The Reading and Writing Project

Foundational Reading
High-Dosage Tutoring
Turning all Children into Readers

There is, quite simply, nothing so important for kids’ academic success as their becoming proficient readers.
As award-winning children’s author Jason Reynolds has said, “There is nothing you can do in life if you can’t
read.” For all of us who care about kids and education, we need to feel a sense of urgency when there are kids
in our communities who haven’t yet become proficient readers. High-dosage literacy tutoring is the answer to
the question of how to bring students to grade level proficiency in phonics and reading comprehension.

Drawing on our deep history as a world-renowned provider of curriculum and of professional development in
literacy and on years of success leading Reading Rescue, an NYC-based tutoring program that enabled parent
volunteers and paraprofessionals to provide high-dosage phonics-based tutoring to young children, RWP has
developed Foundational Reading Tutoring Curriculum. This curriculum includes all the materials tutors need
and children need to engage immediately in a curriculum for grades K-4 that encompasses foundational skills
such as phonological awareness, phonics, high-frequency words, and reading decodable texts. Children will
read RWP-created decodable texts, which are included in the curriculum. Tutors receive all assessment tools
and curricular materials as well as tips and guides for being responsive during their tutoring sessions. Tutors
also have access to an RWP asynchronous training course. The curriculum is designed so that even tutors with
no prior experience in literacy tutoring can begin at once. While one-on-one tutoring is the goal, children can
also be tutored in small groups.

This accessible, assessment-based, child-friendly curriculum will make all the difference in young readers’
lives. The learning gap in literacy is one that we simply must tackle so that all the children in our communities
become confident, powerful readers. We know that reading is the cornerstone of academic success. It is also
the pathway to a life filled with knowledge of the world, windows into other places and peoples, and mirrors for
kids’ own identities. With awareness of the difference literacy competency makes to children, and curriculum
and methods at hand, tutors, educators, children, and families can work together to turn kids into readers.

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BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH
The Reading and Writing Project is a think tank that has long built its ideas and practices off of published and
field research. RWP’s tutoring curriculum draws on the organization’s decades of classroom-based experience
studying children’s literacy development and as providers of professional development for teachers and
administrators at the school and system levels. RWP has been involved in smaller-scale tutoring initiatives for
years. While students have long come to school with a range of knowledge and skills, we are still seeing the
results of pandemic-related schooling adjustments in students showing up to classrooms having experienced
interrupted, remote, or hybrid instruction, further widening that range.
Research shows that 1:1 instruction is the most effective form of instruction for accelerating student growth.
High-dosage tutoring, coupled with high-quality, engaging whole group instruction and accessible small
groups, is considered the strongest instructional combination (Inns, Pellegrini, Slavin, 2019). This research
stands as a foundational cornerstone of the RWP tutoring program. Furthermore, research by the Department
of Education (2001) identifies the following as necessary components of effective tutoring programs: strong
coordination with the classroom teacher or reading specialist, intensive and ongoing training for tutors,
regular and frequent tutoring sessions (between 10-60 minutes daily), well-structured tutoring sessions that
are planned and predictable, following a clear trajectory, regular, thoughtful monitoring and reinforcement of
progress, and specially designed interventions for when or if a student has severe reading difficulties. These
components each inform the organization and logistical structure of RWP’s tutoring program, as well as
allowing for depth of instruction and tutor-student relationship.
Read on for more background and research on the tutoring curriculum.

CURRICULUM TO MOVE STUDENTS FORWARD

The Foundational Reading tutoring curriculum is designed to support students in foundational skills such
as phonological awareness, phonics, high-frequency words, and reading decodable texts. This curriculum
consists of 10 modules, each containing 15-25 sessions. Each session follows a predictable structure and is
designed to be completed in 30 minutes. Sessions consist of the following components:
› Connection: The first few minutes of each session will be spent building a connection with the student.
We believe relationship building is essential to teaching well.
› 4-5 Activities: Each session consists of several activities meant to teach and reinforce the focus skills
of the module. These activities are repeated from session to session, aiming to build familiarity and
confidence for the student and for the tutor.
› Closure: The session will end with the student reflecting on the day’s work and setting them up for the
next time you will meet.
Each module hones in on a specific phonics skill such as letter sounds, CVC words, blends and digraphs,
silent e, vowel teams, inflectional endings, r-controlled vowels, and syllabication of two-syllable words
and multisyllabic words. Each module also addresses phonological and phonemic awareness, teaches

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high frequency words, and immerses readers in the RWP-created decodable text series, Jellybean Readers.
Decodable texts are a great tool for students to transfer their phonics knowledge to text reading.
This curriculum includes all the materials tutors need and children need to engage immediately. Tutors
receive digital access to all assessment tools and curricular materials as well as tips and guidance for being
responsive during their tutoring sessions. All digital materials are printable. The Jellybean Readers, a new
series of decodable texts created by RWP, are available in paperback and shipped directly to your home or
school. The curriculum is designed so that even tutors with no prior experience in literacy tutoring can begin
at once. While one-on-one tutoring is the goal, children can also be tutored in small groups.
Read more about the curricular progression in the scope and sequence and explore sample sessions.

