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Add some variety to reading instruction and maximize its effectiveness by making use of this list of
reading strategies. Each strategy is easy to implement and helps keep students actively engaged in the
process of learning to read.
To learn more about decoding, teaching, and what reading strategies are, visit the Reading
Horizons Reading Strategies Homepage. To see what customers are saying, take a look at our Reading
Horizons reviews.
1. Project Words
To help students develop automaticity with word recognition, flash one word at a time on the board or
wall by quickly turning a projector on and off. Have students orally read each word as it comes up.
When asking students to write letters, words, or sentences, use the following process to engage multiple
language skills at the same time: Say the letter, word, or sentence twice. Have students repeat it back
twice. Have them write it once. Finally, have them read it aloud once.
When asking a question, allow enough “think time” for students to generate an answer.
4. Sort Words
5. Follow Along
When students are “following along” as you read out loud, randomly stop in different places and ask the
students to chorally complete each sentence.
6. Teach Phonics
When teaching subject area words, don’t neglect phonics. For example, when introducing the word
“atmosphere,” don’t begin by writing the word. Instead, pronounce the word, break it into spoken
syllables, and then write it one syllable at a time. Finally, discuss the meanings of parts of the word (i.e.,
“atmos” is Greek for “vapor, steam,” and “sphere” is Greek for “globe, ball”).
Have students use each letter of the alphabet to begin a word that relates to a specific topic. For
example, if the topic is weather, students may choose the word “arid” for the letter A, the word
“barometer” for letter B, and so forth.
Use the 3-2-1 strategy to measure student engagement. After students read a passage, have them write
3 things they learned, 2 things that are interesting, and 1 question they may have about what they read.
10. Inference
To teach inference, gather a suitcase full of objects, and have students describe what the owner of the
suitcase must be like based on inferences made from the items in the suitcase. Relate the activity to
clues that the author gives in a story or passage from which students can draw inferences.
S
cademic Reading Strategies
Completing reading assignments is one of the biggest challenges in academia. However, are you
managing your reading efficiently? Consider this cooking analogy, noting the differences in process:
Shannon has to make dinner. He goes to the store and walks through every aisle. He decides to make
spaghetti, so he revisits aisles and reads many packages thoroughly before deciding which groceries to
buy. Once he arrives home, he finds a recipe for spaghetti, but needs to go back to the store for
ingredients he forgot.
Taylor also has to make dinner. He wants lots of carbohydrates because he’s running a marathon soon
so he decides to make spaghetti. After checking some recipes, he makes a list of ingredients. At the
grocery store, he skims aisles to find his ingredients and chooses products that meet his diet.
Taylor’s process was more efficient because his purpose was clear. Establishing why you are reading
something will help you decide how to read it, which saves time and improves comprehension. This
guide lists some purposes for reading as well as different strategies to try at different stages of the
reading process.
People read different kinds of text (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews) for different reasons.
Some purposes for reading might be
to critique an argument
to learn something
Strategies
Strategies differ from reader to reader. The same reader may use different strategies for different
contexts because their purpose for reading changes. Ask yourself “why am I reading?” and “what am I
reading?” when deciding which strategies to try.
Before reading
Preview the text to get an overview of its structure, looking at headings, figures, tables, glossary,
etc.
Predict the contents of the text and pose questions about it. If the authors have provided
discussion questions, read them and write them on a note-taking sheet.
Note any discussion questions that have been provided (sometimes at the end of the text)
During reading
Annotate and mark (sparingly) sections of the text to easily recall important or interesting ideas
Try to infer unfamiliar words’ meanings by identifying their relationship to the main idea
Connect the text to what you already know about the topic
After reading
Summarize the text in your own words (note what you learned, impressions, and reactions) in
an outline, concept map, or matrix (for several texts)
Define words on your vocabulary list (try a learner’s dictionary) and practice using them
Whether you are a veteran at reading or just starting to get into adult reading for the
first time, you know that reading isn’t quite the same as before. It might be taking you
more time to process what you are reading, or maybe you’re looking to speed up your
reading overall. Whatever the case may be, what’s truly blocking you from getting up to
the right reading speed is the lack of a reading strategy.
I’ve been there plenty of times before, and thanks to the various reading strategies I’ll be
talking about, you can devise a reading comprehension strategy to make you understand
and read things faster than before.
