Educational Enrichment Department

CLIP

Collaborative Literacy Intervention Project

What is it?
CLIP is an intensive, daily, one-on-one tutoring program designed to accelerate progress while students are learning to read and write. It is an intervention (with expectations of success) rather than a remediation which attempts to "rescue" children after they have already experienced failure.

Who is it for?
CLIP is designed for "at-risk" first and second grade students who are typically in the "emergent" or beginning stage of reading. Based on several assessments of pre-reading and writing skills, students are selected from the lowest 25% of their class. In a limited number of situations it may be used with older students (i.e., limited English proficient students or those whose reading skills are particularly low).

How long do students participate in CLIP?
Since CLIP is a completely individualized program, the length of participation is based on each child’s progress. Typically, students are in the program for 10 to 16 weeks. Although 80 lessons is considered "full treatment," some students finish sooner, a few require a bit more. Upon successful completion of the program, a student should be able to function independently at the middle to high reading level in their classroom.

How are parents involved in the program?
Parents are required to support the child in CLIP by helping with a home assignment every day. The child takes one to two books and a sentence puzzle home daily, as well as other activities to reinforce learning. This component of the program, which requires 10 to 20 minutes, is essential to its success.

Who teaches CLIP?
CLIP lessons are taught by specialists who take part in an entire year of graduate-level coursework (seven credit hours) to become trained. The training requires lesson observations and feedback from CLIP trainers. CLIP teachers may be regular classroom teachers or "specials" teachers (Title I, Special Education, ESL/LEP teachers).

What does a CLIP lesson include?
Each daily lesson follows the same format:

Reading short, familiar books to build student confidence and fluency.
A running record assessment of a book which was introduced the day before (to track student performance/growth).
A writing component in which the student composes a sentence and works through the phonetic elements of each word. The sentence is made into a puzzle which the child assembles and takes home for practice with the parent.
Finally, a new book is introduced so the child can practice the reading strategies being learned.

Why is CLIP successful?
Careful assessment and individualized observation allows the teacher to build on the child’s strengths. Each lesson is designed for student success. The emphasis of lessons is to teach the child the specific skills and strategies needed to become independent, self-improving readers and writers. Instructional time is very focused, high standards are set, and children know what they are expected to do.

Can students be served in groups rather than one-on-one?
In some limited situations (particularly with older students in grades two or three), the CLIP format may be modified to serve small groups of three to four students. However, the optimal use of CLIP is the one-on-one format which allows more individualized lesson planning and presentation.

What are the benefits to the school and teacher?
While CLIP services are provided to selected students, teachers trained in this model have found that the strategies may be easily implemented with small or whole group instruction in the regular classroom, thereby impacting every student in their class.