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Why reading strategies are important for students.

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Why reading strategies are important for students.

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Help Make Connections to Other SkillsThey teach the reader how to think! But what's even better is once students understand how to use these strategies, they can use them to connect other reading skills! For example, students can see the connection between visualizing and identifying the setting.

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Why reading strategies are important for students.

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Phonics follows a bottom-up approach (letters and sounds before words), compared to whole language's top-down approach (words first). Proponents of phonics placed an emphasis on skill-based instruction. Students would do drills to learn the sounds and letter blends that make up words, before moving into comprehension.

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Written by: Damian Page, MA Infographic created by: Damian Page, MA & Dr. Todd Cunningham
What is the Road to Reading Infographic?

The goal of reading is comprehension, to infer the meaning of the text. Understanding what we read is a complex skill developed over time through the mastery of many foundational skills. As students learn to read, they are developing both their oral language skills and their ability to decode words. These skills develop in a predictable sequence, starting in kindergarten and continuing into the early elementary school years. As students transition into Grades 3-4, they undergo a significant change in their literacy development in which the focus shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. Students whose literacy skills are not developing at a typical rate can experience academic challenges early on in their schooling that intensify over the years, placing them at significant risk for academic failure. But what if educators could accurately identify the students in their class whose literacy development was not progressing at the same rate as their peers? They could use this information to identify struggling readers and then apply appropriate instructional strategies and interventions to address their students' reading challenges. This is of course the reason we assess children, but it is important to understand that when we assess reading, we are really assessing a constellation of interrelated skills, all of which contribute to our goal of reading comprehension.

The Road to Reading infographic was designed to provide an easy-to-follow visual overview of the developmental sequence in which foundational literacy skills are acquired in students. Using this developmental scope and sequence, educators can assess foundational literacy skills and through this identify specific areas of weakness that result in reading failure. Educators can then use this knowledge of underlying literacy skill deficits in applying targeted evidence-based instructional strategies to foster the development and mastery of these foundational literacy skills.
Click here to view and download the Road to Reading Infographic.
How is the Road to Reading Infographic Organized?

The Road to Reading is laid out in a developmental sequence, starting at the top of the page, and winding towards the bottom. The term developmental sequence refers to the order in which these literacy skills are acquired. For example, phonemic awareness is typically acquired before alphabetic principle knowledge and word reading ability. Understanding the developmental scope and sequence of literacy skill acquisition is important because it tells us where we should start looking if our students are struggling in their literacy development.

Literacy research tells us that as students move from kindergarten through to Grade 4 and beyond, they are developing particular literacy skills in a predictable sequence. Early on in the pre-school and kindergarten period, a child's oral language capacity is developing, and they are increasingly being exposed to concepts of print, (e.g., how to hold a book, text runs from left to write in English, etc.). As students move into Grade 1, they begin to learn the symbols of the English alphabet, connecting them to the sounds they know in their oral vocabulary. Moving into Grades 2-3 students begin to consolidate their understanding of sounds and symbols, learning to decode new words and recognize learned words, all of this building towards the capacity for fluent and accurate reading. Around Grade 4 students shift from learning to read to reading to learn, which continues on into high school, post-secondary education, and beyond. Therefore, if students experience a disruption at any of these developmental stages, they are less likely to reach the end goal of reading comprehension.

Figure 1: Stages of Emergent Literacy (Willows & Chall, 2002)

How do I use the Road to Reading Infographic?

The Road to Reading infographic is built around five core components:

1. A visual developmental scope and sequence designed to help educators identify underdeveloped literacy skills in their students

2. Descriptions of each foundational literacy skill to help orient teachers to how these skills contribute to the overall goal of reading comprehension

3. Recommendations for assessment based on freely available online curriculum-based measures

4. Recommendations for instruction based on evidence-based instructional strategies and interventions for each literacy skill

5. Expanded appendices, which provide a more detailed elaboration of the brief assessment and instructional tips described on the infographic.

