How to Teach Remedial Reading

By Margo Dill

Remedial reading is an extremely important class for children who are struggling with
reading. Because these children have difficulty reading, they generally do not like it.
To reach these students, it is crucial for remedial reading teachers to make reading fun
at the students' levels. This involves finding interesting and lively reading materials,
playing games, using art and creativity during class, providing success every class
period and rewarding students for hard work. Some schools have remedial reading as a
pull-out program, and some have push-in programs. Pull-out programs are necessary
for some children to succeed in reading.

Assess the students that are in your remedial reading program. Your schoo l is likely to
have a preferred method for finding your students' reading levels. If you do not have a
formal assessment, the easiest way to figure out a student's reading level is to do a
running record on a leveled book where you think the student is rea ding. For example,
after listening to Student A read in class the first week of school, you have decided he
is reading on a middle second grade level. You give Student A a second grade book
and keep track of what he reads. If he reads a word correctly, you make a check mark.
If he reads a word incorrectly, you write the mistake he makes. This does take
practice. If you are not fast at this, you can tape record your student reading and then
do the running record with the tape. Also have the student retell th e story to make sure
he comprehended it.

Group your remedial reading students by reading level if possible. Some schools'
schedules will allow for this because even though there may be five second grades,
they all have the same daily schedules. So, if ther e is a student in room one and
another in room two reading at the same level, you can group them together and teach
them in a small group. At other schools, this is not possible, and you may have to
have small groups of students who are on different readin g levels.

Plan your daily lessons. Remedial reading does not just include reading. Think of it as
all language arts because spelling and writing are connected with reading. Think of
your schedule like this: on day one, each group will be introduced to a ne w book and
read through it. On day two, students will read the book again to themselves and
maybe with a partner. On day three, students will read the book to a stuffed animal
and do an activity such as a journal writing or an art activity. On day four, st udents
will play a game with words from the book such as finding all the short a words the
fastest or going on an -ing hunt. On day five, students will have a celebration and
finish up activities from the book.

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Introduce a book and read it through with students a few times before they read it on
their own. Guided reading is a wonderful tool to use when teaching remedial reading
students. To find out more about guided reading, see the link in Resources. Walk the
students through the book the first time. Ask them what they think the book will be
about based on the title and pictures. Point out any difficult words or character names.
Ask them what they already know about the subject or the author of the book. When it
is time to read the book, have each student read it out loud to themselves all around
the room and you listen to students and take notes on what you hear as you go around
the room. When students are finished, you can talk about the great things you heard
and then maybe reteach some of the difficult vocabulary or concepts. Guided reading
is perfect for teaching remedial reading.

Things You Will Need

 Leveled books
 Assessment materials
 Computer with Internet connection
 Files
 Observation records
 Notebooks
 Pencils
 Paper
 Glue
  Scissors
 Markers
 Tape recorder

Tips

 When working out a schedule for your remedial reading groups, make sure
to ask teachers and your principal to help you. Making a schedule and
trying to reach every student at their level is one of the most difficult parts
of being a remedial reading teacher.
 Schedule family reading nights two or three times a year. Plan activities
for your remedial reading students to do with their parents or family
members that are fun and interactive. This will help make reading fun and
encourage reading at home.

More Classroom Articles

 Elementary School Book Club Ideas

 Teaching Kindergarteners About the Plot of a Story
 How to Teach 4th Grade Reading
 The Five-Finger Reading Strategy
 Activities to Teach Students About Time in Second Grade
 What Is a Diagnostic Reading Assessment?

Cite this Article

The Importance of Evaluations in Reading Remediation

How to Conduct Reading Evaluations

Why are evaluations important when helping struggling readers?

