Reading intervention is an essential component of literacy instruction. It is the process of identifying students who are struggling to read and providing them with supplemental literacy skills training.
Many children with reading difficulties will become frustrated in the process of becoming literate. This is due to the fact that they may not experience reading as a reinforcer (i.e., gaining information and pleasure).
Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds within words. It is an essential skill to have prior to learning to read. Children who have mastered phonological awareness will have the skills necessary to take apart a word into its component sounds, recognize those sounds, and then put them back together again (blending).
Studies have shown that phonological awareness is closely related to reading development. It is thought that teaching phonological awareness to struggling students can help them improve their reading abilities. However, despite the strong correlation between phonological awareness and reading, some researchers suggest that instruction in phonological awareness can be counterproductive for certain students.
This is likely due to the fact that phonological awareness instruction is often focused on less complex sounds and phonemes, such as rhyming or onset and rime. These strategies may be helpful for many children, but they are not as effective at improving reading ability as is integrated instruction in segmenting and blending.
Word Recognition
Most reading difficulties are due to problems with word recognition. Students who have difficulty recognizing words need to practice them until they become automatic and effortless. Only then can they shift their attention to the task of comprehending the text.
To do this, teachers need to ensure that all students learn to recognize the most common high-frequency words. This includes learning the spelling and pronunciation of these words, as well as understanding the word patterns they share with other high-frequency words (e.g., silent-e).
Research has shown that some of the most effective methods for teaching word recognition include a combination of analogy phonics and guided sight word study strategies such as constant time delay procedures. These methods involve several learning trials on a small set of new words. For example, teachers may hold up the words cow and plow, show students one at a time, say the letter names aloud, wait three seconds, and then ask students to respond by saying the word.
Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret written text. It begins in oral language (listening comprehension) and continues to develop as students transition to the written word.
Comprehension is influenced by many factors, including basic decoding skills, interest in the subject matter, and investment in reading as a learning modality. Poor readers may lack strategies to decode unfamiliar or complex texts, which results in limited short term capacity for comprehending text (Pressley, 1998).
To promote understanding, teachers should encourage students to use comprehension strategies as they read. For example, prompting students to make predictions about the text is a strategy that helps guide them through it. Another strategy is to have students retell or summarize important parts of the text. This will help them focus on the most important details and supporting information. Also, when asking comprehension questions, make sure to give students enough wait time so that they can think deeply about the answer.
Vocabulary
Teachers will likely encounter vocabulary challenges when implementing reading intervention strategies for struggling students. However, these hurdles can be addressed through careful planning and thoughtful implementation of proven teaching strategies.
For example, teachers can pre-teach important words in a text using explicit instruction and provide multiple opportunities for students to read and discuss those words throughout the year. This will help increase retention and allow students to relate new word meanings to their prior knowledge and experiences. Similarly, teachers can introduce students to common prefixes and suffixes (un-, in/im-, il-/ir-, dis-, and re-) and circle these morphographs when they appear in unknown words to aid in deciphering their meanings.
Vocabulary instruction should be integrated across all content areas to help students build a rich vocabulary and connect these words to related concepts. Students with a deep understanding of vocabulary words have greater comprehension in texts that contain these words, demonstrating the important role that vocabulary plays in developing proficient readers.