Here are nine effective reading strategies for quick comprehension:
The reason I approach my reading this way is that if your brain is distracted or unable to
process the information presented, then you’ll lose that information.
Another way you can look at this is to read with a purpose in mind. You’ll lose that
information if you don’t focus on that purpose for reading.
Knowing how to read with a purpose is a matter of grouping books into three categories:
Books that strengthen a skill – These books are packed with knowledge consolidated
over the years that you can quickly access.
Books that share success stories and allow you to learn about a person’s struggles and
failures – Even though your circumstances are different, reading about a big name in a
field you’re interested in humanizes the process you’re going through right now.
Books that let you experience life in a different way than yours – These books provide
profound insights into other life experiences and help you understand people on a
deeper level.
By grouping books into these categories, you have a clear purpose for reading each book
and processing information in that manner.
2. Previewing
I’ve read many books over the years, of course, and one thing you’ll quickly find is that
many authors—in non-fiction books specifically—will talk about similar concepts. While
an author’s view will be different, some concepts are consistent across the board.
This is where this strategy truly shines as this is all about previewing a text and tapping
into what you already know about the subject. While a book or an article could expand
your knowledge of something, this can speed up your reading time and understanding
because the author is talking about something you’re already familiar with.
There’s no point in reading over something you already know, so it’s easier and faster to
move on to how the author uses that information instead.
3. Predicting
Expanding from previewing, the idea with this is that you’re making predictions about
what the book or article you’re about to read is like. It sets up expectations.
For example, when you read the title of this post, you expect reading strategies to make
comprehension easier. You’re not expecting anything else but that.
This same concept holds true with any book you read. Of course, you’ll make
adjustments to your prediction as you read through, but like previewing, you are still
brushing over pieces of information that you’re already familiar with or that you
expected to be there.
The main point of the book could also be explained in the preface section. Most non-
fiction books are set-up in a way where they explain their arguing points of why
something matters and why you should continue reading. From there, they’ll discuss
what the book contains.
Oftentimes, the main point is in there and you can use that as a blanket statement for
the rest of the book. Knowing the main point of the book allows you to put information
into context. They’re explaining this concept because it ties into the main point they’re
trying to convey.
This saves you a lot of time on reading since if you’re even somewhat familiar with the
topic, you can gloss over information with the other methods. Furthermore, you’ll be
able to retain this information better as you can describe the main point of a book in a
single sentence in the future.
5. Questioning
While you are preparing to read a book, another key reading strategy is to have
questions in mind. This may require you to briefly skim through the book and ask
yourself questions based on what you skimmed. Questions can stem from various
sentences or even the titles or headlines that authors use.
By creating questions, you then begin to focus on answering those questions. Naturally,
this brings comprehension quickly as the book ought to be equipped to answer those
questions.
How you go about asking these questions is up to you. You could think of them and hold
onto them, or you could consider writing them on the right margin of the page where
you got that question. As you read through the book, you could mention the answer on
the left margin or underline the answer and note the page number underneath the
question you asked.
6. Inferring
This is all about reading between the lines—a skill that not many people have or are
hesitant to use. Inferring is a reading strategy that can seem like it would backfire as
people’s interpretation of something could be off from what the author intends to
convey. But that’s further from the truth as inferring is a process of learning and
something you can develop over time.
It’s fine if you’re wrong about things as inferring encourages more of discovering and
absorbing information on a deeper level. This naturally increases your comprehension
of a topic.
Inferring, in the end, is all about drawing your own conclusions. An author presents
information that you can then deduce for yourself and develop all kinds of questions.
What do they mean by this? How does this fit in with everything else they’ve said thus
far?
Again, even if you’re wrong with the answers to those questions later on in the book,
there’s still knowledge to be gained. The answers that you have created could spark new
questions or understanding. And when an author presents something different from
yours, then your knowledge still expands with that in mind.
If you happen to be right, then you save yourself a lengthy explanation, which cuts down
on reading time and comprehension.
7. Visualizing
Visualizing covers the creative side of things and is one of the more thrilling methods of
quickly comprehending something. Even if you’re reading a non-fiction book or article,
visualizing is still a helpful tool.
The idea is to be crafting, drawing, or making mental images of the information that you
have. If the author outlines a system for you to use, look at the various aspects of that
system. Visualize yourself performing these specific actions. Things like these keep you
invested in learning and understanding more since you’re using both sides of the brain
to digest information.