SCHEDULING AND LOGISTICS

The curriculum is designed for children to receive tutoring sessions three to five t imes each week for 30-minute
sessions. We suggest that tutors work either one-to-one or with small groups of two to four children.
The decodable texts used in each session are included in the curriculum and will be shipped to your home or
school. Additional sets of Jellybean Readers can be purchased as needed. All other materials and sessions will
be available for digital download and will be printable.
Fitting Tutoring Sessions into the School Day or as an Add-On
1. TUTORING DURING OR ATTACHED TO THE SCHOOL DAY (Our strongest recommendation)
We recommend scheduling half hour sessions with individual students during the school day during
an intervention block, pull-out session, or before or after school. This lets you take advantage of your
classrooms and libraries - print-rich environments for tutoring. It also lets you use your existing staff
who are already in the building.
Schools often have intervention blocks set aside in their schedules. Using this time for tutors to work
with students can ensure that the intervention block makes a huge and immediate difference in
students’ literacy growth.
Many schools also have after-school programs already in place. Training tutors to work inside of these
programs can turn these after school hours into transformational academic support for children.
Because the tutoring is 30 minutes, children will still have time for other after school activities and
enrichment options that may already be planned.
2. TUTORING OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
For some school and family communities, it makes sense for students to meet tutors outside of school
hours. If tutors are working virtually, then students and families will need access to internet and to
devices, and young children will need support logging in.

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Finding and Preparing Tutors
1. USING SCHOOL STAFF
Many districts and schools are using their current staff, including literacy specialists, intervention
specialists, paraprofessionals, aids, and teachers to launch tutoring. The advantage of training these
staff in high dosage literacy tutoring is that the curriculum acts as professional development, raising
the level of literacy knowledge across the school building.
2. USING VOLUNTEERS AND PART-TIME TUTORS-FOR-HIRE
The tutoring curriculum is also easily learned by volunteers and tutors-for-hire. It is carefully designed
for tutors who are new to literacy instruction, to be able to implement with power.
3. HIRING VIRTUAL TUTORS FROM LITTERA
Districts may also hire Littera tutors. These tutors will meet virtually with students. All Litttera tutors
have been trained by RWP. Schedule a demo to find out more about Littera
Instructional sessions will probably take about ten to fifteen minutes to prepare, once tutors are familiar with
the essential structure and methods. Each session takes about thirty minutes to teach. We recommend that
tutors complete the RWP asynchronous training course. This course can also be held live, virtually or in-
person, for a district or school. Contact RWP to schedule a live training.

SOME MESSAGES FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS ABOUT HIGH DOSAGE LITERACY TUTORING

For Parents and Families

All of school will be easier if your children become powerful readers, and all of school remains hard when
reading remains hard. There is a hidden curriculum of literacy inside of science, math, social studies…every
aspect of academics. The world also opens up to your children when they learn to read. Maryanne Wolf,
Director of the UCLA Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice, has shown that reading
stimulates growth in the brain - in the parts of the brain that foster analytic thinking and in empathy. We also
know that when kids work on their reading, including phonics, fluency, and comprehension skills, every day,
they grow radically as readers. The truth is that many children need extra, personalized support to become
powerful readers- and they deserve this support. This curriculum brings your children access to decodable
texts, focused instruction in phonics, fluency, and comprehension, and mostly, access to the joy of reading.
Reading can literally change children’s lives.
For Principals/ Instructional Coaches/Site-Based Literacy Leaders
Many schools have dozens - or sometimes hundreds - of children who need extra support to grow as readers.
Many need individualized instruction and practice in phonics beyond what will happen in the classroom. RWP
Foundational Reading Tutoring Curriculum allows you to provide focused, targeted, responsive instruction
that can help your students become proficient, confident readers immediately. When that happens, you’ll

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have changed the academic futures of all of your students, as reading undergirds academic success.
The tutoring curriculum also act as professional development for your literacy educators, including
intervention and reading specialists, as well as para-professionals. Many of your staff will find that learning
the newest, cutting-edge methods and content for phonics instruction will strengthen their teaching of all
students, as well as create communities of expert practice in your building.
Superintendents/ District leaders
All too often, schools are able to assess easily, and find that they have many children who read below grade
level, and are in need of phonics and reading comprehension instruction. But after the assessment is done, the
question still remains - what to do? The RWP Foundational Reading Tutoring Curriculum harness two areas
of research - research on high-dosage tutoring, and research on phonics and reading instruction.
As a District leader, you must ensure that all the children in your care fulfill their literacy potential, regardless
of the varied expertise and energy across classrooms and schools. This curriculum will raise the level of
knowledge in literacy instruction for all the adults involved. It will increase the expertise and professionalism
of every instructor. And most importantly, it lets you fulfill the covenant of public education - to bring all
students to proficiency, so that they can fulfill their hopes and dreams.

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