions of the Dad from Dad and the Cat and the Tree well and justify her assumptions
through highlighting key words from the text. She found it difficult to understand that the reason
the text was funny was that the Dad was clumsy.

08/05/2015 Session 3
Focus: Explicit teaching
of making connections to
prior knowledge
13/05/2015 Session 4
Focus: Explicit teaching
of connecting
organisational
knowledge of text types
to identify TTs.
20/05/2015 Session 5
Focus: Building on text
types knowledge, explicit
teaching of sequencing
text and comprehending.
21/05/2015 Session 6
Focus: Identifying text
types, predicting texts
using prior knowledge
and analysing characters.

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