A Small Group Model for Early Intervention in Literacy: Group Size and Program Effects.

Over the last 2 years, Accelerated Literacy Learning (ALL) has experimented with the small group model in early literacy intervention, with success comparable to that in one-to-one intervention. There can be little doubt that intervention provided to struggling readers is most effectively initiated at an early stage. The ALL program was conceived on Marie Clay's recommendations, and for 8 years operated successfully in 10 Florida county school districts with a one-to-one ratio. Yet, the ALL implementation was not without resourcing problems. Many students qualified for the program but there were not enough ALL-trained teachers to work with them. Therefore, in an attempt to reach children who could not be served with a one-to-one ratio, educators experimented with a one-to-three small group model. The remainder of this paper describes the implementation and presents the results of work with a small group model. The paper discusses the group of three innovations by comparing them with one-to-one early literacy interventions such as Reading Recovery and strongly advises having both one-to-one and small group possibilities for each teacher. It finds that the data support expanding teacher training to include learning how to accelerate the literacy development of at-risk first graders in the context of a small group. (Contains 18 references, 2 tables, and a figure.) (NKA)