The BRI reading model's scientifically-based reading research conclusions have been incorporated into a comprehensive process of diagnosis/prevention/intervention. The model's components include:

• Reading Instructional Interventions in the essential elements of reading
  
• Extended instructional opportunities during school hours
  
• Early literacy community partnerships in childcare centers and Head Start programs feeding into the BRI schools
  
• Professional Development and in-classroom observation/feedback for effective instructional practices by teachers, administrators and support staff.

The differences in individual students' needs are revealed by diagnoses conducted at the beginning of the school year. The schools with which BRI works use a variety of diagnostic instruments. Since the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year, however, BRI has used of the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, AIMSweb, both of which BRI believes are thorough, accurate, and user-friendly assessments. The needs disclosed by the diagnostic assessment are then addressed by individualized intervention strategies and age-appropriate materials used for reading instruction. Time on task is critical.

What children must know and do to become readers is the same regardless of the age or the ability of the child. There are specific elements necessary for students to decode unknown words, to derive meaning from text, and to become a fluent reader. These elements comprise the direct focus of systematic instruction in all BRI schools. The direct focus of reading instruction is as follows:

• Elements Necessary to Decode Unknown Words
  
  • Concepts of Print
    
  • Phonological Awareness
    
  • Alphabetic Principles
    
  • Letter Knowledge
    
  • Sound/Symbol Correspondence
    
  • Sight Words
    
• Elements Necessary to Comprehend Information
  
• Prediction Skills
  
• Accurate Reading of or Listening to a Passage
  
• Retelling to Process Information Read or Heard
  
• Responding to Story Elements or Information and Author's Purposes
  
• Summarizing or Paraphrasing skills
  
• Elements Necessary for Fluent Reading
  
  • Appropriate Rate of Reading
    
  • Appropriate Intonation
    
  • Appropriate Expression