HELPS

Program Overview

The goal of the Helping Early Literacy with Practice Strategies (HELPS) program is to strengthen students' reading fluency and improve students' motivation and self-confidence with reading. As students improve reading fluency, they are better able to improve upon other important skills, including comprehension.

Because all students must develop reading fluency in order to become successful readers, HELPS can be used with students of all reading-ability levels as long as they are developmentally ready to improve their reading fluency.

HELPS strategically combines eight fluency-based strategies most associated with improved reading outcomes:
1. Repeated reading of ability-appropriate text
2. Model reading (i.e. having students listen to a more skilled reader read a passage aloud)
3. Systematic error-correction procedure
4. Verbal cues for students to read with fluency
5. Verbal cues for students to read for comprehension
6. Goal-setting (i.e. practicing text until a predetermined performance criterion is met)
7. Performance feedback, combined with graphical displays of student progress
8. Use of systematic praise and a structured reward system for student reading behaviors and accomplishments

HELPS is offered in some school and after-school sites across North Carolina, typically at no cost to the student/parent.

Would you like to know if HELPS is offered at your school or after-school site? Contact Elizabeth Levene at elizabeth@helpseducationfund.org.