Toe By Toe 594131

READING

INTERVENTION

The Limerick Reading Initiative: a reading intervention targeted at struggling readers in primary school DIARMUID O’ROURKE, AOIFE OLSHTROON and CLAIRE O’HALLORAN In this study we examined the effectiveness of a reading intervention targeting a group of 24 struggling readers in ten primary schools in Ireland. The intervention consisted of two components; component one consisted of 15-20 minutes delivery of the Toe-by-Toe programme (a well established systematic synthetic phonics programme) and the second component consisted of 15-20 minutes guided oral reading using levelled texts. Using standardised measures of word reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, word attack skills and spelling, we found that after five months of the intervention, the majority of the pupils made significant improvements in reading and reading fluency. The reading comprehension improvements were more varied with almost a quarter of participants showing remarkable progress, while the remainder recorded considerably less impressive gains. These results are very encouraging for classroom practitioners and demonstrate that research validated approaches can help at-risk readers close the gap with their typically developing peers.

C 2016 NASEN V DOI: 10.1111/1467-9604.12123

Key words: Toe-by-Toe programme, systematic synthetic phonics guided oral reading, struggling readers, levelled readers.

There has been a longstanding pursuit of an approach that will finally solve the problem of failing readers in our primary schools. Teachers and parents of failing readers, desperate to address prolonged reading difficulty, listen to mixed messages about the most effective approach from varied sources; departmental spokespersons, university authors and commercial publishers. The pendulum swings between different emphases; phonics skills versus whole language teaching, decodeable books versus natural language books, class readers versus levelled books. There is almost a consensus that a good reading programme gives at least some attention to the teaching of phonics. Becoming A Nation of Readers: The Report of the commission on Reading regards phonics as one of the essential ingredients of any reading programme (Anderson, Hiebert, Wilkinson, 1985). The National Reading (NRP) indicated that teaching phonics was more effective than teaching by whole word methods (National Institute of Pupil Health and Development (NICHD, 2000). The UK Department of Education and Skills commissioned a review of experimental research on the use of systematic phonics instruction in the teaching of reading and spelling (2006). Systematic phonics was defined as ’the teaching of letter-sound relationships in an explicit, organised and sequenced fashion, as opposed to incidentally on a ‘when-needed’ basis’. The review reported that systematic phonics has a positive effect on reading accuracy but less so for reading comprehension and spelling. There is a longstanding rivalry between the proponents of the two major approaches to phonics teaching, analytic and synthetic phonics. The National Reading (NRP) extols the values of systematic synthetic phonics teaching for struggling readers. The NRP findings confirm that systematic synthetic phonics instruction produces the greatest gains in reading skills for learners with a specific reading difficulty and low achieving pupils (Wrench, 2002). However, many commentators such as Clay (2001) caution against an overemphasis of the phonics system in literacy instruction, stating that ‘knowing the sounds of letters and letter clusters is essential but not sufficient for successful reading of texts’ (p.98). Allington (2013) makes the point ‘effective decoding

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proficiency is a hallmark of good beginning readers, but it is hardly the only hallmark’ (p.522). In 2013, the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) published a paper by Hodgson et al. reporting the perspectives of primary school teachers on teaching phonics. The report, ‘Phonics instruction and early reading: professional views from the classroom’ echoed a similar sentiment. ‘that there is much concern that an overemphasis on phonics leads to an unbalanced reading curriculum in which other reading skills such as prediction and contextual information are not taken into . In the view of many, a phonics approach leads to less able pupils ‘barking at print’. Some pupils, it is alleged, develop a style of ‘reading’ that consists merely of phonic decoding.’ (P.15)

