LITERACY

How to Help Students Who Struggle with Reading Comprehension

28 March 2024/ By Zineb DJOUB

Students can’t excel in learning if they struggle with the basics of reading. They must have a strong foundation in reading to adequately progress from one grade level to another. However, many students face challenges when it comes to understanding and interpreting written text. Empirical evidence shows that reading difficulties are common and are associated with poor long-term academic achievement. Besides, failure to read effectively was found to lead to significant long-term effects on children’s growing sense of self-confidence and their motivation to engage in learning. So, what effective strategies and interventions should we use to assist students who struggle with reading comprehension in our classes?

1. Identify struggling readers

It’s important to identify students who struggle with reading comprehension, especially pinpointing the kind of reading deficiency common among them to determine what interventions are more effective in improving their reading skills.

There are several ways you can get such information such as:

# Observations

Observe students during reading activities (independent reading, guided reading sessions, or classroom discussions about a text) and look for signs of struggle such as difficulty decoding words, hesitancy in reading aloud, lack of engagement with the text, and poor comprehension.

You can use an observation checklist during such activities to take note of students’ behaviours, responses, and interactions with the text.

# Reading inventories

You can use these diagnostic tools or assessment tasks to assess students’ reading abilities, skills, and comprehension levels.

You can ask students to read passages aloud to assess their reading fluency, identify synonyms and antonyms, define words to assess vocabulary knowledge and work on reading comprehension tasks (e.g. summarizing passages, making predictions, identifying main ideas and supporting details) to assess comprehension.

These inventories can help you identify specific reading comprehension difficulties. You may combine various inventories to provide a detailed picture of students’ overall reading abilities, including strengths and areas needing improvement.

# Think-aloud technique

Using this technique, you’ll gain valuable insights into students’ cognitive processes, problem-solving approaches, comprehension strategies, and learning difficulties.

As students read the text or work on a reading comprehension task, ask them to verbalize their thoughts and reasoning processes aloud.

You can provide prompts or guiding questions to help scaffold their thinking and encourage deeper reflection such as: What are you thinking as you read this? Can you predict what might happen next? How did you get that answer?

While students think aloud, take notes on their verbalizations, strategies, challenges, and insights.

# One-on-one conferences with students

During such meetings discuss with students their reading experiences, preferences, and challenges. Ask open-ended questions to gauge their understanding of the text, strategies they use while reading, and areas where they may need support.

2. Teach comprehension strategies

Reading comprehension is vital to effective reading as it allows the reader to engage actively with the text. Therefore, providing explicit instruction in comprehension strategies is essential to support students who struggle with reading comprehension.

So, teach students strategies such as predicting, visualizing, questioning, summarizing, making connections, and monitoring understanding. Model how these strategies should be used effectively and provide guided practice opportunities.

3. Provide scaffolded support

Scaffolded support can help students gain more confidence and responsibility as they become proficient in reading. So, your support needs to be tailored to students’ needs and released gradually to promote self-reliance and autonomy.

Hence, we must recognize the need to avoid overwhelm, implicit instruction, and tasks that are overly challenging for students.

Remember that the objective is to motivate them to overcome their reading difficulties and improve rather than get more frustrated and disengaged.

Therefore, be sure to break down complex tasks or skills into smaller, more manageable steps that students can successfully complete. This allows struggling readers to focus on mastering one skill at a time before progressing to more challenging tasks.

Further, use visual aids such as graphic organizers, charts, and diagrams while providing scaffolding. This makes abstract concepts more concrete and accessible to struggling readers, thereby supporting comprehension and retention.

Modelling and guided practice are also essential to support students who struggle with reading comprehension. This involves demonstrating strategies, providing step-by-step instructions, and offering guided practice opportunities (e.g. guided reading sessions, word study activities, shared reading activities, etc.).

4. Differentiate instruction

Differentiation involves tailoring instruction to accommodate specific challenges, preferences, and readiness levels. This is a must to support students who struggle with reading comprehension.

To address diverse learning needs and interests, you need to offer a variety of reading tasks, materials, and resources such as multisensory approaches, technology tools, hands-on activities, differentiated texts, and audio resources to engage struggling readers.

Your support should also vary from small group instruction, and one-on-one support, to peer tutoring, or mixed-ability groupings based on students’ needs and learning profiles.

5. Foster metacognitive awareness

Comprehension must go beyond reading a classroom textbook. We must support students to become active learners, responsible for developing their reading skills. This aim can’t be attained without encouraging their metacognitive awareness.

So, teach students to monitor their comprehension, identify comprehension breakdowns, and adjust their strategies accordingly (e.g. use reflective reading response activities, think-aloud, KWL charts, role-playing, and group discussions).

In addition, encourage students to ask questions, make predictions, and summarize key points as they read.

It is also important to offer them opportunities for reflection and revision. This is through, for instance:

• Journals or reflection logs where students can write about their reading experiences, challenges, successes, and goals.
• Regular one-on-one conferences with struggling readers to discuss their reading progress, strengths, areas for improvement, and strategies for growth.
• Students setting their goals and plans based on their specific needs, interests, and areas of growth.
• Self-assessment tools, such as rubrics, checklists, or rating scales, for students to assess their own reading skills, comprehension, fluency, and strategies.
• Peer feedback sessions where students provide constructive feedback, share insights and offer support to one another in improving their reading skills.

6. Instil a love of reading

For students to love reading, they need to enjoy the process.

So, if you want to instil this love, you should provide access to a variety of engaging and age-appropriate texts.

Also, your care and interest in supporting struggling students to improve needs to be visible in your words, support, and commitment to maintain a positive and supportive learning environment where everyone feels comfortable taking risks, asking questions, and seeking help.

Reading should also extend beyond the classroom because the more students engage in reading, the more they develop and strengthen their reading skills.

So, we must encourage regular reading habits. To learn how to achieve this goal successfully, read this post: 6 Ways to Promote Extensive Reading in The Classroom

These were the key strategies to help students who struggle with reading comprehension. By implementing them, you can create inclusive and effective learning environments where all students can develop their reading skills, build confidence, and experience the joy of becoming proficient readers.