In remediation situations, it is important to evaluate the student. Students who
struggle with reading do so because they lack specific skills necessary for
proficient reading. You need to know where specific deficiencies exist in order
to better build the necessary skills. An evaluation is not a ‘test’ but rather an
informal tool to help you determine the exact reading skills you need help your
student develop. Evaluations help you be a more effective teacher.
We can learn much by carefully observing what children are doing incorrectly
when they read. Much like a coach watching a child swing a bat or a physical
therapist watching a patient walk, observing the details of current performance
helps us identify weakness and then teach to strengthen specific skills and
rectify difficulties. The child makes reading errors because they lack
necessary skills to read the word correctly. Often by evaluating their exact
errors we can identify specific weaknesses and then teach to strengthen
necessary skills to rectify problems and help the student advance their
reading.
*Important Note: The following evaluation techniques are only informal tools
for indicating possible gaps in reading skills. If you have any concerns at all
about the student’s hearing, vision, development or other medical concern,
the student must be evaluated by a doctor or other appropriate professional.
These informal evaluations do not provide any medical information or official
diagnostic data. If the student has difficulty hearing (for whatever reason from
an ear infection to a physical disability) it significantly impacts phonemic
awareness and the ability to tap into correct phonologic processors. Students
with uncorrected vision impairment will have challenges seeing the print. Any
and all medical concerns need to be addressed by professionals.

What evaluation elements provide indicators of specific reading skills?

To help determine the student’s skills and identify possible gaps in necessary
reading skills check the following elements:
Phonemic Awareness: Assess the student’s ability to perform phonemic
awareness activities. Can the student distinguish and manipulate sounds. If
they have difficulty recognizing the sound structure of language, where exactly
do they have difficulty? Is it with beginning, ending or middle sounds, blended
consonants, blending, segmenting or sound manipulation? Results indicate
what specific phonemic awareness skills the student needs to develop.
Remember phonemic awareness is essential to reading success as it allows
the student to access efficient phonologic processing. A free phonemic
awareness evaluation can be found in the article Quick Evaluation of
Phonemic Awareness.
Knowledge of the Complete Phonemic Code: Evaluate the student’s
knowledge of the complete phonemic code. Check their direct print=sound
knowledge of basic sounds, alternate vowel sounds, vowel combinations, r-
controlled vowel combinations and other complexities. Determine if they have
specific gaps in their code knowledge. Also check that the code knowledge is
direct and automatic. It is not a coincidence most struggling readers have
major gaps in their code knowledge especially with vowel combinations and
other complexities.
Reading Skills: Evaluate the students reading /decoding performance. Close
scrutiny of the student’s exact mistakes usually reveals repeated mistakes
and patterns of errors. Careful evaluation of the specific errors the student
makes while reading is enlightening. Look for errors with incorrect words,
skipped words, replacing one word for another, missing parts of the word and
problems with multisyllable words. The particular type of reading errors can
indicate deficiencies in specific skills such as tracking, blending, attention to
detail, and absence of phonologic processing. The reading evaluation is
particularly helpful in determining the fundamental skills that the struggling
reader needs to develop. See the article Actual Reading Errors Made by
Struggling Readers for further information on evaluating reading skills.
Spelling: Spelling indicates how the student is transferring sound to print, the
converse of reading. Give the student spelling words from an appropriate list
they have NOT studied or evaluate uncorrected writing samples. Look at their
exact spelling. Patterns of errors in spelling often indicate how the student is
processing words and can also reveal phonemic weakness.
Reading Comprehension: Reading Comprehension is a higher level skill. To
evaluate comprehension, ask the student some questions about what he or
she is reading. Basically, you are checking how well the student understands
what they read. If they have poor comprehension skills, you then check to see
if the poor comprehension skills are based on decoding/reading difficulty or on
a lack of comprehension skills, or both.
Before you begin evaluation, explain to the student the evaluation is not a test
but rather a tool to help you target your instruction. Some struggling readers
become upset with anything they view as a test. Tell the student, not to worry
if they ‘miss’ something in the evaluation, there are not ‘wrong answers”. All
that means is a specific skill needs to be taught to them.