The Toe-by-Toe Programme In of our reading intervention for struggling readers, it was decided that systematic phonics teaching should form a substantial component. A premise of good quality teaching phonics is that the delivering teacher must have a comprehensive understanding of the continuum and complexities of a phonic curriculum. The orthography of the English written language is extremely complex. While there are only 26 letters of the alphabet they map onto 44-46 letter-sound associations (grapheme-phonemes). To become a proficient reader the pupil will need to be able to automatically recognise and then blend these letter-sounds. An emerging reader will also have to develop a growing stock of sight-words some of which are not readily decodeable. As a reader moves beyond this stage they will have to be able to read polysyllabic words. To be able to do this effectively the pupil will need to internalise syllabication rules. If a teacher doesn’t have a comprehensive understanding of the content and pacing of the phonics curriculum they will need to follow a high-quality programme. The authors reviewed a number of synthetic phonic programmes for this purpose. The Toe-by-Toe programme (Cowling, 1993) was chosen for this purpose by the authors, as it had been shown to be effective in previous research undertaken by NEPS in Waterford Reading Projects (Nugent, 2010) and also the West Dunbartonshire Literacy Initiative (MacKay, 2006). The Toe-by-Toe programme is a synthetic phonics programme designed to be systematic in nature, ensuring the pupil masters each level before progressing on to the next.

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The programme begins by introducing basic letter-sounds patterns to decode – af, ep, coff. It progresses to increasingly longer words and non-words to decode, wetch, chon, froth, ditch. The real words are periodically contained in sentences of continuous text. The early part of the programme also introduces a small set of sight-words to be learned as whole-words. The pupil then moves through increasingly complex aspects of phonic knowledge short/long vowel sounds, consonant blends, letter-sound variations (soft/hard ‘g’ and ‘c’ sounds), vowel digraphs and diphthongs. The latter stages of the programme are devoted to polysyllabic non-words and polysyllabic real words which are presented in ages of continuous text. One of the criticisms of traditional phonics teaching was that the lessons often over-relied on worksheets which were typically poorly designed (Osbom, 1984). Secondly, phonics teaching tended to dominate the time devoted to teaching struggling readers at the expense of reading connected text. ‘Currently, pupils spend considerably more time reading connected texts. This is as it should be. Effective phonics instruction should not take a great deal of classroom time. A phonics programme can be designed to be taught in no more than 15-20 minutes a day’ (Stahl et al., 1998 p.43) The publishers of Toe-by-Toe recommend that pupils spend no longer than 20 minutes per day on the programme. This sentiment was echoed by Morris (2015) ‘keep in mind that both analytic and synthetic methods should be systematic in nature, ensuring mastery at one conceptual level before proceeding to the next level. Furthermore, either phonics approach, if it is to fulfil its purpose (i.e., automatic recognition of basic spelling patterns), will require help in the form of copious amounts of contextual reading at the appropriate difficulty level (p.505).

Providing struggling readers to suitable text The second part of the reading intervention involves committing more time for struggling readers to read books/text at high success levels. This is underpinned by the belief that pupils make the most progress when they are provided with instructional to extend themselves by reading books that are on the cusp of their learning (Vygotsky, 1978). This brings into question the widespread use of the ‘one size fits all’ class reader in many classrooms in Ireland. These pupils who are struggling to read at their

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class-level are provided with class readers which contain text which is too difficult for them to engage with. The pervasive use of class readers seems at variance with the range of reading ability found in typical Irish classrooms. In 2013-14, in collaboration with a number of Secondary schools in Munster, NEPS oversaw the assessment of the literacy levels of all incoming first years students. The range of abilities was striking even within academically high achieving schools. The three lowest achieving pupils entering one of these schools achieved Woodcock-Johnson C scores of:

Student A Student B Student C

Word Reading

age comprehension (Reading Comprehension)

