Building Better Readers: testing the value of MiniLit for Year 1 students with low reading ability

INTERVENTION: MiniLit Intervention (http://www.multilit.com/programs/minilit‐program/). It is classified as a Tier 2 intervention according to the Response To Intervention framework. The reading intervention involves up to 80 unique lessons delivered by a trained intervention deliverer in face‐to‐face groups of up to 4 students. The intervention is delivered during school hours, on school property. The intervention deliverer is required to attend a 2‐day training session and to have completed at least high school. The starting point for each group is determined by a pre‐assessment that assesses the child's reading ability, matched to the content and difficulty of the unique lessons. The program takes around 20 weeks to complete, with four lessons of up to 60 minutes per week, and includes regular curriculum‐based measures to monitor the progress of the students. Each lesson comprises three main components: 1. Sounds and Words Activities 2. Text Reading 3. Story Book Reading The resources required as part of the MiniLit intervention, are: 1. Introductory DVD (11 mins) 2. Teacher manual (78 pages) 3. Handbook (four handbooks covering 4 x 20 lessons, 1050 pages) 4. Sounds and words books (five copies of 78 pages each) 5. Presentation cards (7 different types, totalling 900 cards) 6. Student workbooks (2 x five copies of 84 pages each. Note: separate booklets are required for each student undertaking the program. 7. Testing and lesson records (2 x one copy of 88 page) Program fidelity will be measured as part of the process evaluation by the research team. This will include the number of unique lessons completed, length of each lesson, number of lessons repeated as well as start and end lesson. This will be collected by examining the lesson plans of the MiniLit intervention deliverers. CONDITION: Reading difficulties PRIMARY OUTCOME: Child reading as measured by the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension ‐ Passage Reading (YARC – PR) SECONDARY OUTCOME: Child literacy domains as measured by the YARC ‐ Early Reading Cost‐effectiveness, will be measured using actual costs incurred by the intervention group for items such as resources, personnel and travel required to deliver the intervention. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Being in the bottom 25th percentile of readers at the start of Year 1 of primary school. Defined using the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Lists and it's published cut points.