The infographic is designed to offer a quick visual overview of the literacy skills, assessment options, and instructional and intervention strategies an educator should consider when deciding how to address their students delayed literacy development. For early struggling readers, a teacher would start at the top of the infographic and follow the winding road, assessing each skill in a developmental sequence to determine where the skill breakdown has occurred. For older readers, understanding the developmental sequence of literacy skill acquisition is important (see Figure 1). For example, a student in Grade 7 who is struggling to understand what they read would be best assessed with measures of reading comprehension first. If reading comprehension was found to be below the cut point for risk, the teacher would move backwards along the road to the next literacy skill (e.g., reading fluency). In this way, the assessment of reading skills is designed to follow the same developmental pathway in which we expect them to be acquired. Starting at the skill we expect them to have acquired by that grade level and then moving down until we find the foundational literacy skill breakdown.

Alternatively, an educator may assess a student's reading fluency, and finding it at the benchmark level, move up to the next developmental skill, reading comprehension. The figure below provides a visual overview of the assessment pathway for assessing foundational literacy skills.

Figure 2: Literacy Skill Assessment Pathway

It should be noted that vocabulary growth occurs in parallel with the other foundational literacy skills, particularly word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Therefore, these higher-order skills (fluency & comprehension) may be multiply compromised by underlying deficits in vocabulary knowledge and decoding ability (alphabet knowledge, word reading).

What are Curriculum-Based Measures?

The assessment of foundational literacy skills using the Road to Reading is accomplished through the use of "curriculum-based measures" (CBMs). CBMs are short, easy to administer tests that allow us to accurately assess the development of particular academic skills and subskills over a period of time. With repeated use of CBMs, we can plot a student's progress over a time course and compare their scores to curriculum-based norms. Through this, we can determine if a student's literacy development is progressing typically or is at risk of failure.

The figure below depicts scores for an oral reading fluency measure, one of many different measures that can be used to assess literacy development. The benchmark scores represent the performance we would expect a student in that grade, at that time point to achieve. The cut-point scores represent a level of performance that would indicate a delayed development of that skills and a potential for reading failure. Using these scores as goal posts, we plot our student's scores on this CBM at the time point it was administered and determine if their reading skill development is below where we would expect and therefore warrants intervention.

Figure 3: Assessing Skill Development with CBMs

In addition to monitoring skill development, CBMs can tell us if the instructional strategies or interventions we are using are working as intended. Once we have identified students who are struggling in their literacy skill development, we apply the appropriate literacy interventions and instructional strategies to remediate that underlying skill deficit. But it is not enough to apply these interventions and hope that they will be effective in improving our student's literacy development. Continual progress monitoring is required to determine if the intervention we apply is working as intended. The graphs below illustrate how progress monitoring through CBMs can be used to refine and maximize the effectiveness of interventions.

The graphs below ( Figure 4) display two progress monitoring time courses for two students undergoing a reading intervention. In the first graph (Child 1), we see that the student's oral reading fluency scores follow a flat trajectory with minimal improvement in their reading fluency achieved by the end of the intervention. Graph 2 below (Child 2), depicts a different scenario. In this case, the student's stagnant skill growth was identified through the use of progress monitoring CBMs and at week 12 a change was made to the intervention. Maybe the intervention increased in frequency or intensity, whatever the case we see that this tweak resulted in a steeper incline of improvement between weeks 12 and 13. This tells us the intervention modification had the desired effect in accelerating the student's skill growth. However, by week 16 we see that the student's skill development has once again stalled. But, through the use of our CBMs, we can respond flexibly to this skill growth stagnation and again modify the intervention as needed. By the end of the second student's intervention, there is a rapid acceleration in skill growth, which tells us that the intervention modifications were successful in making the intervention maximally effective for that student.

Figure 4: Progress Monitoring and Intervention Modification
Click here to view and download the Road to Reading Infographic.
Thanks & Comments!

This literacy resource was designed with the help and expertise of the graduate students and members of the Academic Intervention Lab under the guidance of Dr. Todd Cunningham. We hope it provides you with some measure of utility in addressing the literacy needs of your students. If you have questions or comments on how it could be improved in the future, we would love to hear your feedback!

