Reading intervention offers intensive targeted instruction to students who read below grade level. It is typically part of a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).
Learn more about how a structured literacy approach to learning can help your students succeed in their reading journey. Read about the different components of a well-rounded reading program such as: phonological awareness, vocabulary development, and comprehension strategies.
Oral Reading
Reading out loud, or oral reading fluency, has been shown to improve students’ understanding of the text as well as their overall fluency and accuracy. It’s also a great way to assess phonics and decoding skills, and a strong predictor of reading comprehension.
To improve their oral reading fluency, students are often paired and asked to read the same passages over again with the other student acting as coach, providing feedback on each reading. Students can also record their readings for homework and teachers can spot check these to see if students are improving their rates.
To ensure an accurate assessment, the Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) assessment should be administered at the beginning of the year to diagnose each student’s performance level, followed by regular running records throughout the school year based on students’ reading skill levels: above grade level should be reassessed every quarter; on level and below should be reassessed every 4-6 weeks.
Vocabulary Building
As a foundational component of reading comprehension, vocabulary builds the bridge between recognizing words and understanding their meanings within a text. It’s no wonder literary giants like Toni Morrison and Mark Twain have expansive vocabularies.
Early readers are in a fortunate position because the majority of words they read are familiar to them because of their extensive exposure in spoken contexts. By year three or four, however, learners must transition to an entirely new set of words that are only encountered in their written texts.
This shift is a big hurdle for many struggling readers, and it’s where explicit vocabulary instruction can make a difference. A good vocabulary program will provide students with the opportunity to practice new words frequently to strengthen their recognition skills and support their ability to recognise similar word meanings (e.g. antonyms, synonyms, connotation and idioms). It will also offer morphological instruction on root words and affixes to strengthen their grammatical knowledge.
Phonics
Many children struggle with reading because they have trouble decoding. It’s important to focus on this and make sure teachers are getting the right training in decoding instruction, and that they have high-quality materials. However, if we focus solely on decoding, and ignore other aspects of reading like vocabulary, we’ll be missing the mark.
Educators need to address all of the pathways that lead to understanding and mastering text: word recognition, phonological awareness (the ability to hear sounds in words), and phonics. It’s also helpful to provide direct teaching of words and their meanings, as well as morphological instruction focused on word families and roots.
The best programs will combine a diagnostic assessment with high-quality, intensive instruction that addresses all of the components of reading. Let’s Go Learn’s assessments are renowned for their quality and depth, providing educators with detailed information about a student’s strengths and needs so they can design the right reading intervention program for each child.
Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a complex cognitive skill that involves decoding, extracting meaning from text and constructing a mental model of the text’s content. Children need strong vocabulary and language skills to understand the words they read, and knowledge of grammar to interpret syntax and structure. In addition, they need background knowledge and the ability to make connections with what they are reading.
Children with SRCD or MRD often have weaknesses in specific comprehension areas, such as vocabulary, summarization and knowledge of text structure. Interventions targeting these areas can be particularly effective.
Ultimately, the best way to improve children’s comprehension is to give them lots of opportunities to read. The more they read, the better they will become at predicting, questioning, clarifying and visualizing what they are reading. This, along with good oral vocabulary instruction and phonics practice, will help them to build strong reading comprehension. A comprehensive reading intervention program focuses on building these skills early and integrating them into the daily classroom routine so that children will have the best possible chance of understanding what they read.