Visualizing also keeps you invested because it answers the question, “how is this
relevant to me?” We read books because of specific emotional or personal reasons and
visualizing can help you in answering that question, especially how you see it fitting in
your life.
8. Monitoring/Clarifying
Stemming from inferring and predicting, monitoring/clarifying as a reading strategy is
taking your deductions and comparing them to what you are actually reading. In many
cases, your understanding of something can be different from what the author is stating,
and from that comes a deeper understanding of the information. This can also stem
from questioning strategies as you are searching for clarity in those answers.
9. Searching
The final reading strategy stems from questioning where you are looking for answers—
similar to clarifying. The difference between searching and clarifying is that clarifying is
designed for a general understanding.
For searching, you’re looking to find information that backs up and reinforces what you
wish to be learning about. This puts you in a situation where you’re defining things that
you’re uncertain about, and it allows you to solve problems that you still have with the
text.
Final Thoughts
Comprehending what you’re reading involves having a system of reading strategies that
you can easily tap into. Effective readers will employ several of these strategies to
rapidly understand what they’re reading.
As such, I would strongly encourage you to employ these methods and experiment. Find
out what works for you and develop a reading strategy that works best for you.
Studies show that reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance.
Here’s how you can get your child off to a great start.
Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading
tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a
better understanding of other cultures.
In fact, reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their
social or economic background.
You can make a huge difference! Parents are the most important educators in a child’s life – even more
important than their teachers – and it’s never too early to start reading together.
Even before they're born, babies learn to recognise their parents' voices. Reading to your baby from
birth, even for just a few minutes a day, gives them the comfort of hearing your voice and increases
their exposure to language.
Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out what’s printed on the page.
Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a wide range of words. This helps them build their own
vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It’s
important for them to understand how stories work too. Even if your child doesn’t understand every
word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have
heard.
As children start to learn to read at school, you can play an important role in helping to keep them
interested in books. Find out what interests them, help them to find books that will be engaging and fun,
and spend time reading the books they bring home from school together.
My child’s too young to start reading yet. How can I point them in the right direction?
Make sure that your child is familiar with language and books so they can see how enjoyable reading is.
Some of the things you can do include:
reading aloud to your child, talking about the words and pictures, and sharing ideas about the
book
reading yourself – children who see adults reading, and enjoying it, are much more likely to
want to read themselves
surrounding your child with books – you don't need hundreds of books at home, but go to the
library or bookshop regularly to borrow books, spend time together, browse and make choices.
In this way, reading becomes a habit.
It is a teacher's job not only to help every student learn to read but also to show
them how to enjoy it. Discover 10 effective reading strategies and activities for
your elementary classroom that will engage your students and add variety to your
daily routines. From book activities to read-alouds, there is something that every
reader will love.
01
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National Children's Book Week has been dedicated to encouraging young readers
to enjoy books since 1919. During this week at the beginning of November,
schools and libraries across the nation celebrate reading in a variety of ways.
Take advantage of this time-honored tradition by getting your students involved
in fun and educational reading activities. Try some of these activities from
educational resource Waterford.org to help your students visualize and
appreciate what they are reading as well as learn all that goes into writing a book.
02
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06
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Read-Alouds
A good interactive read-aloud engages its listeners' attention and provides a
representation of expert reading. Reading aloud to your students is usually a
favorite activity because it allows them to access intriguing material that they are
not yet able to read on their own. Read-alouds also model strategies for
comprehension and questioning that students should strive to adopt and makes
them a part of conversations about books that they would otherwise probably not
have. Try reading some of these books during your next group reading session.
07
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By Subodh Sharma
One of the basic reasons why reading is important is that it helps you grow mentally, emotionally, and
psychologically. Every book provides you an opportunity to learn and explore new ideas. Reading books
increases your knowledge and makes you smarter.
But the importance of reading is not limited to just these benefits. You will be amazed to know how
beneficial reading books can be for you. And that is exactly what you will get to know here in this article.
Every good book opens up new dimensions of thoughts for the reader. When you read a book, you
somehow try to connect the events, emotions, experiences, and characters in the books with yourself.
This not only keeps you engrossed in the book but also makes you realize how you would feel and react
to those situations that have not yet occurred in your life. It helps you broaden your dimensions of likes
and dislikes.
So, with every page that you read, you may have a chance to discover a new part of yourself!
