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Reading Intervention Strategies
Reading intervention strategies for the whole class or individually. Learn how to use evidence-based interventions that are proven teaching reading strategies.
Reading intervention strategies are teaching methods that are tailored to meet a specific need. Classroom interventions are either a Tier 1, 2 or 3 response to intervention.
If used as a Tier 2 or 3 RTI, the effectiveness of the intervention must also be progress monitored.
Teaching reading strategies to the whole class is a Tier 1 intervention and is what makes excellent teaching.
As well, we often need to do classroom interventions when we observe many students need assistance with the same skill.
There are a variety of intervention strategies you can use as part of your core teaching.
This will help ensure that many students are supported and growing before the need for RTI Tier 2 in reading ever arises.
These reading comprehension and reading fluency strategies can and should be used both in small group and whole class on a regular, systematic basis.
Evidence-Based Reading Intervention Strategies
Repeated Reading
Repeated reading is when a student reads a passage repeatedly and receives help with correcting errors. The student reads the passage and if he or she pauses for 5 seconds or longer, the teacher reads the word aloud and helps the student say it correctly.
I like to give the students the choice of "Coach or Time" before giving the word. If the student chooses "Time," I know that he or she is trying to use strategies to figure out the word. "Coach" means to provide the required help. The student should read the same passage at least 4-5 times or until the rate of accuracy is at least 90-95 words per minute. Chart the results on a bar graph.
Herman, P.A. (1985). The effects of repeated readings on reading rate, speech pauses, and word recognition accuracy. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 553-565.
Rasinski, T.V. (1990). Effets of repeated reading and listening-while-reading on reading fluency. Journal of Educational Research, 83(3), 147-150.
QAR: Questions-Answer Relationship
Reading intervention strategies must include a way to assist students in figuring out how to answer questions based on a given text. QAR targets this using in-text evidence to substantiate answers and teaches students to draw conclusions and make inferences. There are four types of questions:
Right There Questions
These questions require students to go back to the passage and find the correct information to answer it. These are literal questions, because the correct answer is found "right there." These questions include "Who," "What," "When," "Where," "How many," and "According to the passage."
Think and Search Questions
These questions require you to think about how the passage information all relates. These questions sometimes include: "What caused…", "The main idea is…", or "Compare and contrast."
Author and You Questions
This requires the students to use information that is not directly stated in the passage. Students must think about what they have read and generate their own ideas or opinions. These types of questions often include: "The author implies…", "This passage suggests…", "This character feels…"
On My Own Questions
These are answered using students' own background knowledge. This is usually not a test type of question because it does not require any reference to the text. However, these questions lead to deeper comprehension. These types of questions sound like: "In your opinion…", "From your experience…", and "Think about something that happened to you…"
Assisted Reading
Assisted reading practice provides students a valuable way to boost reading fluency skills. Like Repeated Reading, the student sits with a teacher or another excellent reader. As the student reads, the partner listens. If the student makes an error, the partner corrects the student. This is not like Repeated Reading as the text is not read over and over again, but it is one of the more valuable reading intervention strategies.
Shany, M.T. & Biemiller, A. (1995). Assisted reading practice: Effects on performance for poor readers in grades 3 and 4. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 382-395.
Visualize the Text
Visualization, or mental imagery, is one of the best reading intervention strategies. It is an excellent way of having your students become more active in the reading process.
Creating "movies in their minds" can dramatically increase comprehension. It is surprising, however, how many students do not understand how to do this.
Students must be taught by using an interactive read aloud (often called a "Think Aloud").
What that means is you are actively discussing your thoughts while you read and describing the pictures your mind makes from the words.
Guide students towards making their own "movies" or "pictures."
Gambrell, L.B. & Jawitz, P.B. (1993). Mental imagery, text illustrations, and children's story comprehension and recall. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 265-273.
