Elementary School

To screen students for early literacy skills, FCPS utilizes the DIBELS 8th edition.  This is a battery of short assessments (approximately one minute each) that measure the critical skills necessary for successful beginning reading, which include: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Checklist of Early Warning Signs of Reading Difficulty

	Language	Reading	Writing	Emotional
Students Ages 5-8	Learning the alphabet Rhyming words Repeating what was said Staying focused Learning to speak	Naming letters Matching letters to sounds Learning to read as expected Remembering printed words Remembering sight words	Learning to write and copy Writing letters in correct order Writing numbers in correct order. Spelling correctly/consistently Writing neatly	Poor self-confidence Low self-esteem Poor social skills Making and keeping friends Easily frustrated

Blast Foundations is a program designed for emerging readers. This program has a focus on phonics and phonemic awareness with hands-on multi-sensory and manipulative based instruction. The scope and sequence covers explicit instruction in the foundational skills needed to help students who struggle with basic skills in reading on the 1st Grade level.

Exploring Reading is a program meant for students with strong decoding and foundational skills who still struggle with comprehension. This program explicitly teaches students how to integrate essential reading strategies to successfully comprehend complex fiction and nonfiction text across a range of text types and lengths.

HD Word is a program meant to teach foundational reading skills to students who have mastered basic phonics skills, but struggle with more advanced phonics features on the 2nd grade level.The lessons systematically teach the essential phonics structures that unlock the English code in both simple and complex words.

Individualized Intervention Plan (IIP-LA)   is a school-developed, customized program that is designed to meet the specific needs of a student who has been identified based on the analysis of multiple measures of student performance. The plan is purposeful and includes goal-directed instruction with ongoing progress monitoring and regular student feedback. For more information about IIP-LA, please contact Kelly Denti, Supervisor of Assessment and INtervention at kelly.denti@fcps.org, Brittney Garst, Teacher Specialist for Reading Intervention at brittney.garst@fcps.org, or Maggie Hawk, Teacher Specialist for Intervention at margaret.hawk@fcps.org.

Language Foundations is a structured literacy reading intervention program.  It allows students remediation and intensive instruction in phonology, sound-symbol association, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.  Its curriculum orders multi-sensory, direct instruction with specific structure consisting of sequential and cumulative curriculum. For more information regarding dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyslexia, please click here.

The Neuhaus Reading Readiness program is an intensive, structured literacy intervention focusing on skills needed at the primary (K-1) level. Students in need of this intervention are those in grades K-1 who score below or well-below on their DIBELS assessment and are not making progress with supplemental support. The program uses an instructional routine based on the tenets of structured literacy that explicitly and systematically teach the foundational components of literacy that lead to skilled reading including: instruction in letter recognition and phonological awareness, the foundational components of sound-symbol correspondences, which is the basis of decoding, as well as oral language.

Orton-Gillingham "Plus" is a comprehensive, pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade reading, writing, and spelling intervention that incorporates the elements of the Orton-Gillingham Program with the elements of the Science of Reading (SOR). Students engage in structured literacy lessons which include: Phonological Awareness, Decoding, Spelling, Writing, and Oral Reading Fluency. Lessons are enhanced with Orthographic Mapping and Simultaneous Multisensory strategies. Orton-Gillingham “Plus" is aligned with the National Reading Panel and the International Dyslexia Association literacy guidelines.

Reading Milestones is a language-controlled program in which students are aided by reading materials designed to match their language levels and which progress in steps small enough to ensure continued success in reading. It is especially effective for students with hearing impairments and language delays and is also widely used with others who have special language and reading needs.

Sounds in Syllables is a structured, sequential, multisensory, evidence-based, intensive reading intervention. It explicitly teaches reading, spelling, and the foundations of syntax and grammar using structured, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic instruction. The curriculum employs direct instruction of every new skill or concept with substantial review and repetition to allow for the automatic recall of previously taught information.

Middle School

HD Word is a supplemental program meant to teach foundational reading skills to students who have mastered basic phonics skills, but struggle with more advanced phonics features. This program is meant to be used in conjunction with another intervention.

Language Foundations is a structured literacy reading intervention program.  It allows students remediation and intensive instruction in phonology, sound-symbol association, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.  Its curriculum orders multi-sensory, direct instruction with specific structure consisting of sequential and cumulative curriculum. For more information regarding dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyslexia, please click here.