Books are not written in a day. For an author, it takes a lot of hard work, understanding, experiences,
knowledge, and in many cases a lot of pain to come up with a single book. But we as a reader get to read
them in just weeks or days thereby living years of experiences in considerably less time.
However, reading books is one of those constructive habits that help us improve our concentration
power. It helps us to train our brain to focus our attention and live in the present.
Books are full of emotions. Sometimes they will make you cry with every turning page and sometimes
they will leave a warm smile on your face.
Books can make you happy, sad, jealous, loved, betrayed, and so on! Books are thus an amalgamation of
different mixed emotions that ultimately help us grow emotionally!
There are a lot of things that we need to remember while reading a book. You need to keep in mind the
name of the characters and their features, the name of the places, plots, and sub-plots, the sequence of
events, important conversations, etc.
As your brain learns to remember the information from the storyline, it also becomes better at
remembering other important things of your life.
So, by reading books, you are also indirectly training your brain for a better memory!
Life is tricky. Sometimes there are moments in our life when we feel down and discouraged. We may
lose our hope and interest in life and feel like giving up.
Well, in times like this, sometimes, all we need is a little motivation, a little push in the right direction.
Reading a good inspirational book during such a period can change our way of thinking and give us hope
and motivation.
Books are no doubt a huge source of motivation. We can derive great inspiration from them and
transform our lives positively.
Books are a very rich source of information. With every book you read, you get to learn new things.
The more you read, the more you know about different people and their experiences. You also get to
know about different places, different cultures, and facts that you would not have known otherwise.
Reading books somehow or the other increases your knowledge and enhances your capability of making
better decisions and choices in life.
“It was a bright cold day on April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”. This is the famous opening
line from the book 1984 by George Orwell.
Standard Striking Clock strikes a maximum of twelve times. Similarly, we rarely have a day both bright
and cold simultaneously. However, George Orwell tries to paint the gloomy yet hopeful condition of life
by some imaginative references. (The interpretation can vary from person to person though.)
This is the beauty of books. It makes you imagine things beyond possibility – things that would not have
come to our minds normally. Books give you a lot to think about.
Apart from this, different creative characters, plots, and approaches trigger your creativity as well. You
become both creative and imaginative!
There are also many books on creativity that can particularly shape and boost your creative thinking.
Another reason why reading is important is that it makes you empathic. Being empathic means being
able to understand and share the feelings of others.
Books connect you with their characters and plots. You become a part of the book and feel what the
characters are supposed to feel. You understand their pain and sufferings.
Books also somehow make you feel connected with the authors. You are constantly in some sort of
conversation with the book.
When you are reading books, you are in a way listening to what the book has to say to you. This makes
you a good listener as well.
Reading is one of the best ways to relax your mind. According to a research by the University of Sussex,
reading for even six minutes can reduce your stress levels by as high as 68 percent!
Psychologists believe that this is probably because when we are lost in a book, our mind is focused on
reading and that little distraction from the real world and our problems into a literary world eases the
tensions in muscles and heart.
So the ultimate way of relaxing your mind is by losing yourself in a book! Read more and you will realize
that your stress level becomes significantly low with time.
Reading has a pretty positive impact on another important aspect of our life – a good night’s sleep!
Reading books calms your mind and helps you sleep better. You can check out my article on the benefits
of reading before bed to know more.
However, avoid reading thrillers, horror, and mystery or suspense genre books before going to bed. You
might end up staying awake instead.
Read some calming, inspirational books that would give you positive vibes without making you
impatient.
While reading, a lot of information is being processed in our brain simultaneously. It opens up many
different perspectives for your brain to comprehend.
If you are reading a mystery or suspense book, your brain constantly tries to guess certain outcomes and
events. It also has to relate one event to the other to make sense in the story.
All this, in turn, sharpens our minds and enhances our critical and analytical thinking skills.
It’s true that sometimes reading can be a little challenging or even boring, but such conditions are very
rare if you know your taste and choose your books accordingly.
Reading books not only increases your knowledge but also makes you realize how much you do not
know about the world. With each book teaching you something new, you can’t help but think how
limited your knowledge is.
Sometimes, you read a book because you know that it will add some new information to your mind
which was so far unknown to you. However, it certainly does not mean that you are not smart. It simply
shows that you have accepted the truth that what you know is not everything.
There are so many things you can learn and this would not be possible unless you are humble enough to
accept this truth!