8 years 6 months 9 years 9 months 9 years 0 months

9 years 1 month 8 years 6 months 9 years 6 months

In the same school there was a sizeable cohort of pupils who achieved word reading and reading comprehension age-equivalent scores of well above 18 years. The results were even more polarised in a Delivering Equality of Education in Schools (DEIS) Secondary School where again a subgroup of pupils (albeit a smaller sample) achieved age-equivalent scores of 18 years plus. At the opposite end, 10 incoming pupils recorded reading levels below 8 years 6 months. Incredibly the two lowest achieving pupils were at levels commensurate with a typical senior infant pupil (below 7 years). There is no reason to believe that this is a distinctly Irish phenomenon. In 1998, the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (Revised) was being updated, over 3,000 pupils in the US from kindergarten through to grade 12 were assessed. The researchers identified an exceptionally diverse range of reading skills (Hargis, 2006). They found the range of reading ability increased from over four years in the first grade (senior infants) to over 10 years by fifth grade (fifth class). It is reasonable to conclude therefore that there are a concerning number of pupils who are being prescribed class level books which are far too difficult for them to read and be able to engage with meaningfully. These class readers are suitable neither for sustaining reading growth nor for instilling a pleasure in reading.

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There appears, then, to be a strong case for providing as much opportunity as possible for struggling readers to spend time with ‘just-right’ text; that is reading material that is developmentally appropriate. Ehri, Dreyer, Flugman, and Gross (2007), reported that improvements in the reading of failing readers who received individual teaching ’appeared to be explained primarily by one aspect of their tutoring experience – reading texts at a high level of accuracy, between 98% and 100%’ (p. 132) As Allington notes (2013) it is the more able readers in our classroom who engage in high-success reading (98% accuracy or higher) and who consequently develop into better and better readers. It is the low achieving classmates who struggle with hard reading activities and continue to falter as readers. To be able to provide ‘just-right’ reading, schools need to invest in an ‘expansive set’ of levelled books where struggling pupils can progress up fine gradations. It is vital to pupils in taking on more challenging texts so they can grow as readers, using the text gradient as a ‘ladder of progress’ (Fountas and Pinnell, 1996). Consequently, as part of this study, the participating schools were asked to invest in a set of high quality levelled readers. We specifically recommended the Rigby PM plus collection for this purpose. The PM plus collection have 30 levels with up to 10 core books at each level which provide a fine gradient for ample reading at just-the-right level. In addition to providing a fine text gradient Morris (2015) maintains the PM collection feature other important criteria ‘word control, natural syntax, and pictures that complement a meaningful story line’ (p.504).This departs from using decodeable phonics texts which are aligned with a partisan code- emphasis approach to the teaching of reading. These authors take a similar view, that while of course struggling readers need texts that help them to apply the letter-sound correspondences and decoding skills they are being taught, they also need texts that emphasise reading for meaning and the use of syntactic and semantic cues to cross check and self-regulate reading.

The Limerick Reading Initiative Design The goal of the intervention was thus two-pronged: (a) to help struggling readers progress through a systematic synthetic phonic programme and (b) to provide

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daily opportunities for the pupils to read to an adult with guidance and (guided oral reading) from appropriate levelled text. At the beginning of the school year, an email was sent to all of the Principals of Primary Schools in Co. Limerick and Co. Clare to alert interest in an opportunity to take part in a reading initiative. At the end of September, learning teachers from 10 schools attended a training day, which involved input from the publishers of the Toe-by-Toe programme and supplemental information about guided oral reading at ‘just-the-right’ level from an Educational Psychologist. Subsequently 24 pupils who needed assistance in reading were identified from the 10 schools. In October the study team istered six literacy-related assessments (Woodcock-Johnson (C) Tests of Achievement) to the pupils participating in the evaluation. The assessments measured word reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, non-word attack, spelling and spelling of sounds. In addition to istering subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson (C) Test of achievement, the authors used a running record procedure (Clay, 1993) on the PM benchmark kit. This provided information about accuracy levels that helped match the levelled reader to the appropriate book level. All participating pupils received daily Toe-by-Toe teaching (15-20 minutes) and oral reading practice (15-20 minutes) over the duration of five months. The 24 pupils were then reassessed with the same subtests after six months.

Results Participants (n524) were pre-tested using subtests from the Woodcock Johnson Brief Battery-C. Subtests examined participants’ levels of word identification, age comprehension (reading comprehension), reading fluency, word attack and spelling of sounds. After the five month intervention period, participants were post-tested using the same subtests. The following analysis matches the data for each pupil and as a result the figures reported represent changes in attainment made by actual pupils, rather than simply comparing averages over a five month interval. The average chronological age of participants was eight years four months.

