Early intervention for teaching struggling readers, in line with Rose recommendations for early reading.

“When I listened to the kids today all I could think of was how BRI is like laser surgery. It goes right to a weak area and fixes it.  No wasted information. Say the sounds and read. Perfect. Kids love being in books they can read …”
Teacher & Tutor

BRI is a gentle and lively introduction to early reading and begins with just three words and five sounds. The books provide the focus and ‘know-how’ essential for struggling readers.

Strong decoding practices are put in place and all-through-the-word left-to-right tracking is embedded immediately. The instructions are simple and direct. While the story-line is carried by spirited, energetic pictures the words cannot be ‘read’/guessed and illustrations contain no clues to encourage a guessing strategy.

In addition, BRI raises awareness of the individual components of a basic story: 'who', 'where', 'when', 'what', encouraging children to engage with the stories, as well as identifying with the gentle foibles and humour of Sam the Lion, Mat the Rat and friends. Children find it immensely satisfying to understand how to ‘really read’ a book within a few minutes of starting Book 1. For the adult, this book can seem slight; to the child it is thrilling. Confidence-building starts here!

BRI is particularly suitable for supervision by TAs. Scheduling is flexible – 15-30 minutes per day is ideal. One-to-one instruction is recommended but small group instruction is also feasible. No prior training is necessary. A straightforward guide, BACK-UP! CATCH-UP! provides all the information needed for TAs; alternatively, the Getting Started instructions will be sufficient for most helpers. Simple instructions are incorporated in each book and provided that they are followed, and 'overhelping' is resisted, progress will be transparent. Each child is quickly assessed with the PERFORMANCE INDICATOR TESTS (see Getting Started) to establish the best starting place.

 

Classroom teachers and teaching assistants should note the following to ensure that every individual child is progressing:

  1. Does the child remember code?

  2. Does he/she use learned code to sound out unknown words?

  3. Is each child slowly going to fluency, that is sounding out less and less words? Children should be almost fluent at the end of each set.

  4. Does every child automatically use the protocol (‘Sound, sound, say the word’) when encountering a word he/she cannot read?

  5. Are all faulty and distracting reading strategies eliminated:
    i. guessing
    ii. cueing from the first letter
    iii. reversal of words due to erratic left-to-right directionality i.e. saying ‘saw’ for ‘was’
    iv. inattention to the decoding process i.e. saying ‘this’ for ‘that’?

    No child should be encouraged to go ‘steaming’ ahead using faulty strategies. Once embedded, it is far harder to rectify these:

    Points 1.3.5. Ask the child to choose 2-3 previously read books to reread with expression. When using the SPELL STUDY lists ensure that practice is focused on words that have proved difficult to read and words that include any forgotten sound/letter correspondences.

    Points 2.4. Use the Notched Card ‘Slider’ (see Getting Started) and insist on the ‘sounding out’ protocol.

Ideally, parents/carers should be involved and 1-2 books regularly sent home. A short briefing, or briefing note, is helpful.

Simple story questions accompany each book. It quickly becomes apparent which children gain most benefit from the story questions.

For information on the SPELL books, (see Ordering).

Piperbooks SPELL Study List