Learning to read is not a natural process. It requires the brain to make thousands of connections every minute to make sense of the letters on the page. While some students tend to do this more easily than others all, children need direct, explicit instruction in order to become successful, independent readers. A structured literacy approach to reading education that contains systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, orthography, and morphology will benefit all students.
Scarborough’s reading rope has shown us very clearly that there are a lot of components that make up skilled reading. A skilled reader must have word-level skills such as phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition. They must also have language comprehension skills including background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge. It is not until all the strands of the rope are woven together that students are successful with reading.
Teaching reading can be done in many different ways based on the students’ needs, but it needs to be based on scientific research. The Response To Intervention (RTI) model is one, which features 3 tiers of instruction. Tiers 1 is systematic explicit instruction that everyone receives. Tier 2 instruction is small group instruction to support readers who show some weaknesses and are at risk for having reading difficulties. Tier 3 instruction is also done in small groups, one-on-one, in which the student/students receive the most intense instruction, scaffolding, and support. The tiers in this system are fluid and students can move in and out of tiers as needed. In addition to having systematic and explicit instruction, the RTI model also places emphasis on frequent progress monitoring and data-based decisions.
At times, reading becomes even more challenging for some students. The tabs at the top will take you to special populations of students. There you will find some of the characteristics of the population, how it impacts reading, some suggestions for working with the population, and some sample lesson plans.
Spear-Swerling, L. (2022). An Introduction to Structured Literacy and Poor-Reading Profiles. In Structured Literacy Interventions: Teaching Students with Reading Difficulties, Grades K-6 (pp. 1–22). essay, Guilford Publications.