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Subtest 1: Word Identification After a period of five months, participants’ accuracy in word identification had improved on average by 16.8 months. This represents a substantial ratio gain of 3.35. There was some variation in the amount of progress recorded by participants. For example, eight pupils improved by 18 or more months (one participant improved by over 4.5 years, while the lowest achieving pupil made just under three months progress) during the five month period. Three participants improved their word identification ages by only 6 months or less. It is noteworthy that two thirds of all participants made a year or more progress on the word identification subtest.

Subtest 2: Reading Fluency Post-intervention test scores demonstrated impressive improvements in participants’ reading fluency. After the five month intervention, the average participants’ reading fluency ages had improved by over one year (14.29 months), thus recording a ratio gain of 2.85. One participant made the most substantial gain in any of the subtests examined, recording progress of over 50 months during the five month period. A further two participants also demonstrated remarkable progress, 41 months and 48 months respectively. Ten participants recorded progress of over a year. At the other end of the scale one participant failed to record progress when assessed post-intervention and the reading fluency ages of two participants deteriorated by two months.

Subtest 3: age Comprehension Participants’ overall average age comprehension attainment scores demonstrated impressive improvement when tested after the intervention. Participants’ age comprehension scores increased in accuracy by 10.7 months during the five month intervention. This identified a ratio gain of 2.14. Upon examination of individual scores, considerable variability was evident. One participant recorded progress of over three years (40 months) during the five month period. Five participants recorded progress of over 20 months. In contrast, two participants recorded no progress while a further two participants’ attainment scores deteriorated by twelve months and two months respectively.

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Subtest 4: Word Attack Upon examination of pre- versus post-test attainment scores, gains in word attack skills were generally very positive. On average pupils recorded an improvement of just over one year (12.4 months) over the five month period, representing a ratio gain of 2.48 on the word attack subtest. Again, variation was apparent in individual scores. Three participants recorded progress of 30 months or more, while half of all participants (n512) made progress of 12 months or more. However two participants did not show gains between their pre- and post-test scores. Subtest 5: Spelling In contrast to the figures for word identification, reading fluency, word attack and age comprehension, participants’ overall average attainment scores in spelling did not demonstrate meaningful improvement. The average progress was less than four months (3.95) after the five month intervention. This represents a ratio gain of only 0.79. When individual scores were examined, one participant made progress of over two years (25 months) while a further five participants made progress of over 6 or more months. The spelling accuracy of four participants actually deteriorated, with one individual’s scores decreasing by five months. Subtest 6: Spelling of sounds Participants indicated an average increase of 8.75 months in the accuracy of their spelling of sounds during their post-intervention assessment. As a result, a ratio gain of approximately 1.75 over the five month period was recorded. The greatest individual improvement was four years progress while the least was a deterioration of 11 months. Five participants made progress ranging between 18 and 41 months while an additional five participants recorded progress of between 6 and 13 months.

Additional assessment The PM Benchmark Reading Assessments have been designed explicitly to assess pupils’ instructional and independent reading level. Using unseen,

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Word Identification Pupil Number Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

Subtest 1 Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

35 12 15 11 14 10 6 11 20 24 17 8 5 8 18 4 13 41 56 13 12 19 12 19 Mean gain 16.8 months

7 2.4 3 2.2 2.8 2 1.2 2.2 4 4.8 3.4 1.6 1 1.6 3.6 0.8 2.6 8.2 11.2 2.6 2.4 3.8 2.4 3.8 Mean ratio gain 3.58 months

meaningful texts, they provide accurately leveled fiction and non-fiction texts ranging progressively from emergent levels to an age- equivalent of 12 years. Participants’ reading accuracy was assessed using the PM Benchmark kit/ running record and subsequently their independent reading level was identified within the PM levelled system. The PM levels range from level 1 to 30. For a child to be at an independent reading level on a particular text they must read a 150-250 word extract with 96–99% word accuracy. When participants were re-tested there was an average advancement of 6 PM levels over the five month period. The highest gain achieved by any child

