Reading research shows that explicit teaching of comprehension strategies led to higher reading comprehension in below-level readers in middle school to grade 12. The research identifies the reading strategies that led to the greatest improvement. In addition, the research points to the best approach to teaching these strategies to these students—sustained intensity.

Research Points to a Successful Intervention Approach to Improving Comprehension Skills of Struggling Readers

Strategies and Method.............................1

Strategies and Research...........................2

Other Aspects of Instruction.................4

Phonics.......................................................5

Conclusion.................................................5

References.................................................6

FOCUS ON STRATEGIES METHOD

The National Reading Panel analyzed more than 200 reading comprehension studies. Many of the students in these studies read below grade and level. Most were in middle school and high school. The studies show that explicit instruction in comprehension strategies led to higher reading achievement. That instruction bore most fruit, the studies show, when it zeroed in on a small set of key strategies and when those strategies were taught with sustained intensity, being taught almost daily over a period of several weeks.

These findings clash with the approaches usually taken with upper grade students who struggle in reading. The focus of those approaches often emphasizes the reading of literature, with only occasional or intermittent teaching of comprehension strategies. The research, however, shows that students benefit more from sustained instruction focused on essential strategies.

WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL STRATEGIES?

The National Reading Panel report identifies seven essential reading comprehension strategies that were proven repeatedly by research to improve reading achievement. The seven major strategies are: summarizing, questioning, predicting/previewing, using text structure, visualizing, inferring, and selecting appropriate strategies (metacognition).

These seven strategies are important for two reasons:

• First, these individual strategies have been proven to provide the greatest advances in student learning.

• Second, these strategies are supported by the largest body of research evidence.

Research shows that even greater progress can be achieved when students are taught to use combinations of these individual strategies. It also shows that struggling readers achieve more when, in addition to this intensive emphasis on comprehension strategies, they receive explicit and extensive instruction in vocabulary and fluency, and when these are taught in a motivational context.

WHAT IS THE METHOD?

Each strategy is taught over a significant period in the context of high-interest texts. Gradually the activity shifts from teacher explanation and modeling of the strategy to students’ using the strategies with teacher guidance to students’ independent application of the strategy. While direct, explicit instruction of the strategy is paramount, ample independent reading requiring the strategy is also critical to success.

The remainder of this paper details the research documenting the success when these strategies, as well as fluency and vocabulary, are taught explicitly over a sustained period in a motivational context.

While the National Reading Panel analyzed and synthesized a wide range of research, some of those original sources are cited below. In addition, more studies are included.

...struggling readers achieve more when, in addition to this intensive emphasis on comprehension strategies, they receive explicit and extensive instruction in vocabulary and fluency, and when these are taught in a motivational context

The Strategies and the Research1. SUMMARIZING

The National Reading Panel found that summarization instruction conferred the greatest learning advantage of any single strategy. That finding emerged from a large number of studies, which also revealed that summarizing was effective on its own and when used in combination with other strategies.

The research defines summarizing as a reading strategy enabling readers to identify main ideas and important details in a text and to make generalizations. Students employing this strategy are able to identify topics of a short selection and distinguish important from unimportant details.

After sustained explicit instruction in summarizing, students can identify the most important points in a selection and write summaries of what they have read. For example, when reading an expository text on a rebuilding effort, students might make generalizations on the signs of progress in that effort.

2. QUESTIONING

According to the National Reading Panel, teaching students to ask questions about what they read improves reading achievement more than all but one single strategy (summarizing). Like summarizing, questioning also shows up among successful combinations of strategies.

The research defines questioning as a reading strategy that gets students to ask and answer questions during reading to improve understanding and memory. They learn questioning procedures that enable them to connect their own experiences to the text. Mastering this strategy, students ask themselves questions that take them beyond the text to speculate on the author’s purpose, evaluate the text, and monitor their understanding. For example, students can form the habit of questioning themselves after each page on what they have read by asking about who, what, when, where, why, and how.

3. PREVIEWING/PREDICTING

The National Reading Panel highlighted the importance of strategies that guide students to use prior knowledge to anticipate what they will find out in a text. Many studies examined the impact of Previewing and Predicting alone and in combination with other strategies.

A Successful Intervention Approach to improving Comprehension Skills of Struggling Readers 2

Previewing/Predicting is a strategy that enables students to use their own knowledge to better interpret and analyze critically the author’s ideas. Students learn how to effectively examine a text prior to reading in order to understand what the text might be about. It shows students how to draw these insights from text features such as diagrams, headings, pictures, and captions. For example, before reading the text of an article entitled the “Five Key Steps to Success,” students might get an insight into the five by merely looking at the subheads. That “headsup” can focus their reading, increasing their comprehension.

Students learn how to effectively examine a text prior to reading in order to understand what the text might be about.

4. USING TEXT STRUCTURE

Research shows it is helpful to teach students how to use the organizational structure of a text to guide their thinking.

