Interventions for children with reading difficulties

The Science of Reading

Before you delve into lesson planning in the area of reading, be sure you have an understanding of the science of reading and teaching programs and strategies that are based on these scientific research based findings and strategies.

Know the 5 pillars of reading.

Phonics + Phonological Awareness + Fluency + Vocabulary → Comprehension

Review these readings on the Science of Reading and then have a conversation with your reading specialist, before you begin developing your lesson plans.

What is the Science of Reading ?- the Definition

What is the Science of Reading?- the basics

The Science of Reading (the research- 11 minute read)

Really Great Reading Blog- Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Sight Words & Fluency– resources

[The Reading League], (2021, Dec. 15) The Science of Reading: Defining Movement- A preamble by Dr. Tracy Weeden

Teachers and Reading Science (57.45 minutes)

https://youtu.be/GNCtUsXIcSw?si=qMNq7Pv71Th-nMlm

Dyslexia Live {2020} Dr. Louisa Moats Talks: Teachers and Reading Science with Dyslexia Live

. from https://youtu.be/GNCtUsXIcSw?si=qu93Cu6TaqRSsJVI

Get her Speech to Print: Language Essentials For Teachers, Third Edition here: https://brookespublishing.com/speech-to-print/

Reading and writing are complex practices.  When we read or write, our brains must process language in terms of semantics (the meaning of language), syntax (organizing words into comprehensible sentences), as well as phonological processing (decoding).  Couple those linguistic systems with the context and the purpose for the reading or writing, and it gets very complicated.  It seems that the root of reading difficulty for many children who struggle is in the processing of sounds.  Many students who struggle with literacy have a very underdeveloped sense of phonemic awareness; that is, they have trouble identifying, isolating, and manipulating the smallest units of sound in spoken words.  If they struggle with sounds, they will likely struggle with matching letters to sounds as beginning readers too.

Some children have a disability that makes reading difficult to learn. Others come to school without the literacy experiences they need to become readers. Some children struggle because they’ve received poor or inadequate reading instruction. When these and other risk factors are identified early, though, many children’s reading difficulties can be prevented.

The Gap Between Good and Poor Readers

There is a huge (30 million words) gap between low and high SES children in the number of words they are exposed to in the first three years of life (Colker, 2014).  The big disparity in vocabulary development puts children from poverty at a disadvantage for literacy learning right from the start of school.  Research has indicated time and again that oral language development directly affects the attainment of reading and writing skills.  By third grade, the gap between strong readers and poor readers continues to widen as the strong become stronger and the weak even weaker.

We know the gap is wide, but there are research-based early literacy initiatives that seek to educate parents and teachers about the benefits of reading and talking to children and babies to increase their oral vocabularies and lay the foundations for print concepts and literacy.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a brain-based disorder with language processing.  Its cause is not known, but it makes reading and writing difficult and affects academic achievement.  According to the International Dyslexia Association, as much as 15-20% of the population as a whole suffer from some degree of dyslexia.  About 85 % of the students diagnosed with a specific learning disability in literacy have dyslexia.  We know that it runs in families and has a genetic component, and we know there is no cure for the disorder.  The brains of dyslexic learners function differently than the brains of capable readers as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

What Can Teachers Do to Help?

According to Allington (2013), there are several research-based practices we can implement in our classrooms to help struggling readers achieve and progress.

1. Give strugglers equal time spent reading as their more confident peers.

In the average classroom, proficient readers are given more time engaged in reading text, while struggling readers are given more worksheets and skill instruction and less time engaged in reading text.  Research says that the best way to help strugglers improve is more time spent reading.  In our classrooms, we need to ensure that all students have an extended period of time devoted to reading texts.

It is also important to allow for choice in reading materials in order to allow children to become invested in texts they find interesting.  Choice is a huge factor in motivation.  Motivation is the key to getting students to want to read at all.

2. Help them select texts at a 98% accuracy level to allow them to practice and experience success.

We know that when something is hard or difficult, we tend to avoid that thing.  For children who find reading difficult, the act of reading is less than pleasurable.  So it makes sense to place struggling readers in texts that they can easily navigate with 98% or higher accuracy.  This means that they will not struggle with word identification and, therefore, be able to read with greater speed, accuracy, and comprehension.  We can use running records and lexile scores to quickly determine which texts are right for struggling readers.  When something is easy, it is enjoyable and likely to be repeated!  At Lexile.com, they have a category of books they code as “high interest, low readability” that is well suited for struggling readers who want books that they can read with ease but still appeal to their interests.

