students for whom STARI is designed and the structure of the intervention | missing components of some of the more popular reading intervention programs and how STARI addresses these gaps | STARI addresses an identified need of Boston Public Schools, including a diagnostic tool that uncovers the specific components of reading that need to be addressed in individual students
STARI curriculum is aligned to Massachusetts state standards and includes novels, poetry and non-fiction books and articles | STARI includes background information that is written at an accessible level for struggling readers
involvement of teachers in creating the STARI curriculum
STARI has two levels with level I designed for 6th and 7th grades and Level II designed for 7th and 8th grades | each level has four units; each unit takes about 6-8 weeks | teachers helped to select the themes for the STARI units, choosing issues that matter to students so that they will invest intellectually in the texts | STARI includes very detailed lesson plans but this is not a scripted program | each unit is built around a central novel. There is also a non-fiction book in each unit, as well as poetry, drama and other texts | STARI includes a student workbook of fluency passages written at four different levels| most students identified for the STARI intervention begin reading at 70-80 words per minute | the fluency work includes elements of challenge as it asks students to track their progress and move between levels at any time during a unit.
the texts | graphic organizers and charts within the materials that help students engage with the texts |fluency workbooks and the tracking material for students to record their progress | word study activities and other components of academic language | essay topic and scaffolds to help students organize ideas
How is STARI designed?
Students whose reading skills are two or more years below grade level can benefit from STARI. Eligibility for STARI is determined by individuals’ performance on state assessments and on a diagnostic reading test. STARI students participate in the intervention curriculum for a year, improving their fluency and understanding of what they read. The program aims to move participants into the proficient range on reading assessments. Students with mild or moderate disabilities or who are advanced English language learners may be appropriate for the intervention, along with students who struggle with reading comprehension but have no specific language or learning differences.
The STARI curriculum is designed to accelerate the progress of struggling readers in grades 6, 7, and 8. It targets students through a rich, literacy-enhanced ELA curriculum. The curriculum novels, nonfiction, and poetry begin at a challenge level that students can manage; difficulty levels increase throughout the school year. Course activities are organized around engaging themes such as the Harlem Renaissance and immigration and incorporate a focus on discussion and debate.
The program teaches reading skills in the context of an English language arts class and uses a major subject block. The goal is to provide more comprehensive and intensive intervention than is provided by existing supplemental reading programs. Students also experience applying reading skills in the context of challenging content area lessons.
Teacher-led, whole class mini-lessons
Focus may be word study (structural analysis, challenging letter sound patterns), a comprehension strategy (such as clarifying while reading), or a literacy response skill (such as tracking theme across a work). Overheads and detailed lesson plans guide this work; often a homework assignment is linked to this same skill focus.
Partner fluency work
Students work in partners with short, leveled nonfiction passages to improve their reading rate, accuracy, and phrasing. Passages are “high interest” and are designed to build background knowledge on topics related to the literature in the course and to promote partner talk about text. Students are placed in fluency passages at levels A-D (corresponding to 3rd-6th grade equivalent) based on their entering fluency skills. The passages bump up in difficulty and teachers move students up to the next level of passages when they reach targets for reading rate and accuracy.
Guided reading group and partner reading
The class is divided in half for this component. One half of the students read assigned pages in the focus novel silently with a partner, stopping to discuss what they are reading and to record responses in a student workbook. The other half meets with the teacher in a guided reading group, working on the same novel, applying decoding and comprehension strategies and discussing meanings, themes and values. Detailed lesson plans support teachers in linking reading skills to students’ experience of reading literature. Lesson plans also lay the groundwork for extended writing about literature. The groups switch off in the middle of this block each day.
Rationale: The lesson format provides extended amounts of time to read text at appropriate levels of challenge. Smaller-scale contexts for discussion of text (partners, reading groups) provide more “air time” for all students to discuss meaning. Just as the fluency passages become more challenging over time, the literature selected reflects a gradient from about a fourth grade reading level (lexile 600) to around a sixth grade reading level later in the year. Nonfiction books form part of the curriculum and serve, along with the fluency passages, to address many students’ gaps in background knowledge and vocabulary. Poetry anthologies are included in some of the units.
