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XL Readers Program Helps Students Gain Reading Proficiency
 Only a year ago, one of Beth Barboza's students arrived in the United States.
She spoke no English, read no English, and wrote no English.
Today, the Watsonville fourth-grader reads and writes English at a
second-grade level and is rapidly approaching reading at the fourth-grade
level.
Part of her success can be attributed to the XL Readers Program through the
Santa Cruz County Office of Education. The after-school program serves more
than 500 students in 14 schools throughout the Pajaro Valley Unified School
District.
"When I tested her in September, she scored 36 out of 85 points on her
phonics test," said Barboza, one of the XL Readers teachers. The test is
designed to show what kind of phonics skills the students have in order to
be able to sound out words. Children should be able to score a perfect 85
out of 85 by the end of second grade.
"We retested her in December and she got 68 out of 85 points on that same
phonics test. She almost doubled her score. She is making amazing progress!"
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The XL Readers Program
What do you do?
We are a reading intervention program for students who are below grade level
in reading.
Where do you meet?
At 14 elementary and middle schools in the Pajaro Valley Unified School
District.
When is your program?
Every day after school.
Why is it important?
We provide students with the skills they need to recognize letters, their
sounds, and their patterns in words; we help them read faster; and we help
them better understand what they are reading.
How do I get my child involved?
Call Verónica Saldaña at the Santa Cruz County Office of Education at (831) 477-5449.
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Barboza said this student's scores aren't unusual. Her other students scored
an average of 38 points on the initial test in September. By December, they
had an average score of 63 points—an increase of 25 points.
The program targets students who are below or far below their grade level in
reading. Parents choose to enroll their students in XL Readers as one of the
options mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind initiative.
"I sent my child (to Alianza Elementary) because of the XL Readers
after-school program," said one parent.
The XL Readers program focuses on small groups of students—10 at the most—using three
different courses of study in the period of one hour to achieve the success it has
seen since September. The students receive intensive instruction in phonics
from their teachers using the SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phoneme
Awareness, Phonics and Sight Words) curriculum.
SIPPS reinforces the fact that letters have sounds, letters make up words,
words make up sentences, sentences make up paragraphs and paragraphs make up
stories. If students know the sounds letters make by themselves and when
combined with other letters, they will be able to use that knowledge to
sound out words and begin to read.
 Unfortunately, many students don't know the sounds the letters make in
English. The overwhelming majority of the students in the XL Readers program
are second language learners. While several of the letters make the same
sounds in English as they do in Spanish, many of them don't—especially the
vowels.
"All of the interventions we use have been tested with English Language
Learner populations and have been proven to be very effective," said Mark
Rogers, Project Director of the XL Readers Program. "We know that ELL
students especially need additional support in learning the components of
reading whether it be letter-sound correspondence, vocabulary or
comprehension."
Even children are seeing the benefit of what they are learning using SIPPS.
"I really like going to my XL Readers class," said a student at Hall
District Elementary School. "We are learning a lot about words, what they
mean, and what kind of sounds are in words. This is really helping me in my
regular school work."
In addition to the SIPPS curriculum, the teachers use the QuickReads
curriculum which was written by Santa Cruz resident Elfrieda H. Hiebert,
Ph.D. The program was designed to help students improve their reading
fluency (how smoothly and accurately they read).
"Reading fluency is a bridge between reading to simply decode words and
reading for comprehension," Rogers said.
 QuickReads consists of short passages based on science and social studies
that the students read several times. Research proves that repeated reading
of a passage at the student's reading level helps students improve their
reading fluency. After the passage has been read, the students take a short
quiz to check for understanding of what they have read.
The students use both the QuickReads books and the computer version, which
has voice recognition technology. The students wear a headset with a
microphone attached. They do a voice check into the computer so that it
recognizes their voice. Then they click on a story to read and record. The
computer will track exactly how many words per minute the students have read
and their accuracy.
Another computer program the students use is called Reading S.O.S. by Lexia.
The software provides a variety of games and activities the students can do
to reinforce the phonics skills they are learning from their teacher during
SIPPS. There are five levels to meet the needs of all the students from
beginning readers to more advanced readers.
"What I like about XL Readers is Lexia," said a MacQuiddy Elementary
student. "It is very fun. When you play it, it improves your reading. I am
very proud of myself, but sometimes I have a little trouble. Then I get the
hang of it, and I pass it. I'm getting better at reading, and I love it. I
didn't know that XL Readers was going to be that fun."
Read an article, English learners XLing with new after-school program, by Matt King, published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on May 31, 2006.
Download brochure:
English Spanish
(requires Adobe Reader, available here)
Call Verónica Saldaña for more information at (831) 477-5449 or (831) 479-5321.
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