Developing solid reading proficiency at an early age and maintaining those skills throughout their school-age years is vital to the success of every student. Raising proficiency in reading improves the chances for successful graduation. Finding ways to ensure your students make the critical reading gains they need is the goal of a successful reading intervention program.
Tips to Help Students Having Reading Difficulty
There are many reading intervention programs online that can be incorporated into a curriculum designed to help students develop stronger reading skills. A strong reading intervention system can encourage rapid improvement in students having reading difficulty. Here are some other strategies that can combine with online intervention programs to help support reading skills:
- Develop a personalized learning path. This is the ideal scenario but not often possible with the growing size of today’s classrooms. Providing individualized attention is always helpful to any student, especially when it comes to a reading intervention program. However, by using adaptive technology in a blended program, students can work at their own pace and on a path customized to their needs. When learning opportunities are personalized and based on a student’s unique needs related to skills, culture and experiences, their learning significantly improves.
- Incorporate educational scaffolding. This is one of the best ways to move students progressively toward stronger reading skills and comprehension. It allows students to ask questions at each level and to more actively participate in their learning. You can incorporate these supportive strategies into your teaching and then gradually shift more responsibility for the learning process to the student. This tiered approach also helps reduce the frustration a remedial reader might be feeling throughout the process. The use of an online reading program that allows students to work and learn independently will support this approach.
- Rely on systematic and cumulative instruction. Every teacher should have a strong system designed and developed to meet the individual needs of students. Systematic instruction should be considered prior to the development of any lesson plan. Cumulative instruction provides more opportunities to practice new and previously acquired skills. Together they form a great and concerted way to engage students struggling with reading. The best online reading intervention programs are designed to build skill gradually and sequentially to guarantee success for struggling readers.
- Cater to multisensory experiences. Instead of telling a student about a particular concept, using multisensory activities is an effective way to play on a student’s strengths and engage those strengths to incorporate new information. Multisensory teaching can be effective for all learners K-6.
- Make allies of parents using at-home resources. It’s important for parents to play a role in the development of a child who requires a reading intervention program. At-home reading can be fun, less structured, and free of the pressures that often come from having to read in class or keep pace with other students. An engaged parent is one of a teacher’s best tools to help inspire a struggling student.
- Reward success and inspire achievement. Positive reinforcement is an age-old tool that when used properly can highly motivate a student. Whether it means providing physical rewards like badges or certificates or more psychological rewards like praise and affirmation, rewarding success is a key strategy to motivate students. Finding ways to reward milestone accomplishments is a wonderful way to keep students motivated to strengthen their reading skills. Many online reading programs will provide struggling readers with immediate and consistent auditory and visual rewards to increase their motivation to learn.
Discover the Online Educational Software from Essential Skills
Strong reading skills are critical to the success of students across the entire curriculum, so closing the gap for struggling students is a vital objective for any teacher or educator. Every student learns differently, so using online educational software from Essential Skills is a great way to offer a variety of strategies to inspire struggling students. Our online learning software includes a variety of auditory, visual, and tactile typing activities and is ideal for K-6 students, Special Education, ELL, and older remedial students. These evidence-based programs include hundreds of interactive activities for students of all ages. Incorporate Essential Skills into your reading intervention program and watch your struggling readers shine!
Success for a teacher happens when students achieve their goals. Lifting students struggling with reading to new heights is easier when you have the right tools, and the online reading intervention programs from Essential Skills are one of most effective and affordable tools available to educators today.