Effective Strategies to Support Struggling Readers: High Goals and Tailored Interventions

When a child first shows signs that they’re struggling to read, we might jump to making sure they’re connecting sounds and letters. While this skill is important—and usually straightforward to teach—not all students who fall behind in reading need support in this area. Many require help with other technical reading fundamentals instead. Houtveen and Van de Grift studied each of these, finding the most effective ways to support struggling readers in the classroom setting.

Below, we’ll share data and strategies from effective reading interventions. We’ll also touch base on the popular LIST methodology that stems from their research.

Tailored Reading Interventions: The Key to Helping Struggling Readers

In an earlier study, Houtveen and Van de Grift found that schools with struggling readers respond in a wide variety of ways. Most classrooms have defined level groups with specific reading goals and instructional materials. This sounds effective, but it only works for top readers. The fixed division causes weaker readers to fall further behind.

As a result, both reading researchers agree that this is not the correct approach. They recommend supporting and encouraging struggling readers within the classroom before attempting to separate them.

Convergent differentiation involves tailoring the pace, instruction, and practise time to each student’s level to meet individual and group reading goals. How can you tell which children need additional support? Simply monitoring and testing regularly should suffice.

Houtveen and Van de Grift developed a three-layer differentiation program called LIST. LIST supports both early-stage and fluent reading development in struggling readers with the help of high but achievable goals and targeted practise and instruction. Reading for pleasure and engaging with rich literature are crucial.

How Differentiated Reading Strategies Boost Success for Weak Readers

As previously stated, Houtveen and Van de Grift's program consists of three levels of differentiation:

• Tier 1: Standard Education. This is sufficient for 70-80% of pupils.
• Tier 2: Targeted Group Support. Students experiencing delays receive fifteen minutes of supplementary instruction and practise four times per week. They use the same instructional materials and have the same reading goals as their peers.
• Tier 3: Intensive Intervention. If Tier 2 is ineffective, students receive one-on-one focused instruction from a specialised teacher. After mastering a reading goal, such as learning the first 10 graphemes, students return to Tier 2.

Direct instruction proves highly effective for structured reading activities, particularly for teaching sound-letter combinations sequentially to weak readers. This is a core component of effective strategies for teaching reading. Just remember to include kids in goal planning—when they know what they’re working toward, they’re much more likely to achieve it.

The LIST Method in Practice:

1. Retrieve prior knowledge: Begin the class by asking, "The last time you learnt..."
2. Modelling: Demonstrate the new skills explicitly.
3. Guided practise: Provide feedback until they can complete tasks independently.
4. Repetition and Assessment: Routinely repeat material until they reach subject mastery.

Schools in the study reduced their percentage of weak-reading students from 28% to 6% using these methods. While a later drop was observed, the researchers emphasized that the key to sustained success lies in the teacher's understanding of why these interventions are vital.

Why High Expectations and Direct Instruction Matter for Struggling Readers

Every child can learn to read. Mastering sound-letter pairings is a basic skill that everyone can master, and there is no need to change reading goals when students start to struggle. Insights from cognitive research on word recognition show that once these skills are automated, comprehension follows.

Instead of lowering the bar, we should focus on:

• In-class support: It’s more effective than removing kids from their social learning environment.
• High expectations: The goal of fluent reading should remain the standard for everyone.

Applying Strategies in Your Classroom

Use these tips to support the children who are having a hard time with literacy:

• Keep expectations high: Don’t slow struggling readers down. Every child can learn to read with the right support.
• Give more practise, not less: Weak readers benefit from extra repetition and strong modelling.
• Use tools to save time: Online practise tools can provide extra repetition.
• Build confidence on purpose: Show them that extra practise leads to real progress.
• Make reading meaningful: Transform reading aloud into engaging dialogues to help them discover the exciting stories hidden behind the letters.

Key Takeaways

• Every child can learn to read.
• Modify your pace and instruction, but not the reading objectives.
• Direct instruction is a proven method for technical reading.
• Focus on enjoying language and literature.

Reference

Houtveen, T., & Grift, W. van de (2012). Improving reading achievements of struggling learners.