Techniques for Helping Struggling Readers

Janice West-Christy, M.Ed.

Offer a Wide Range of Reading Materials
Organize a wide range of reading materials for each unit of study in your classroom. Typically, a secondary classroom relies on the textbook as the primary source of information, but standard textbooks are sometimes not enough for remedial or reluctant readers. An article from a periodical, a primary source document, ancillary textbook program materials, or an online source might intrigue the reluctant or remedial reader.

When choice is offered, the reluctant reader feels empowered to determine material with which he or she is comfortable, and the teacher feels confident that the student is gleaning the required content from an alternative, appropriate source.

If a student is reading below grade level, there are specific steps the content teacher can take to make the textbook accessible, and repetition of these steps is integral to success.

Use Pre-Reading Techniques
First, teach students the structure of the textbook. Usually, the paragraphs in a textbook begin with the main idea, subsequent sentences are details, and the final sentence is a summary. Teachers who repeatedly model the structure of the text for students give them access to the text.

Activate prior knowledge in students before asking them to read. Ask leading questions to force students to determine what they already know about a subject; this provides a mental framework upon which new information can be hung.

Additionally, provide pre-reading questions to students. Such questions are essential for comprehension in these students.

Finally, encourage students to pre-read the assignment by examining the photographs, bold words, headings, and key terms. While these steps may seem time-consuming, such interventions are crucial to making the text accessible to reluctant or remedial readers.

Incorporate Large-Print Materials
Whenever possible, use large-print materials. Reluctant and remedial readers are often intimidated by small print; subconsciously they feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of words on the page.

Consider the font size, pictures, and sentence structure of lower-level materials, and reformulate difficult text as frequently as possible to mimic the large print, applicable pictures, and subject/verb/object structure found in lower-level materials. Transforming text is time-consuming, but the reward is students who are confident about reading.

Engage Multiple Modalities
Involve varying modalities in reading assignments. Careful observation of a reluctant or remedial reader will reveal his or her most effective learning modality. Some students who are baffled when asked to read an assignment silently reveal remarkable comprehension when they listen to the same passage.

When varying modalities are included in reading assignments, the odds are more favorable for comprehension. For example, ask struggling readers to complete a map while reading about specific regions, to build a graphic organizer while reading about cell structure, or to create a mathematical equation with magnetic numbers while reading a word problem.

Reading assignments that combine tangible and intangible activities engage students of varying learning styles, and this aids comprehension.

Teach Important Vocabulary
Be sure reluctant readers understand essential vocabulary. Struggling readers are accustomed to experiencing frustration when reading, and some of this frustration is relieved when students do not have to decode the same words repeatedly during a reading assignment.

Organize and teach high-frequency, essential vocabulary before each reading assignment. Teach students to make flashcards with the word and pronunciation on the front, and the definition and an illustration of the definition on theback. Show students how to use each side of the card to visualize the information contained on the reverse side, and encourage students to maintain their cards for immediate review.

We Share the Responsibility

For numerous reasons, some children enter school already behind in reading and often maintain that reluctant/remedial label throughout their educational careers.In many homes, reading falls far down the line of priorities, and schools are left with the sole responsibility for teaching students to read. Thus, educational institutions from primary grades to secondary grades work twice as hard to teach large numbers of students basic literacy skills. You can, however, structure your teaching to aid reluctant and remedial readers.

This article is by Janice West-Christy, M.Ed., English Department Chair, Louisa County High School, Louisa, Virginia. Ms. Christy coordinates an at-risk language arts program for Louisa County High School and teaches both at-risk and gifted ninth-grade students.

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