If you are a reader, you probably know the importance of reading in enhancing your vocabulary. Reading
books is one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary.
Moreover, the conversations in the books also help you to strengthen your command of the language.
Your sentence formation becomes quick, better, and qualitative. You rarely get stuck for lack of words.
Once you have a richer vocabulary and controlled command over the language, your communication
skills automatically become better.
Research from Emory University in Atlanta Georgia suggests that reading a powerful work of fiction can
make neural changes in your brain thereby improving your brain functions! The changes occur in the
‘resting-state’ of the brain and can last for days.
If you are a book lover, you are never really alone! You can always have a friend in the form of a book.
And there’s a reason why book lovers consider books to be their best friends.
Books don’t complain, neither do they have any demands. They will stay with you no matter what. You
can carry them wherever you want and read them whenever you want, provided you make time for
reading.
If you are interested to know more about why book lovers consider books as our best friends, check out
this article on 12 reasons why books are our best friends!
One of the most significant importance of reading is that it helps you grow as a person. As mentioned
above, reading makes you empathic and humble.
You learn about the hardships in life from the experiences of others. You will learn to understand people
and be kind and gentle. You will have better emotional health.
Your increased knowledge can also be useful for other people who may look up to you for advice and
suggestions. With all this, you are bound to become a better human being!
Classroom Reading Instruction That Supports Struggling Readers: Key Components for Effective Teaching
by Carolyn A. Denton, Children's Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center Houston
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ADDITIONAL ARTICLES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
RTI Talk: Reading and Response to Intervention (RTI): How Students Benefit from Multi-Tiered
Instruction and Intervention
Center on Instruction
The National Research Council (NRC), a group of experts convened to examine reading research and
address the serious national problem of reading failure, concluded in their landmark report Preventing
Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998) that most reading problems can be
prevented by providing effective instruction and intervention in preschool and in the primary grades.
The NRC noted that for students to learn to read well they must a) understand how sounds are
represented by print and be able to apply this understanding to read and spell words, b) practice
reading enough to become fluent readers, c) learn new vocabulary words, and d) learn to self-monitor
when reading to make sure what they read makes sense and to correct their own errors. The NRC also
found that it was important that teachers provide explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and
phonics integrated with many opportunities to read and write meaningful, connected text. (They
purposefully used the word integrated rather than balanced. It isn't enough simply to add on
components of a fragmented curriculum to balance one with another.) Finally, they noted that effective
reading teachers adapt their instruction, making changes designed to meet the needs of different
students.
In summary, the evidence to date shows that there are five overriding research-supported
characteristics of effective instruction for students with reading difficulties. This article's focus is on
identifying and then exploring in more detail each of these components of powerful instruction:
2. Provide differentiated instruction based on assessment results and adapt instruction to meet
students' needs.
◊ Effective teachers recognize that one size doesn't fit all and are ready to adapt instruction—
both content and methods.
3. Provide explicit and systematic instruction with lots of practice—with and without teacher
support and feedback, including cumulative practice over time.
◊ Students should not have to infer what they are supposed to learn.
4. Provide opportunities to apply skills and strategies in reading and writing meaningful text with
teacher support.
◊ Students need to be taught what to do when they get to a "hard word."
5. Don't just "cover" critical content; be sure students learn it—monitor student progress regularly
and reteach as necessary.
◊ Effective teachers adjust their teaching accordingly to try to accelerate student progress.
Shortly after the NRC issued its report on the serious national problem of widespread reading difficulties
(Snow et al., 1998), the National Reading Panel (NRP; 2000) conducted a comprehensive analysis of
existing reading research that met high standards for quality. The NRP, similarly to the NRC, concluded
that reading instruction should address the domains of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency,
vocabulary, and comprehension. Effective classroom reading instruction includes teaching phonemic
awareness (in kindergarten and 1st grade, and for older students who need it) and phonics or word
study explicitly and directly with opportunities to apply skills in reading and writing connected text (e.g.,
Ehri, 2003; Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, & Seidenberg, 2001; Snow et al., 1998), with integrated
instruction in fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (e.g., Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Gersten,
Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004).