Interpreting results of the informal ‘reading evaluation’, identifying potential

missing skills and targeting remediation to help the student achieve reading
success
After you have completed the individual evaluation elements, you need to
combine and interpret the overall results. The combined results of phonemic
awareness, knowledge of the complete phonemic code and performance in
reading and spelling provide a useful ‘picture’ of the exact skills you need to
help your student develop. Students who struggle with reading do so because
they lack specific skills. Look at all the evaluation elements together. The
combined results usually indicate specific weakness in certain fundamental
skills. You then can target instruction to build these necessary skills. For
examples of how to interpret reading errors see the article Actual Reading
Errors Made by Struggling Readers.
Remember the focus is on checking to see if the student has established
necessary skills for proficient reading. To read proficiently the student must
first process print phonetically. Consider the foundational skills (knowledge of
the code, tracking, blending, phonemic awareness, attention to detail). Check
if the student has mastered, integrated and applied these skills to the
essential process of phonologic processing (converting print to sound). After
examining the fundamental skills, consider the student’s abilities with the
higher level skills (handling multisyllable words, fluency, comprehension,
vocabulary). For additional information, see the article Skills Necessary for
Proficient Reading.
Individuals who struggle with reading vary greatly in the specific skills they are
lacking. For example, one student may have poor phonemic awareness, not
know the sounds and not be processing print phonetically. Instruction would
need to directly establish all fundamental skills to develop the proficient
phonologic pathways. Another student may be ‘sounding out’ words but
struggling with some of the complexities because their code knowledge was
incomplete. This student would need to learn the complexities and strengthen
phonologic processing. Another reader may only have difficulty with
multisyllable words. A different individual may decode perfectly but not pay
attention to or understand what they read so would need direct work on
developing comprehension strategies. The evaluation helps you identify the
skills the student needs to develop and target your instruction to these
necessary skills. Back on Track Reading Lessons program includes
evaluation tools and instructions on adapting the reading instruction to meet
your student’s individual needs.

For further information describing common areas of reading difficulties see the
article Common Reading Problems; How to Identify Common Problems and
Target Instruction to Help Struggling Readers Develop Necessary Skills.
Evaluations require interpretation. If you are in doubt about what skills the
student has mastered and what skills they need work on, it is best to start at
the beginning to ensure the student establishes a strong foundation of
phonologic processing and then systematically add advanced skills. If you
repeat a skill the student already knows, they simply gain a little extra
practice. Remember, even the professional elite players practice fundamental
drills. Problems arise when the student fails to acquire a necessary
foundational skill. Older students, especially those with some of the skills in
place, advance very rapidly. Don’t cut out necessary instruction just to save
time. A few extra days of instruction to insure fundamental skills are
established and practiced is a wise investment. The strong foundation of
phonologic processing is essential to proficient reading.
For additional information on struggling readers see the article Students Who
Face Difficulties Learning to Read: Information on Reading Problems and
Dyslexia.
For further details on how to help your student acquire necessary skills and
develop proficient reading see the articles How to Help a Student Who
Struggles with Reading Overcome Reading Difficulty and Achieve Reading
Success and Elements of an Effective Reading Remediation Program.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
This article was written by Miscese Gagen a mother with a passion for teaching children to read
proficiently by using effective methods. She is also a successful reading tutor and author of the
reading instructional programs Right Track Reading Lessons and Back on the Right Track
Reading Lessons. The purpose of this article is to empower parents and teachers with
information on teaching children how to read. We CAN improve reading proficiency, one student
at a time! More information is located at www.righttrackreading.com ~ Copyright 2007 Miscese
R. Gagen

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I have been a remedial reading teacher in a public school for 30 years. All remedial
reading teachers in my school have 50-60 students. This year, I was given 10 special
education students (in addition to the 50 students I already had).

It is virtually impossible to meet the needs of all these children. Are there any
guidelines for remedial reading teachers?

I want to help these children but there is just so much that one person can do.

From Sue
If you are a remedial reading teacher and have 50 or 60 students who have different
problems and are at different stages of reading development, you cannot provide
effective remedial reading instruction.

Many of your students will fail, despite your best efforts. (Three Reasons for Reading
Failure)

Succeeding in Teaching Children to Read

If you are to succeed in teaching children to read, you must be well-trained in research
based reading instructional methods. You must teach your students every day. You
must have data from assessments so you know where each of your students is
functioning and where each child needs to be.

You must use the programs as they are intended to be used - including
the recommended hours per day and week, and the recommended teacher-student
ratio. (Read What are the Criteria for Remedial Reading Programs?

Because you have too many students, you cannot use reading programs as they are
intended to be used. This is one reason why more than 50 percent of children never
learn to read proficiently.

Who Can Fix the Problem?

If you are looking for someone else to fix this problem, it is not going to happen. The
person you are looking for is you. You vote in local elections. You have colleagues,
friends, and neighbors.

You say all remedial reading teachers in your district have 50 or 60 students. With this
many students, these teachers can't teach remedial reading either - they are likely to be
frustrated and unhappy too.

