What Really Works with Struggling Readers

I just finished deeply reading a 2004 article from English Journal by Dauna Howerton and Cathy Thomas. Their article, "Help for High School Students Who Still Can't Read," gives powerful insight into what secondary teachers can do to help their struggling readers in high school classes. There were many interesting points made, with vignetters offering realistic examples.

So what does matter with struggling readers? What does work? I recently sat through an extensive sales pitch (even though it wasn't supposed to be) that offered lots of options for testing and identifying needs in struggling readers, but I did not run out and buy anything. There is really only one thing that works for struggling readers. Reading. That's it. That's the magic answer. They just need to read more. And they need to read stuff that they like.

The fact is that our students start to see a decrease in the desire to read around the 4th grade. What does this coincide with? Standardized testing, for one. But also an increase in nonfiction texts in science, social studies, and health. Not exactly page-turning-reading, you know?

Unfortunately, as Howerton and Thomas pointed out, our reading programs lack the systematic instruction to help students with these new types of texts. From third to fifth grade, students can receive at least sporadic skill instruction, but this instruction is buried in a content-focused ELA class more and more as students move into upper grades. They simply do not get the skill instruction that they need. However, regardless of skill level, students can gain leaps and bounds in reading ability by simply reading more and reading at their "life level" (Tatum).

We use book clubs in human growth & development at NHS. The teacher has selected several texts that support the curriculum covered over the course of the semester. These students, mostly tenth graders, are tested using the Measures of Academic Progress test at the beginning of the year, sometimes the middle, and at the end. Students in the lower percentile of reading levels showed large gains in RIT ranges after participating in the content area book clubs.

Another guaranteed method for increasing student fluency--something recommended by every great literacy thinker and tried and proven in classrooms--is reading to students. This something else that has been tried at NHS. The teachers that do it always come back to me and can't believe that even their hardest kids will sit still and be read to. The students love it, no matter the age. As Howerton and Thomas point out, "story time" is often long gone by high school, but the benefits are not. Hearing someone read expressively from a text can help improve student fluency levels and that can only aid in comprehension of more difficult texts.

So want to see great gains in your student acheivement? Read to them and give them time to read for themselves. That's really all it takes, believe it or not. If you want the hard data, stay tuned. I'm gathering and will post it as I find it. Happy reading!