Effective reading teachers teach skills, strategies, and concepts. Skills are things students learn to do. In
reading, students must learn skills such as associating letters with their sounds (such as saying the sound
of the letter b and blending these sounds to form words [as in sounding out words]). Strategies are
routines or plans of action that can be used to accomplish a goal or work through difficulty. Students can
be taught strategies to use when they come to a word they don't know, strategies for spelling unknown
words, strategies to help them write summaries of paragraphs, and other kinds of strategies. A word-
reading strategy is described below. Finally, students must learn concepts, or ideas. They need
background knowledge related to reading and to the topics they are reading about.
Meeting the needs of diverse readers is no small task. In a typical 3rd grade classroom, there may be
virtual nonreaders, typically developing readers, and students who read at 5th or 6th grade levels or
even higher. Many classrooms in which all instruction is delivered in English include students who are
learning to read and speak in English at the same time. A single classroom may include children who
speak several different languages at home. Teachers address these various needs by
providing differentiated instruction, using the results of diagnostic assessments to help them identify
students' strengths and needs, forming small groups of students with similar needs, and then planning
instruction to target those needs. Typically, this means that teachers implement reading instruction in
small groups as well as in whole class formats.
Although a quality reading curriculum will provide the foundation for effective instruction, teachers will
need to adapt their instruction for students who struggle (and for high-achieving students as well).
Quality classroom reading instruction can be adapted for students who find it difficult to learn to read by
a) teaching the specific skills and strategies that students need to learn, based on assessment data
(sometimes called 0); b) making instruction more explicit and systematic; c) increasing opportunities for
practice; d) providing appropriate text at students' instructional reading levels (not too easy but not too
hard); and e) monitoring students' mastery of key skills and strategies and reteaching when necessary.
Students with learning difficulties benefit from explicit instruction in decoding skills and strategies,
fluency (modeling fluent reading, directly teaching how to interpret punctuation marks when reading
orally, etc.), vocabulary word meanings and word-learning strategies, and comprehension strategies.
When a teacher provides explicit instruction she or he clearly models or demonstrates skills and
strategies and provides clear descriptions of new concepts (providing both clear examples and
nonexamples). Students don't have to infer what they are supposed to learn. For example, a teacher
who is explicitly teaching 1st grade students to sound out words demonstrates this process step by step,
then provides opportunities for students to practice the skill with the teacher's feedback and support. If
the student is not successful, the teacher models again. The teacher may have the students sound out a
few words along with him or her. Eventually, the students apply the skill independently to sound out
simple words. Students who are easily confused are more likely to be successful when teachers
demonstrate and clearly explain what they need to learn. On the other hand, if confusions are not
addressed and foundational skills are not mastered, it is likely that students will become more and more
confused, resulting in serious reading problems.
Systematic instruction is carefully sequenced, so that easier skills are taught before more difficult skills.
Letter–sound correspondences and phonics skills (i.e., sounding out words, applying the "silent e rule")
are taught in a predetermined order according to a clear scope and sequence so that there are no gaps
in students' learning. The pace of introduction of new material is reasonable to allow struggling learners
to master key skills, and much of each lesson consists of practice of previously introduced skills,
strategies, and concepts and the integration of these with the newly taught material. Students' learning
is monitored, so that teachers can reteach key skills when needed.
Increasing Opportunities for Practice
Published reading programs rarely include enough practice activities for at-risk readers to master skills
and strategies. Students with learning difficulties typically need extended guided, independent, and
cumulative practice. During guided practice, students practice with teacher feedback. Students need
both positive and corrective feedback. Specific positive feedback calls attention to behaviors and
processes the student is implementing well. Students also need to know when they have made
mistakes. If clear corrective feedback is not provided, students are likely to continue to make the same
errors, in effect "practicing their mistakes" (Denton & Hocker, 2006, p. 17) and forming bad habits that
are difficult to break. Students also need independent practice, during which they implement skills and
strategies without teacher support (but with close teacher monitoring, and with reteaching when
necessary). Finally, students at risk for reading difficulties need large amounts of cumulative practice
over time to learn to apply skills and strategies automatically when they read, just as skilled readers do.
Cumulative practice means practicing newly learned items mixed in with items learned earlier, so that
skills are not taught and "dropped." Students with reading problems often need a lot of review.
One effective way to provide extra practice opportunities in the reading classroom is the
implementation of peer tutoring routines in which students are paired and taught how to work together
to practice skills they have been taught (e.g., Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005; McMaster, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2006;
Saenz, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005). There is also preliminary evidence indicating that practice in phonics and
word identification may be more effective for 1st grade at-risk readers if it includes hands-on
manipulation of items such as magnetic letters or word cards (Pullen, Lane, Lloyd, Nowak, & Ryals,
2005).