You and your fellow reading teachers need to get organized and become squeaky
wheels.

Get Organized, Educate Others

There is power in numbers. (Read One Person is a Fruitcake, 50 People Are a

Powerful Organization.)

Organize remedial reading teachers in your district. Get together and develop
strategies to educate your school board, your community -- and the parents of the
children you teach.

Provide facts about the three reasons for reading failure.

Provide facts about how to teach reading. (Read What are the Criteria for Remedial
Reading Programs?)

Provide facts about the six qualities of effective reading programs.

(Read Considerations When Selecting a Reading Program from The Access Center.)
Educate the decision-makers (administration, school board) and parents about the
model reading program from the Department of Education that calls for 90 minutes of
instruction, 5 days a week, from kindergarten through grade 3, in general education
classrooms. (Read Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children from the
National Research Council and Question C-1 in Guidance for the Reading First
program)

Provide facts about the consequences of failing to teach children to read. Failing to
teach children to read:

* is not cost-effective
* fills prisons with illiterate citizens
* fills welfare rolls with illiterate families
* wastes taxpayer money
* destroys the lives of children who just need to learn to read

You also need to educate the parents (most of whom think their children really are
receiving remedial reading instruction). Provide parents with the facts and "11
Questions to Ask about Your Child's Reading Program."

Make 11 Questions to Ask about Your Child's Reading Program into a flyer that you,
other teachers, and parents can can distribute throughout your community (flyers are a
powerful underutilized tool). (Read Using Flyers to Educate Others)

Get Training in Research Based Reading Instruction

Doctors are required to get additional training on new research based medical
treatments. Reading teachers who have worked in the field for several years need to
get additional training in research based reading methods so they have the necessary
knowledge and skills to teach children who do not learn to read on their own.

Fixing the System

I do not question that you care a great deal about your students. You have devoted
your life working for them. You know the system is broken.

As a teacher with 30 years of experience, you need to direct your efforts to saving
children who will be damaged until the broken system is fixed.

If you continue to tread water in the broken system, your students will not learn to
read and the system will have to be fixed by someone else.
Who knows and cares as much as you?

You need to fix some part of the problem every week. This applies to all of us.

"If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem."

Three Reasons for Reading Failure

1. The program is not appropriate for the child.

2. There are too many students in the reading class
3. The pace of the instruction is too rapid for children to achieve mastery of skills
presented.
Source: The Reading Foundation

Six Qualities of Effective Reading Programs

1. Effective programs are driven by reading research, not ideology

2. Effective programs emphasize direct, systematic, intensive, and sustained

reading

3. Effective programs require school wide buy in before they are adopted

4. Effective programs are supported by initial professional development and

extended followup training throughout the school year ;

5. When implementing an effective program, the school needs to be committed

to the integrity of the program ’s instructional approach and materials;

6. Effective programs make effective use of instructional time, provide multiple

reading opportunities, and employ a variety of reading assessments (Schacter, nd).
Source: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/readprograms.asp

One Person is a Fruitcake, 50 People Are a "Powerful Organization"

There is power in numbers:

1 person = A fruitcake
2 people = A fruitcake and a friend
3 people = Troublemakers
5 people = “Let’s have a meeting”
10 people = “We’d better listen”
25 people = “Our dear friends”
50 people = A powerful organization”

Source: 12 Things Parents (and Teachers) Need to Know by Parent Leadership

Associates

Federal Model Reading Program

Look at the federal model reading program that is effective in teaching children to
read. (For specifics, read Question C-1 of Guidance for the Reading First program)

This model calls for 90 minutes of instruction per day, 5 days a week, from
kindergarten through grade 3. Children who are not making sufficient progress receive
additional instruction. This model assumes that reading instruction takes place in
general education classrooms.

11 Questions to Ask About Your Child's Reading Program

Here are some questions you need to ask about your child's reading program:

1. What is the name of my child's reading program?

2. Is the reading program researched-based? Does the program include the five
essential elements identified by the National Reading Panel and required by No Child
Left Behind?

