The past two years I have used Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) and we (me and my students) love it. The books are so engaging and the different characters are loved. For the most part, my teammates and I have followed the program. And we have seen some great growth in our Tier 2 reading instruction.
In the training, we did learn that the phonics should meet the need of the group. It seemed that each student in each group had a different set of needs. So for the past two years, I have followed the phonics written with the LLI lesson. But...yep, you guessed it. Those gaps did not seem to fill.
This was a hard failing to swallow. Because it was on me for not tailoring my instruction to better meet the need. It led me to some great reading.
From reading and conversations with Orton-Gillingham trained co-workers, I came up with a plan.
1. Assess reading level with F&P.
2. Assess phonological awareness skills.
3. Assess phonics skills.