Orton-Gillingham "Plus" is a comprehensive, reading, writing, and spelling intervention that incorporates the elements of the Orton-Gillingham Program with the elements of the Science of Reading (SOR). Students engage in structured literacy lessons which include: Phonological Awareness, Decoding, Spelling, Writing, and Oral Reading Fluency. Lessons are enhanced with Orthographic Mapping and Simultaneous Multisensory strategies. Orton-Gillingham “Plus" is aligned with the National Reading Panel and the International Dyslexia Association literacy guidelines.

Phonics Boost is an intervention program for students who have significant and severe decoding weaknesses. The primary focus of the lessons is phonemic awareness, phonics concepts, and essential word-attack skills. Each Phonics Boost lesson has four parts: Oral Reading, with students periodically charting their own accuracy and fluency rate; Phonemic Awareness skill building activities; Phonics Concepts, taught with engaging manipulatives; and Student Practice with students reading words and sentences out loud, with the teacher providing immediate supportive feedback.

Read 180 is a research-proven, comprehensive reading intervention for students in middle or high school that incorporates whole and small group instruction, adaptive software, and independent reading in a blended instructional model to accelerate reading achievement.

Reading Milestones is a language-controlled program in which students are aided by reading materials designed to match their language levels and which progress in steps small enough to ensure continued success in reading. It is especially effective for students with hearing impairments and language delays and is also widely used with others who have special language and reading needs.

Sounds in Syllables is a structured, sequential, multisensory, evidence-based, intensive reading intervention. It explicitly teaches reading, spelling, and the foundations of syntax and grammar using structured, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic instruction. The curriculum employs direct instruction of every new skill or concept with substantial review and repetition to allow for the automatic recall of previously taught information.

High School

Achieve 3000 is a computer-adaptive intervention program that offers differentiated instruction for nonfiction reading and writing that are precisely tailored to each student’s Lexile reading level. The primary focus of this program is comprehension skills, and students have access to a number of built-in scaffolds to support their work with texts on their individual reading level as well as the grade-level standard. The program incorporates a blended learning model to address students’ specific and individual needs in reading and writing.  

HD Word is a supplemental program meant to teach foundational reading skills to students who have mastered basic phonics skills, but struggle with more advanced phonics features. This program is meant to be used in conjunction with another intervention.

Language Foundations is a structured literacy reading intervention program.  It allows students remediation and intensive instruction in phonology, sound-symbol association, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.  Its curriculum orders multi-sensory, direct instruction with specific structure consisting of sequential and cumulative curriculum. For more information regarding dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyslexia, please click here.

Orton-Gillingham "Plus" is a comprehensive, pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade reading, writing, and spelling intervention that incorporates the elements of the Orton-Gillingham Program with the elements of the Science of Reading (SOR). Students engage in structured literacy lessons which include: Phonological Awareness, Decoding, Spelling, Writing, and Oral Reading Fluency. Lessons are enhanced with Orthographic Mapping and Simultaneous Multisensory strategies. Orton-Gillingham “Plus" is aligned with the National Reading Panel and the International Dyslexia Association literacy guidelines.

Phonics Boost is an intervention program for students who have significant and severe decoding weaknesses. The primary focus of the lessons is phonemic awareness, phonics concepts, and essential word-attack skills. Each Phonics Boost lesson has four parts: Oral Reading, with students periodically charting their own accuracy and fluency rate; Phonemic Awareness skill building activities; Phonics Concepts, taught with engaging manipulatives; and Student Practice with students reading words and sentences out loud, with the teacher providing immediate supportive feedback.

Reading Milestones is a language-controlled program in which students are aided by reading materials designed to match their language levels and which progress in steps small enough to ensure continued success in reading. It is especially effective for students with hearing impairments and language delays and is also widely used with others who have special language and reading needs.

Sounds in Syllables is a structured, sequential, multisensory, evidence-based, intensive reading intervention. It explicitly teaches reading, spelling, and the foundations of syntax and grammar using structured, sequential, cumulative, and diagnostic instruction. The curriculum employs direct instruction of every new skill or concept with substantial review and repetition to allow for the automatic recall of previously taught information.