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Reading Fluency

Subtest 2

Pupil Number

Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

16 5 25 5 13 5 2 7 90 14 24 14 48 22 0 8 7 41 7 22 13 11 7 13 Mean gain 14.29 months

3.2 1 5 1 2.6 1 0.4 1.4 18 2.8 20.8 2.8 9.6 20.4 0 1.6 1.4 8.2 1.4 20.4 2.6 2.2 1.4 2.6 Mean ratio gain 2.85 months

was an incredible 14 levels while the lowest gain achieved was 2 PM levels.

Discussion The fusion of two research-validated approaches, Toe-by-Toe, a systematic synthetic phonics programme and increased amounts of guided oral reading of high accuracy reading are complementary and result in very significant improvements in the reading and reading fluency skills of struggling readers. The most encouraging post-intervention gains are in the ability to decode words with an average gain of almost 17 months over the five months intervention.

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age Comprehension Pupil Number Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

Subtest 3 Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

5 8 40 11 212 0 4 4 29 9 22 20 10 31 4 7 24 12 7 3 0 17 15 11 Mean gain 10.7 months

1 1.6 8 2.2 22.4 0 0.8 0.8 5.8 1.8 20.4 4 2 6.2 0.8 1.4 4.8 2.4 1.4 0.6 0 3.4 3 2.2 Mean ratio gain 2.14 months

Indeed over the five months duration of the intervention, 19 out of the 23 participating pupils made 10 months or greater progress on the word identification subtest. The reading fluency gains are also impressive, with an average gain of over 14 month over the same period. The intervention had a negligible effect on spelling development. While spelling development was not targeted by this intervention it was nevertheless disappointing (but not unexpected based on previous research findings) that substantial improvement in phonic knowledge and word decoding skills didn’t transfer in any meaningful way to spelling. The reading comprehension gains are somewhat mixed. The average gain is almost 11 months but there is considerable variability within the sample. Five of

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Word Attack Pupil Number Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

Subtest 4 Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

13 0 31 2 13 10 0 6 22 21 31 3 8 11 7 12 12 9 32 4 6 17 13 15 Mean gain 12.4 months

2.6 0 6.2 0.4 2.6 2 0 1.2 4.4 4.2 6.2 0.6 1.6 2.2 1.4 2.4 2.4 1.8 6.4 0.8 1.2 3.4 2.6 3 Mean ratio gain 2.48 months

the pupils had very high reading comprehension gains, 40 months, 31 months, 29 months, 24 and 20 months. These pupils achieved a ratio gain of above 4.0 which is categorised as ‘remarkable impact’ (Brooks, 2007, p. 289). At the other end of the scale, 8 of the pupils made gains of 5 months or less. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986), model may offer an explanation as to why the progress in reading comprehension within our sample is so mixed. Reading comprehension, in this model, is proposed to be the product of a pupil’s decoding ability and listening comprehension ability. The ‘remarkable’ reading comprehension gains achieved by these five pupils may be explained by the superior language comprehension skills they bring to the reading process. Thus, as their reading proficiency and reading fluency levels improved, these five pupils were far better able to engage with the text than their peers. In hindsight it would have been very worthwhile to include an

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Spelling

Subtest 5

Pupil Number

Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

25 21 25 2 0 5 23 1 2 8 3 22 1 3 4 7 4 5 10 3 10 6 2 5 Mean gain 3.95 months

5 20.2 21 0.4 0 1 20.6 0.2 0.4 1.6 0.6 20.4 0.2 0.6 0.8 1.4 0.8 1 2 0.6 2 1.2 0.4 1 Mean ratio gain 0.79 months

Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

assessment of listening comprehension and receptive vocabulary at the pre-test phase.