The research defines using text structure as a valuable strategy for making sense of narrative fiction and expository text, including description, problemsolution, time sequences, comparison-contrast, and cause-effect. Student comprehension improves when students can recognize the structure of a text, and they can use this instruction to improve recall of information. For example, readers can remember more important details when they have recognized the cause and effect pattern in a text.

5. VISUALIZING

The National Reading Panel showed that struggling readers gain significant learning benefits when they receive explicit and intensive instruction in visualizing.

Visualizing is a strategy through which students translate text into a graphic form and make mental images as a tool to understanding. Visualizing strategies allow students to better see relationships within a text. For example, after reading a passage detailing a young entrepreneur’s successes and failures over a period of months, readers can recreate those ups and downs in a chart. Building that chart will strengthen the readers’ grasp of the content.

6. INFERRING

The ability to infer is central to reading comprehension, and the National Reading Panel cited research studies showing that inferring is a reading strategy that below level readers can master.

Inferring is the ability to interpret ideas not stated explicitly in the text and to draw appropriate conclusions. Students learn to make inferences and draw conclusions based on text features and clues about characters and expository content. For example, reading of a young child who trails after an older sibling might lead a reader to infer that the youngster admires the older child.

7. SELECTING APPROPRIATE STRATEGIES (METACOGNITION)

Each text poses different problems for a reader, and it is important to know which strategy or combination of strategies to use to understand a text effectively. The National Reading Panel summarized studies that show readers could learn to think about their thinking in ways that improved reading achievement.

The selection of appropriate strategies requires students to monitor their own understanding and to select any of the other six strategies appropriately, alone or in combination, according to the demands of the text. For example, faced with a difficult passage, a student might do best by previewing the text structure, asking questions about the information in the text, and summarizing short sections of the text.

In addition to documenting the positive impact that explicit, intensive instruction of reading strategies has on below-level readers, research demonstrates that struggling middle and high school readers benefit significantly from teaching that focuses on fluency, vocabulary, and motivation. Though the National Reading Panel did not directly address motivation, the report does acknowledge its importance, and subsequent studies support the results generated when the motivation factor enters the equation.

A Successful Intervention Approach to improving Comprehension Skills of Struggling Readers 3

Other Aspects of Instruction:Vocabulary, Fluency, and MotivationVOCABULARY

The National Reading Panel concluded, on the basis of a review of 45 studies of vocabulary teaching, that such instruction improves reading comprehension. This research suggests that low comprehension is often associated with low vocabulary, and that explicit, systematic vocabulary instruction was found to improve reading comprehension. Comprehension improves when students learn the meanings of high-utility vocabulary words. The words best suited for this instruction are non-technical words frequently found in grade-level-appropriate texts but presented in materials written at easier levels. For instance, words essential to understanding sixth and seventh grade materials are presented in texts written at fourth or fifth grade reading levels.

Regular, explicit instruction in these words and their meanings, through a variety of activities and in different contexts, deepens students’ understanding of the word meanings and the relationships among the words. The best vocabulary studies also indicate that helping students personalize these words and giving them substantial ongoing review of these words are critical to success.

Explicit teaching of vocabulary implies a variety of tactics. For example, the instruction might begin with student-friendly explanations and examples that involve student participation. Then students might go deeper, looking at word use, origins, context, clues as well as analogies and relationships to other words. Then when students see these words numerous times in their reading, they master the words and use them in comprehending the text.

......struggling middle and high school readers benefit significantly from teaching that focuses on fluency, vocabulary, and motivation

FLUENCY

Students benefit from learning to read quickly, accurately, and with proper expression. The National Reading Panel based that finding on a review of 51 studies. The research shows that regular explicit instruction in guided oral reading gave struggling students, through ninth grade, a clear learning benefit—in terms of improved word recognition, oral fluency, and reading comprehension. This improvement was shown even when achievement was measured with silent reading comprehension tests.

These studies show that, with the aid of teacher modeling, repeated reading, and other techniques, students improved in oral reading fluency and silent reading comprehension. Fluency instruction strives to improve student performance in various aspects of fluency, including:

• Phrasing: pausing and marking ends of clauses and sentences

• Smoothness: reading smoothly between breaks for phrasing

• Expression and Volume: varying both to reflect content

• Pace: Avoiding laboriousness, using conventional pace

• Accuracy: reading each word and pronouncing words correctly

Success in fluency is enhanced when students read texts aloud individually or in pairs, or in small groups, with teacher guidance.

MOTIVATION

Studies suggest that motivation is important in learning, particularly for middle school readers. Unfortunately, there are too few studies on motivation to draw clear conclusions, though there are some useful clues from existing research. For example, recent studies show that efforts to make instruction motivational by providing books and activities on topics that students are genuinely curious about can enhance reading achievement. Success is greater when students can read from an exceptional array of reading selections specially designed to appeal to their age group.