You may contact us at academicinterventionlab@mail.utoronto.ca

About the Authors:

Damian Page is a doctoral student in the School and Clinical Child Psychology program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. His research explores mental health literacy in schools and the early identification of emerging mental health issues in students. Damian's current doctoral research explores the impact of mental health literacy training on pedagogy and mental health referral decisions.

Dr. Todd Cunningham is a clinical and school psychologist, Assistant Professor, Chair of the School and Clinical Child Psychology program at the University of Toronto. His research investigates the support of students with learning difficulties from assessment to interventions. Projects involve looking at new techniques in psychological assessments, evaluation of assistive technology, professional development in literacy and numeracy, and telepsychology.

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Using the "Road to Reading Infographic" to Guide Assessment of and Intervention for Foundational Literacy Skills

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Written by: Damian Page, MA Infographic created by: Damian Page, MA & Dr. Todd Cunningham What is the Road to Reading Infographic? The goal of reading is comprehension, to infer the meaning of the text. Understanding what we read is a complex skill developed over time through the mastery of many foundational skills.

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The 20-Minute Rule

Reading 20 minutes a day exposes children to 1.8 million words per year, significantly improving vocabulary and comprehension.

Reading Aloud Boosts Fluency and Confidence

Reading out loud improves pronunciation, comprehension, and self-confidence, even for older students.

Multisensory Learning Enhances Reading Skills

Using touch, movement, songs, and visuals helps reinforce reading instruction and improve retention.

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5 Effective Teaching Strategies for Reading - TeachHUB

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Looking for ways to get your students excited and engaged in reading? Check out our five effective teaching strategies for reading.

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9 Clever Teaching Strategies to Address Common Learning Hurdles

Executive function (EF) deficits are commonly mistaken for - and exacerbated by - ADHD symptoms. The reverse is also true, making EF and ADHD inextricably linked yet also distinct.

To address a student's challenges with reading comprehension and other academic skills, teachers and parents must first understand their origins and then follow these 3 steps to help a student build skills and confidence in middle and high school:
1. Create learning environments that lessen the impact of deficits.
2. Modify assignments to minimize the impact of weaknesses.
3. Teach skills that relate to the specific assignment and minimize the impact of deficits.

This free download outlines three common challenges faced by adolescents with ADHD, and example solutions to build each academic skill.
Download ADDitude's full Success @ School Executive Function Action Plan here. NOTE: This resource is for personal use only.

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Free Guide: 9 Teaching Strategies for ADHD Learning Hurdles

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Executive function (EF) deficits are commonly mistaken for - and exacerbated by - ADHD symptoms. The reverse is also true, making EF and ADHD inextricably linked yet also distinct. To address a student's challenges with reading comprehension and other academic skills, teachers and parents must first understand their origins and then follow these 3 steps to help a student build skills and confidence in middle and high school: 1.

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Teaching reading comprehension is a must. Kids need to know that recognizing and saying the correct words is only PART of reading. Comprehension is the other side of the coin. Making meaning of the text is the ultimate goal of reading.

Reading Comprehension Articles

Over the last few years, we've posted quite a few comprehension articles and printables. I've shared from my experience as a classroom teacher, reading tutor, and homeschooling mama. Here are some you may enjoy below.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Included in the list below are books for teaching reading comprehension that have been read and underlined and revisited multiple times by me OR that have been suggested to me by other colleagues and professional reading teachers. Most explain comprehension from a classroom perspective, giving classroom examples, but don't let that fool you into thinking you can't use the ideas as a tutor, parent, or homeschooler. I certainly have!

Books for Teaching Reading Comprehension

Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller is one of the first books I read on reading comprehension {I have the 1st edition}. If you are teaching young readers, say Pre-K through 2nd grade, you will find practical ways that you can teach reading comprehension plus definitions for each strategy that are perfect for younger kids. I love the book lists the end of each chapter, too.

7 Keys to Comprehension by Susan Zimmermann is a GREAT book that I highly recommend for parents. It goes through each strategy and explains it in easy-to-understand terms. It avoids the teacher-y terms that so many other books use. If you're a new teacher {or even seasoned teacher} and need help for teaching comprehension, I also recommend this book for you!

Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis was the second book I read about teaching reading comprehension. Again, it comes from the classroom perspective, but it has some fantastic ideas for 3rd grade through middle school.

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling by Emily Kissner is a FANTASTIC read for teachers, parents, and tutors of kids in the upper elementary grades and middle school. I devoured it from cover to cover when I was first learning about text structure. I have also had the privilege of having Emily Kissner write a guest post on This Reading Mama!

Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor is not one that I have personally read, but I have heard such great things about it. The thing that impressed me the most is how he takes the strategies and breaks them down into what he calls a "launching sequence." Starting with using concrete experiences, he teaches students using concrete examples that kids can connect with. He moves through a series of lessons until kids are using that strategy with text. I would imagine this launching sequence would be great for any student, but especially struggling students or those with special needs.

The Art of Teaching Reading by Lucy Calkins is a long read. And it isn't completely all about reading comprehension. But it is a GOOD read. This is one that I read while I was still a classroom. It challenged and transformed some of my reading teaching methods. I would recommend this book to anyone, but it would probably be most helpful to classroom teachers and reading tutors. And just in case you're wondering, I also read Lucy Calkin's The Art of Teaching Writing and it was equally as good, if not better.

Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies by Jeffery D. Wilhelm is another book I'd recommend to parents and classroom teachers alike. A think-aloud is when you take a piece of text {that you've planned ahead} and you model a comprehension strategy or two with the passage. Think-alouds help our thinking become "visible" so kids can hear the thoughts in our head and know how to use a certain strategy. Love this book!

Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck is not necessarily a book about comprehension strategies, BUT if you think about it, vocabulary is HIGHLY related to reading comprehension! And Beck's book is the best I've read on teaching vocabulary. It is OFTEN referred to in other books. I've even referred to it for teaching vocabulary with my own kids.

Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl is a newer one that I was introduced to this year. And just because it says, "classroom strategies", don't dismiss this one as a tool for at home instruction or tutoring! In it, you'll find ready-to-go graphic organizers and strategies for comprehending fiction and nonfiction. I would recommend this one for upper elementary and middle school kids.

The Forest and the Trees by Emily Kissner is another great read for older students {4th grade and above}. Her focus is helping reader identify the important details authors include in texts that will help them comprehend better. She has found that many readers often pay attention to unimportant details and this interferes with comprehension.

And if you'll allow me to add...

How to Choose "Just Right" Books by Becky Spence {that's me} is a book I wrote in response to the many emails from parents. It is not completely about comprehension, but does explain the comprehension strategies. It even has a handy list of questions we can ask kids to dig deeper into their comprehension of text. You can purchase the PDF here.

If you're looking for books to help you model comprehension strategies, find them here!

Follow This Reading Mama's board Comprehension Strategies on Pinterest.

~Becky

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Books for Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

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Teaching reading comprehension is a must. Kids need to know that recognizing and saying the correct words is only PART of reading. Comprehension is the other side of the coin. Making meaning of the text is the ultimate goal of reading. Reading Comprehension Articles Over the last few years, we've posted quite a few comprehension articles ...

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Dyslexia Does Not Mean Seeing Letters Backwards

It is a language-processing issue, not a vision problem.

Reading Aloud to Children Makes Them Better Students

It improves focus, creativity, and cognitive skills, which benefit all subjects.

Learning Two Languages at Once Can Improve Reading Skills

Bilingual children often develop stronger reading and problem-solving abilities than monolingual children.

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Conclusion 1

Reading instruction strategies should be adapted to students' needs. Not all children learn the same way, so combining methods like phonics, multisensory learning, and reading aloud can make the process more effective and engaging.

Conclusion 2

Early and frequent reading improves language development and comprehension. Research shows that children who read or listen to stories regularly develop a broader vocabulary, better communication skills, and an easier time understanding complex texts in the future.

Conclusion 3

Learning to read is a continuous process that requires motivation and practice. Beyond classroom instruction, it is essential to foster a love for reading through interesting books, educational games, and interactive activities that make learning to read enjoyable.