3. How many children will be in my child's reading group?

4. How have the children in this group been selected?

5. Has the teacher been trained in direct, systematic, multisensory reading instruction?

6. Is the teacher certified in this particular program?

7. Has the teacher completed a supervised practicum in this program?

8. How many hours of instruction per week will my child receive?

9. How will the pace of the instruction be determined?

10. What criteria will be used to determine mastery?

11. How will I be informed about my child's progress?

Source: The Reading Foundation

Resources: Research Based Reading Programs

These articles and publications will help you learn about research based reading
programs, appropriately trained teachers, stages of reading development, and the
federal model reading program.

Reading Disabilities: Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty Learning to Read?

What Can Be Done About It? by G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D.

National Reading Panel Reports Combination of Teaching Phonics, Word Sounds,

Giving Feedback on Oral Reading Most Effective Way to Teach Reading (NIH News
Alert, 2000)

Stages of reading development - If the program is not appropriate for the child's
reading stage, it will be ineffective for him, even if it works for other children his age.

Synthesis of Research on Reading from the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development by Bonita Grossen, University of Oregon

4 Great Definitions About Reading in NCLB - No Child Left Behind includes the
legal definitions of reading, essential components of reading instruction, scientifically
based reading research, and reading assessments. Does your child's program have
these "essential components"? Has the school given your child a diagnostic reading
assessment? What did this assessment show?

Guidance for the Reading First Program - The purpose of Reading First is to ensure
that all children are proficient readers by the end of third grade. This publication
includes a description of a model program - 90 minutes of instruction per day, 5 days
a week, with additional instruction for children who continue to struggle,

Research based reading programs and contacts

Learn more about Reading - how children learn and need to be taught.

Learn more about research based instruction.

Meet Sue Whitney

Sue Whitney of Manchester, New Hampshire, is the research editor for Wrightslaw.

Sue is the co-author of Wrightslaw: No Child Left Behind (ISBN: 978-1-892320-12-

4) that is published by Harbor House Law Press.

In Doing Your Homework, she writes about reading, research based instruction, No
Child Left Behind, and creative strategies for using federal education standards to
advocate for children and to improve public schools. Her articles have been reprinted
by SchwabLearning.org, EducationNews.org, Bridges4Kids.org, The Beacon: Journal
of Special Education Law and Practice, the Schafer Autism Report, and have been
used in CLE presentations to attorneys. Sue Whitney's bio.

Sue has served on New Hampshire's Special Education State Advisory Committee on
the Education of Students/Children with Disabilities (SAC) and has been a volunteer
educational surrogate parent. She currently works with families as a special education
advocate.

Copyright © 2002-2018 by Suzanne Whitney.

Corrective Reading is a powerful Direct Instruction remedial reading series that solves a wide range
of problems for struggling older readers, even if they have failed with other approaches. Explicit,
step-by-step lessons are organized around two major strands, Decodingand Comprehension, which
may be used separately or together to customize instruction for particular student needs. Each
strand of Corrective Reading has four levels that teach foundation skills for non-readers to seventh-
grade-level material – potentially all in about 2 1/2 years.

Corrective Reading is typically taught to students in grades 4 and above whose reading is
characterized by misidentified words, confusion of similar words, word omissions or insertions, lack
of attention to punctuation, and poor comprehension. It is effective with students who have poor
attention, poor recall of directions, or who meet criteria to receive special services. With a high
success rate, frequent teacher feedback, and built-in opportunities to earn reinforcement throughout
each lesson, even students with histories of failure remain motivated and on task.

Decoding lessons range from instruction in letter sounds and blending to the reading of sophisticated
passages such as those found in content-area textbooks. Comprehension skills covered range from
simple classification and true-false identification to complex analogies, analyses, and inferential
comprehension strategies. With progress through each level, students read increasingly more
difficult material with accuracy, fluency, solid comprehension and improved study skills. The program
is ideally complemented with the Expressive Writing or Reasoning and Writing Direct Instruction
programs.
Corrective Reading was found to have potentially positive
effects on alphabetics and fluency and no discernible
effects on comprehension.
Corrective Reading is designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding), fluency, and
comprehension skills of students in grade 3 or higher who are reading below their grade level.
The program has four levels that correspond to students’ decoding skills. All lessons in the
program are sequenced and scripted. Corrective Reading can be implemented in small groups
of 4–5 students or in a whole-class format. Corrective Reading is intended to be taught in 45-
minute lessons 4–5 times a week.