Before COVID-19, some students struggled with reading. However, in our post-COVID world, we have seen an increase in students who are not meeting grade-level benchmarks and need more intensive reading interventions.

Most students struggle with reading at some point, but the majority respond well to typical classroom instruction and interventions.  “Yet some students with the most severe reading difficulties do not make adequate progress in standard reading interventions and require more intensive interventions to make sufficient growth in reading, (Al Otaiba, McMaster, & Wanzek, 2020). Even though some students need specialized instruction to make significant progress in reading, all students can learn to read. This is important because many students feel that not being able to read well reflects a lack of intelligence, which simply isn’t true.  Students who need extra support can benefit from a more intensive reading program. Such programs provide more time for practice and more frequent teacher feedback, which are both essential components of successful learning.

The first step is for teachers to identify students who need more intensive intervention.  They can achieve this by using the Response to Intervention (RTI) model or a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS). Most times normal classroom instruction is considered Tier 1 includes high-quality core instruction for all students. Tier 2 provides additional support for students who need it, such as small group instruction or supplemental activities. Tier 3 offers the most intensive support for students who continue to struggle after Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions. It’s important to implement these steps in order before moving a student to Tier 3.  

 When implementing RTI or MTSS, teachers continuously assess student understanding to determine reading level and pinpoint areas needing improvement. These frequent assessments and progress monitoring are crucial for providing targeted practice, feedback, and placing students in appropriate reading groups with engaging books. Ultimately, this data-driven process guides teachers in selecting the most effective interventions to help students achieve reading success.

 The article “Best Practices in Planning Interventions for Students With Reading Problems” highlights various intensive interventions, while reading groups typically focus on exploring a wider range of reading instruction strategies. Some examples of these intensive interventions include explicit instruction, systematic instruction with specialized and corrective feedback, and cognitive process strategies.

 According to Reading Rockets, two categories of students struggle with reading: those with a discrepancy between their IQ and reading achievement, and those with both low academic ability and low reading achievement. Importantly, regardless of the category, all students can learn to read with the right interventions.

“Poor readers with word recognition difficulties generally over-rely on textual cues such as pictures and other words to identify words in a passage that are unknown to them” (Kim & Goetz, 1994).

 “Overusing textual cues to identify unknown words reduces the likelihood of transforming unknown words into sight words” (Pressley, 1998).  Students with autism sometimes struggle with this as they get used to the repetitive sound of the letters and then have a difficult time transferring those sounds into words.

Once school psychologists and teachers have decided who needs to be in what level of intervention, they then need to look into what type of strategies work the best.   

References

Al Otaiba, S., McMaster, K. L., & Wanzek, J. (2020). Intensive Reading Interventions for the Elementary Grades. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Joseph, L. (n.d.). Best Practices in Planning Interventions for Students with Reading Problems. Reading Rockets. [doi number, if available]

Kim, Y. H., & Goetz, E. T. (1994). Context Effects on Word Recognition and Compensatory Hypothesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 29, 178–188.

Lerner, J. W. (1993). Learning disabilities: Theories, Diagnosis, and Teaching Strategies. Dallas, TX: Houghton Mifflin.

Pressley, M. (1998). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching. New York: Guilford.