Virtually every teacher works with students who struggle to read on grade level. The 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that over a third of fourth-grade students and a quarter of eighth-grade students read at a level below NAEP Basic. Low reading scores in these grade levels are particularly troublesome when considering that so much of the curriculum in grades 4–9 (and beyond) requires the ability to read and understand increasingly complex texts. Recent research has demonstrated that interventions can help improve the reading level of students in grades 4–9 with reading difficulties.
This practice guide, developed by the What Works Clearinghouse™ (WWC) in conjunction with an expert panel, distills this contemporary research into easily comprehensible and practical recommendations for educators to use when providing reading interventions. The recommendations outline evidence-based practices that can help teachers meet the needs of their students with reading difficulties. These recommendations will also help educators address the requirements of two federal laws, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities.
This practice guide provides four evidence-based recommendations that teachers can use to deliver reading interventions to meet the needs of their students.
1. Build students' decoding skills so they can read complex multisyllabic words.
2. Provide purposeful fluency-building activities to help students read effortlessly.
3. Routinely use a set of comprehension-building practices to help students make sense of the text:
Part 3A Build students' world and word knowledge so they can make sense of text.
Part 3B Consistently provide students with opportunities to ask and answer questions to better understand the texts they read.
Part 3C Teach students a routine for determining the gist of a short section of text.
Part 3D Teach students to monitor their comprehension as they read.
4. Provide students with opportunities to practice making sense of stretch text (i.e. challenging text) that will expose them to complex ideas and information.
On the website (link is above in the purple header) you can download a summary of the guide, the full guide, view an hour long webinar describing the four recommendations, and see the studies that were reviewed to generate the recommendations.
Five Common Word Reading Errors and How to Help
These e-books and planning guides were developed by staff at the Middle Tennessee State Center for Dyslexia. They provide information about topics related to providing instruction to students, how to identify dyslexia, and what parents can do in the home to support their children with literacy.
All children benefit from learning how spoken sounds are mapped onto letters as they begin to read. Children who struggle with reading words and spelling, like those with dyslexia, need to be directly taught letter-sound relationships, and they need lots of practice decoding words (using their knowledge of vowels and consonants to pronounce a word) to become skilled readers.
Accurate word reading is a critical step in understanding what is read! Focus on the words being read so you can give support in correcting reading mistakes. Don’t encourage your child to use pictures to figure out how to say a word. You can use pictures to confirm words they already read correctly. Don’t use “guessing games” to help your child figure out a word. Guessing how to read a word based on pictures or beginning letter-sounds encourages habits that work against skilled reading.Don’t use context clues to decode a word. Context can be used to help with the meaning of a word that has already been read correctly. Listen carefully to the words your child misreads. You may want to jot the word down along with how it was misread. After your child finishes a phrase or sentence, pause and think about how to help your child read missed words correctly. Here are some common word reading errors and how you can help your child improve decoding skills.
This is a great resource for parents to help support their child's reading and writing at home.
It begins with a Quick Start Section where parents can select from PreK through 2nd grade to personalize the suggestions to the student's grade level.
Welcome, parents! One of the most important gifts we can give our children is to help them learn to read and write so that they can succeed in school and beyond. Confident, active readers are able to use their reading skills to follow their passions and curiosity about the world. We all read for a purpose: to be entertained, to take a journey of the imagination, to connect with others, to figure out how to do something, and to learn about history, science, the arts, and everything else.
Learning to read is complex. Children don't learn one reading-related skill and then move on to the next in a step-by-step process. Instead, they are learning to do many things at the same time: decoding, reading with comfortable fluency, absorbing new vocabulary, understanding what the text says, and discovering that reading is pleasurable and builds knowledge about the world.
We hope this guide will give you a better understanding of what it takes to learn to read (and write) and how you can help your children grow as readers, writers, and learners!
The Read-Aloud Routine for Building Vocabulary and Comprehension Skills tools guide prekindergarten and K–3 educators in implementing a system for whole-class text reading focused on language and comprehension development for English learners (Giroir, Grimaldo, Vaughn, & Roberts, 2015; Hickman, Pollard-Durodola, & Vaughn, 2004). The key steps of the read-aloud routine include (1) introducing high-utility words within the context of a narrative or informational text (vocabulary, background knowledge); (2) reading the text aloud with students (modeling fluency); and then (3) structuring meaningful interactive, text-based activities that allow for deeper processing of new vocabulary and concepts from the text (vocabulary, comprehension, language development). The read-aloud system incorporates principles of culturally responsive pedagogy by providing guidance to teachers in choosing culturally responsive reading texts and facilitates vocabulary development by connecting new linguistic concepts to students’ backgrounds and lived experiences.
Click on the above link for access to Read Aloud Flip Book Tool Guide For Teachers, 20 book titles, with English sample lesson plans and video demonstrations. There are also 9 Spanish lesson plan sets. Professional development resources are also available on this website.
