Whittier City School District employs a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) model for helping students achieve yearly progress in their education. Students can receive 3 Levels or Tiers of support. As a part of our strong focus on literacy, all students are given an assessment to determine their reading level and our teachers plan a reading intervention block to provide instruction at that level. Students are placed in one of the evidence-based reading programs described on the other side of this page. The reading intervention ranges from providing intensive instruction with a focus on phonics, to enrichment-level instruction in order to promote deeper levels of comprehension. Our support will provide reading strategies that will assist your child as he or she moves along the reading continuum. This small group setting will give your child the opportunity to make reading progress with targeted, individualized instruction. This is extra help for students who need it.
The reading intervention block is taught during the school day, 4 days a week, for 30 minutes. It is part of your child’s weekly schedule and will continue for several weeks. Depending on your child’s level, they might change classrooms and work with a different teacher for the intervention block.
It is extremely important that your child attends school daily, arrives on time, and stays the full day. Please continue to read nightly with your son/daughter to ensure continued reading and writing growth. With assistance, many children can become successful readers and no longer need support. It is important for you to be aware of how your child is progressing and to be informed about your child’s reading improvement. If you have any questions, please call the school.
MTSS PROGRAMS @ Longfellow
SIPPS and SIPPS-Plus (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words)
A program for new and struggling readers, SIPPS instructional materials offer a systemic approach to decoding that helps students gain reading fluency and comprehension.
Phonics for Reading
Builds students’ phonemic awareness, decoding, and fluency skills to strengthen their reading comprehension. Employing systematic, explicit instruction that fosters student confidence and motivation, the program features consistent teaching routines, repeated practice, and immediate corrective feedback.
The Making Meaning® program is a classroom-tested K–8 reading comprehension curriculum that combines the latest comprehension research with support for students’ social and ethical development.
Comprehension strategies taught:
Junior Great Books
Shared Inquiry™ is a method of teaching and learning that enables people of all ages to explore the ideas, meaning, and information found in everything they read. It centers on interpretive questions that have more than one answer and can lead to engaging and insightful conversations about the text.
In this type of discussion, each participant engages in an active search for the meaning of a work by reading closely, asking questions and discussing actively. Discussion leaders provide direction and guidance in order to get participants thinking, listening, and responding to questions and answers from others in their discussion groups. The participants in the group look to the discussion leader for questions, not answers.