What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs Book

This is a helpful resource for working with struggling readers in all settings. I walked away with practical strategies to implement both in one-on-one tutoring sessions and in my classroom this fall.

Notable takeaways:

1. Struggling readers need more time to read books at their level! That seems like common sense, but our struggling students are often given books that are too advanced for them to read independently. In schools, they are often pulled for teacher directed support during read-to-self times, thus allowing them almost no time to read enjoyable texts on their own.

2. Our readers need more explicit comprehension instruction. As a whole, this is a weakness for many educators. Simply assessing recall or using comprehension worksheets will not lead to meaningful comprehension. Students need explicit demonstrations of the comprehension strategies that literate people use when they read, i.e: activating prior knowledge, summarizing, imagery, question generating, thinking aloud.
I spoke to a physician that teaches at a local medical school, and she reported that reading comprehension struggles are a growing challenge among medical students. These are incredibly bright students that have managed to successfully excel through years of formal education, but they are struggling to comprehend extensive medical texts. This should motivate us to take a closer look at how we teach comprehension to all readers.