The Lexile leveling system is helpful for both students and teachers when selecting books that will be just right for the reader’s ability and interest.

The Lexile codes are:

• AD: Adult Directed: Better when read aloud to a student rather than having the student read independently.
• NC: Non-Conforming: Good for high-ability readers who still need age-appropriate content.
• HL: High-Low: Content to engage older students who need materials that are less complex and at a lower reading level.
• IG: Illustrated Guide: Nonfiction materials are often used for reference.
• GN: Graphic Novel: Graphic novels or comic books.
• BR: Beginning Reader: Appropriate for emerging readers with a Lexile reader measure below 0L.
• NP: Non-Prose: Poems, plays, songs, recipes, and text with non-standard or absent punctuation.

3. Avoid allowing paraprofessionals to provide primary instruction.

Too often, children who struggle with literacy are assisted by paraprofessionals in the classroom.  Allington reminds us that primary reading instruction should be at the hands of a highly-trained education professional with the knowledge and skills to provide balanced reading instruction.  All readers benefit from time spent in guided reading lessons where they can practice applying reading strategies under the guidance of a skilled teacher.

4. Engage them in small-group reading experiences and avoid whole-group instruction.

Guided reading is the ideal setting for strategy-based reading instruction.  Struggling readers need one-to-one instruction that is individualized to their needs.  The small reading group is ideal for strategy-focused instruction.  In small reading groups, successes can be celebrated, and needs can be addressed immediately.  Children also benefit from working in pairs where they can share their expertise and assume the role of teacher/mentor sometimes, too.

Questions I Can Ask As I Read

To get the gist of what I am reading:

• What is this story about?
• What is the problem?
• What is the solution?
• What do I need to know about?

To predict-verify-decide:

• What’s going to happen next?
• Is my prediction still a good one?
• Do I need to change my prediction?
• What makes me think so?

To visualize:

• What does this (person, place, or thing) look like?
• What makes me think so?

To Summarize:

• What’s happened so far?
• Who did what?
• What makes me think so?

To Think Aloud:

• What am I thinking right now?
• Why?

To Solve Problems When I don’t Understand:

• Should I…
• Stop and review?
• Reread and look back.
• Ignore and read on?
• Why?

5. Make reading lessons meaning-focused rather than skills-focused

Encourage students to be thoughtful literacy learners.  Allington encourages us to remind students that the point of reading and writing is more than remember what the text said, but rather engaging the ideas, challenging them, and reflecting on them.  Encourage students to make connections and engage in thoughtful discussions around the text.  Book clubs or literature circles are great instructional programs for facilitating the social aspect of book discussions while encouraging thoughtful literacy practices.

Questions to Ponder

1. What are your preferred learning styles, and how do they influence your own instruction? How can you use your own strengths in the classroom to reach every learner?
2. What resources can you share with families to promote literacy at home?
3. How can you get books into your students’ homes? Research shows that kids from low SES homes have very few books they can call their own.  What community resources exist to help you attain books?

(Munger, n.d)

Additional Resources

• Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice. Authored by: Kristen A. Munger, Ed.. Provided by: Open SUNY Textbooks. Located at: http://textbooks.opensuny.org/steps-to-success/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike  introduces instructional strategies linked to the most current research-supported practices in the field of literacy.

  Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Phonological and Phonemic Awareness.

  Go to the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES)  and follow links to watch videos on the Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade

  Put Reading First, Kindergarten through Grade 3,  from the National Institute for Literacy.  This guide describes the findings of the National Reading Panel Report and provides analysis and discussion in five areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

  Malcolm, U. (n.d.) Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading, from LDschool- Includes an Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading: Cheat Sheet- Comparing and Contrasting Assessment Purposes. 

original source

Teaching Literacy in Grades Pre-K to 2 by Lori Levin and Suzanne Porath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Other References

Allington, R.L. (2013). What really matters when working with struggling readers. The Reading Teacher, 66(7): 520–530.

Colker, L. J. (2014). The word gap: The early years make the difference. Teaching Young Children, 7(3): 26–28.

Hiebert, E,H., Pearson, P.D., Taylor, B.M., Richardson, V., & Paris, S.G. (1998). Every child a reader: Applying reading research to the classroom. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, University of Michigan School of Education. Retrieved November 1, 2017, from http://www.ciera.org 

Girl photo from Pixabay

updated 8/30/23