Implications for Practitioners Undoubtedly, the current study highlights the effectiveness of the Toe-by-Toe programme with guided oral reading at just the right level. It is a very successful approach for working intensively with struggling readers. In comparison with other interventions targeting struggling readers, the cost of the Toeby-Toe programme (and training) is very moderate. On the other hand, having an expansive set of high quality levelled readers is a substantial investment. However, having access to high quality reading material should be one of the cornerstones of successful reading provision for all children (NEPS

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Spelling of Sounds Pupil Number Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil Pupil

Subtest 6 Diff 1 /- Months Pre and Post Intervention

Ratio gain in months

48 5 7 211 41 23 0 4 3 23 8 30 25 5 0 18 3 25 13 7 23 6 28 26 Mean gain 8.75 months

9.6 1 1.4 22.2 8.2 20.6 0 0.8 0.6 4.6 1.6 6 21 1 0 3.6 0.6 5 2.6 1.4 20.6 1.2 21.6 21.2 Mean ratio gain 1.75 months

2015 Good Practice Guide. A Balanced Approach to Literacy Development in the Early Years). In future studies, it would be desirable to supplement the ‘Limerick Reading Intervention’, with other components such as vocabulary building and reading comprehension strategies instruction.

References ALLINGTON, R.L. (2013) What Really Matters When Working With Struggling Readers. The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 520–530. ANDERSON, HIEBERT, WILKINSON (1985) Becoming A Nation of Readers: The Report of the commission on Reading. Washington DC: The National Academy of Education.

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BROOKS, G. (2007) What Works for Pupils with Literacy Difficulties? The Effectiveness of Intervention Schemes. 3rd edition. London: DCSF. CLAY, M.M. (2001) Change over time in pupils’s literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. COWLING, K. And COWLING, H. (1993) Toe by Toe. Toe by Toe: A Highly Structured Multisensory Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents. Basildon, West Yorks: Toe by Toe. EHRI, L. C., DREYER, L. G., FLUGMAN, B., and GROSS, A. (2007) Reading Rescue: An effective tutoring intervention model for language minority pupilswho are struggling readers in first grade. American Educational Research Journal, 44(2), 414–448. FOUNTAS, I.C., and PINNELL, G.S. (1996) Guided reading: Good first teaching for all pupils. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. GOUGH, P.B. and TUNMER, W.E. (1986) Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6–10. HARGIS, C. (2006) Setting Standards: An exercise in futility? Phi Delta Kappan, 87(5), 393–395. MACKAY, T. (2006) The West Dunbartonshire Literacy Initiative: The Design, implementation and Evaluation of an Intervention Strategy to Raise Achievement and Eradicate Illiteracy. Phase I Research Report. Dumbarton: West Dunbartonshire Council. MORRIS, D. (2015) Preventing Early Reading Failure: An Argument. The Reading Teacher, 68(7), 502–509 Neps (National Educational Psychological Service Of Ireland) (2015) Good Practice Guide. A Balanced Approach to Literacy in the Early Years. NUGENT, M. (2010) Teaching our Traveller Pupils to Read: An Action research project. for Learning, 25, 2, 55–62. OSBORN, J. (1984). The purposes, uses and contents of workbooks and some guidelines for publishers. In R. C. Anderson, J. Osborn, and R. J. Tierney (eds), Learning to read in American schools, pp. 45-111. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. PM BENCHMARK, Reading Assessment Resource (2010) Cengage Learning. STAHL, S.A., and MURRAY, B.A. (1998) Issues involved in defining phonological awareness and its relation to early reading. In J. Metsala and L.C. Ehri (eds), Word recognition in beginning literacy Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 65–87. VYGOTSKY, L. S. (1978) Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. WOODCOCK R.W., MCGREW, K.S., and MATHER N. (2001) Woodcock-Johnson III: Tests of Achievement. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Services. WRENCH, M. (2002) Systematic Synthetic Phonics Instruction: Are There Particular Advantages for Urban Learners? An Imperfect World: Resonance from the Nation’s Violence. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the National Association of African American Studies, the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, the National Association of Native American Studies, and the International Association of Asian Studies, February 11–16, Houston, Texas.

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