...with the aid of teacher modeling, repeated reading, and other techniques, students improved in oral reading fluency and silent reading comprehension

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A Word about PhonicsAccording to the National Reading Panel, there were no studies of the impact of phonics instruction beyond grade 6, and studies in grades 3 to 6 found that such instruction improved students’ word recognition skills, but not their oral reading fluency or reading comprehension.

Middle school students who are reading two-to-three levels below grade benefit more instruction in comprehension strategies, vocabulary, and fluency than from phonics instruction. Older students who are even further behind—and who clearly lack basic decoding skills—likely would benefit from some phonics instruction if offered in the context of comprehension strategy, oral reading fluency, and vocabulary instruction.

ConclusionThe findings of the research by the NRP show that explicit instruction in comprehension strategies lead to high reading achievement. Successful comprehension instruction is intensive with students deeply engaged in mastering the strategies over extended periods of time and across a variety of texts. If you would like to learn about a new reading intervention program that incorporates the research listed in this paper, please visit:

pearsonschool.com/amp-reading

A Successful Intervention Approach to improving Comprehension Skills of Struggling Readers 5

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ReferencesSUMMARIZING1. Brown, A. L., Day, J. D., & Jones, R. S. (1983). The development of

plans for summarizing texts. Child Development, 54, 968-979. Hidi, S., & Anderson, V. (1986). Producing written summaries: Task demands, cognitive operations, and implications for instruction. Review of Educational Research, 56, 473-493. Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension and its effects on reading achievement. Cognition and Instruction, 2, 117-175. Rosenshine, B., & Meister, C. (1994). Reciprocal teaching: A review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 64, 479-530.

QUESTIONING2. Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students

to generate questions: A review of the intervention studies. Review of Educational Research, 66, 181-221. Rothkopf, E. (1970). The concept of mathamagenic activities. Review of Educational Research, 40, 325-336.

PREVIEW AND PREDICTING3. Allbritton, D. (2004). Strategic production of predictive inferences during

comprehension. Discourse Processes, 38, 309-322. Anderson, T. H., & Armbruster, B. B. Studying. (1992). In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 657-679). Longman: New York. Coffman, G. A. (1997). Influence of narrative text and prediction on written recall. Reading Psychology, 18, 105-129. Pearson, P. D., & Fielding, L. (1992). Comprehension instruction. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (vol. 2). New York: Longman.

TEXT STRUCTURE4. Chang, K., Sung, Y., & Chen, I. (2002). The effect of concept mapping

to enhance text comprehension and summarization. Journal of Experimental Education, 71, 5-23. Ives, B., & Hoy, C. (2003). Graphic organizers applied to higherlevel secondary mathematics. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 18, 36-51. Kim, A., Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., & Wei, S. (2004). Graphic organizers and their effects bb the reading comprehension of students with LD: A synthesis of research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37, 105-118. Meyer, B. J. F. (1975). The organization of prose and its effects on memory. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing. Moore, P. J., & Scevak, J. J. (1997). Learning from texts and visual aids: A developmental perspective. Journal of Research in Reading, 20, 204-223.

VISUALIZING5. Center, Y., Freeman, L., Robertson, G., & Outhred, L. (1999). The effect

of visual imagery training on the reading and listening comprehension of low listening comprehenders in Year 2. Journal of Research in Reading, 22, 241-256. McCallum, R. D, & Moore, S. (1999). Not all imagery is created equal: The role of imagery in the comprehension of main ideas in exposition. Reading Psychology, 20, 21-60.

INFERRING6. Dewitz, P., Carr, E. M, & Patberg, J. P. (1987). Effects of inference training

on comprehension and comprehension monitoring. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 99-121. Magliano, J. P., Trabasso, T., & Graesser, A. C. (1999). Strategic processing during comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 615-629. Morris, C. D., & Bransford, J. D. Effective elaboration and inferential reasoning. Memory & Cognition, 10, 188-193. Trabasso, T., & Suh, S. (1993). Understanding text: Achieving explanatory coherence through on-line inferences and mental operations in working memory. Discourse Processes, 16, 3-34.

METACOGNITION7. Garner, R. (1988). Verbal reports on cognitive and metacognitive

strategies. In C. Weinstein, E. T. Goetz, & P. A. Alexander (Eds.), Learning and study strategies: Issues in assessment, instruction, and evaluation (ppp. 63-76). San Diego: Academic Press. Pressley, M., & Ghatala, E. S. (1990). Self-regulated learning: Monitoring learning from text. Educational Psychologist, 25, 19-33.

VOCABULARY, FLUENCY AND MOTIVATION8. Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C. A., & McKeown, M. G. (1982). Effects of

long-term vocabulary instruction on lexical access and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 506-521. Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., Barbosa, P., Perencevich, K. C., Taboada, A., Davis, M. H., Scafiddi, N. T., & Tonks, S. (2004). Increasing reading comprehension and engagement through conceptoriented reading instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 403-423. Ivey, G., & Broaddus, K. (2001). “Just plain reading”: A survey of what makes students want to read in middle school classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 350-377. Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360-406.

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