Clearly, it isn't enough for students to learn to read or spell lists of words. The real purpose of reading is
to get meaning from text, and the purpose of writing is to convey meaning with text. It is very important
that students have the opportunity to apply word identification and spelling skills as they read and write
connected text. This process must be supported by teachers who model for students how to apply what
they have learned and give students feedback about their reading and writing. For example, students
must be taught what to do when they get to a hard word. The most common characteristic of poor
readers of all ages is the tendency to guess words that are difficult, sometimes using just a few letters.
Often, students make random guesses that don't make sense—then simply continue reading, apparently
unaware of this fact. This quote from a middle school student, taken from a moving article about
students in middle school with severe reading problems, describes the situation well:
Sometimes when students in my class read, they might know how to say simple words okay, but they
will skip over the big words. They look around to see if anyone is even listening to them. But they don't
fix them; they just keep going. They stumble over words, trying to sound them out. Sometimes they
don't even know they made a mistake, and when they finally figure out the words, they don't have a
clue what it all means. They just keep going. (McCray, Vaughn, & Neal, 2001, p. 22)
As this student observed, it is nearly impossible for students to understand what they are reading—to
get meaning from text—when they can't read the words on the page accurately and fluently. Students
need explicit instruction, modeling, and practice in vocabulary and reading comprehension, but many
students with reading problems continue to need instruction in phonics and word study even when they
are in the upper elementary and secondary grades (Fletcher, 2007).
A critical part of effective reading instruction is explicitly teaching students how to use efficient word
reading strategies. Simply put, students need to be taught what to do when they get to a hard word. In
one research-validated early reading intervention program, young students are taught to use a three-
part strategy when they try to read difficult words: "Look for parts you know, sound it out, and check it"
(Denton & Hocker, 2006, p. 144). These steps are described in more detail below.
1. Look for parts of the word you know. In the earliest stages of learning to read, students may
find a letter or a letter combination (e.g., th, ing) that they know. Later, they may recognize
common word endings (e.g., –ot in pot, rot, cot). Still later, they may identify roots or base
words, such as the root spect (which means "to see") in the words inspect and spectacles, or
common prefixes and suffixes like pre- or -ly.
2. Sound it out. Students should be taught from the earliest lessons to use a sounding-out strategy
to read unfamiliar words. They should learn how to blend sounds and larger word parts together
to read words and how to apply this strategy when reading real text. Some teachers teach
students in kindergarten or 1st grade to identify unknown words by looking at pictures on the
page or at one or two letters in a word. These students are being taught to use a guessing
strategy, the strategy of choice of struggling readers, as described so well by the middle school
student above. If a word is too difficult for a student to sound out, the teacher can model the
process of looking for known letters or word parts and sounding out the word, and then simply
tell the student the word. Some reading programs include controlled text, sometimes called
"decodable text," that contains only words students can read using words and letter sounds
they have been previously taught in the program. This kind of text can provide a temporary
support for students in the early stages of reading development.
3. Check it. After students sound out the unfamiliar word, the last step of the three-part word
reading strategy is to teach students to put the newly solved word back into the sentence and to
check it to be sure it makes sense. Thus, the meaning of the word in context is not ignored; it is
used as the checking mechanism. Studies of skilled young readers show that this is the main way
they use context—not for guessing what words are, but for checking to be sure that their
reading is making sense so they can make corrections when it doesn't make sense.
In schools with effective classroom reading instruction, students receive regular brief reading
assessments so that their reading growth can be monitored. These assessments typically include having
students read text for 1–2 minutes and calculating how many words they read correctly during that time
(see Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001; Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006). These results can be graphed, so
that teachers, parents, and students can readily see progress over time. Classroom reading teachers can
adjust their teaching accordingly to try to accelerate student progress.
For some students, quality classroom reading instruction is not enough. When progress-monitoring
assessments indicate that students are not making enough progress with quality classroom reading
instruction alone, schools can provide extra small-group reading intervention to ensure that all children
learn to read in the early grades (see Denton & Mathes, 2003; Fletcher, Denton, Fuchs, & Vaughn, 2005;
Vaughn, Wanzek, Woodruff, & Linan-Thompson, 2007).
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