Barton Reading & Spelling System was designed as intense intervention for students who struggle to easily and accurately decode words when reading (despite being taught phonics), who by second grade are slow and inaccurate readers (are missing the oral reading fluency benchmarks), and who have always struggled with spelling – especially when writing sentences, stories, and compositions.
The Barton System can be used with students as young as kindergarten who meet all 5 of our criteria, but often, their struggles do not become apparent until first, second, or even third grade. Yet there is nothing in the Barton System that would offend older students or adults. Because the Barton System is intense intervention, our maximum group size is 3. So most public schools with Response to Intervention programs (RTI) use the Barton System as Tier 3 intervention – but only if they can meet with that group of 3 students for an hour a day, 5 days a week.
But one-on-one tutoring is the best. That’s because no two students with dyslexia learn at exactly the same pace. When tutoring one-on-one, a tutor can present the material at exactly the right pace for each student.
Also, it is much less embarrassing to make a mistake when only the tutor sees it – not other students.
And if you provide 1-on-1 tutoring, you only have to provide 2 hours of tutoring each week (although more is better). So you can either provide 2 one-hour sessions, 3 45-minute sessions, or 4 30-minute sessions.
You will not save time if you tutor 3 students at once. That is because each student in that group must receive the equivalent intensity of 2 hours of 1- on-1 tutoring per week. The intensity in 3-on-1 tutoring is not the same as 1- on-1 tutoring. To get the same intensity, you must tutor a group of 3 students for 6 hours each week.
Also, the more students in a group, the longer it will take to complete the Barton System. That’s because you have to pace the lesson for the slowest student. And you cannot present new material if any one of the students is absent.
So whenever possible, please provide one-on-one tutoring – even if that means having parapros, aides, or parent and community volunteers provide Barton tutoring.” (Taken from Barton website. )
