Explaining an Effective Reading Remediation Program to the Student

Before starting an effective reading remediation program with a struggling reader it is important to explain the program to the student.  You need the student to understand the effective remediation directly teaches and develops essential skills to raise the student to the proficient level.  Make sure the student understands reading remediation is NOT teaching down at lower level but rather building necessary skills to help bring the student up to proficient level. 

The student’s effort and attitude will effect how quickly they learn. Motivated students progress faster than students with a poor attitude. Help the student develop positive attitude toward remediation. Some older students are frustrated with their failure and have developed a negative attitude towards reading.  Remember, this ‘dislike’ of reading is human nature. We tend to ‘dislike’ and avoid activities we find difficult or fail at frequently.

Before beginning an intensive reading remediation program, help the student understand the remediation program. Explain the effective remediation plan to the student. The student needs to realize 1) reading is a complex learned skill, 2) reading problems are common, 3) reading problems have nothing to do with intelligence or ability, 4) difficulties reading are caused by weakness in phonologic processing and other fundamental skills, 5) Effective instruction improves reading skills, and 6) because they are older and have significant background knowledge and higher level skills they can advance rapidly and 7) with some direct work you are confident they will develop proficient reader skills.  Before beginning the structured reading remediation program give the student a quick summary. Use your own words and include the following information:

• Reading is a complex learned skill. Think about some of the other learned skills you enjoy (Give an analogy to an activity the student enjoys: softball, soccer, basketball, piano, dance). If someone hadn’t taught you the essential subskills in the beginning you would probably have difficulties performing the advanced skills.  Think about trying to make a home run if you were holding the bat incorrectly, or playing a song on the piano if you never learned the basic notes, or trying to play a basketball game if you never learned how to dribble or learned the plays. You have had problems reading and spelling because you are missing some essential skills. Share appropriate information from Background Facts about Written English and How Reading Works.

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• Reading print is not a natural biologic process. Reading is complex. It requires looking at man-made, arbitrary black squiggly lines and changing that written code into our spoken language. To read proficiently you need to use the brains natural system for processing sound. These sound or phonologic processing pathways are essential to proficient reading.  If you use other processes, reading will require much effort and remain difficult. Most problems with reading have nothing to do with intelligence or ability but rather by incorrect processing.  Many very intelligent people face difficulty reading. You are likely having problems reading because you are not using these proficient phonologic processors. You probably were never specifically taught the necessary steps for reading proficiently or were taught in a way that accidentally allowed you to learn incorrectly. Share information from Overview and Visual Representation of the Process of Proficient Reading and Students Who Face Difficulties Learning to Read.

• You are not alone in your problems reading. Approximately 69% of the students in this country can NOT read proficiently and 37% can not read at even a basic level. (If it helps show your student the actual statistics from your state located in the Reading Report Card on NAEP website. Direct links to this site can be found at the links page of the Right Track Reading website.)

• The good news is effective instruction improves reading. Even adults who have struggled for years can have dramatic success when they are taught with direct systematic phonics programs.  Effective direct systematic phonics instruction is proven to not only improve reading skills but to actually develop the neural pathways necessary for proficient reading. Effective direct systematic phonics programs are designed to develop necessary phonologic ‘proficient reader’ processing pathways. With an effective direct instruction program and work and practice on your part, you can develop the skills necessary for proficient reading. Show the student some of the research studies where direct intensive phonics instruction improved reading skills and developed phonologic processing pathways in struggling readers. Links to several studies is found on the links page of the Right Track Reading website.

• Because you are older, your experience and background knowledge will help you learn quickly and progress at a much faster pace than a young child just learning to read.  Older students can progress as a very rapid rate.

• It is my job to specifically teach you all the necessary steps to read our complex language.  Before starting, I want you to know that I will stop you if you start to perform a skill incorrectly. It’s my job to make sure you learn the right way and practice correctly. Remember correction is not negative. It helps you learn correctly and develop proficient reader pathways.

• Don’t worry if the first lessons seem too easy. These are the ‘warm up drills’. To develop proficiency it is important to learn and practice correct technique. Repeated drill in fundamental skills is necessary. The initial reading lessons make sure you master the correct techniques and basic fundamentals. Compare these initial reading lessons to the fundamental skills and drills that the student practices with their favorite sport or activity. For example, to be a skilled basketball player you must first learn to dribble and shoot free throws. Repeated drills in basic skills help you become a better player. Even the elite professional players drill fundamental skills. Like any complex skill, mastery of individual components and then repeated practice is necessary to develop proficiency. The initial lessons develop the following fundamental skills that are essential for proficient reading: phonemic awareness, direct automatic knowledge of the phonemic code, smooth blending, proper tracking, attention to detail and proper phonologic processing. 

• The harder you work the quicker you develop the necessary skills and become a proficient reader. I am confident you will excel and learn to read proficiently. Let’s get started!

In summary, share information and help the student understand the remediation program. Help them develop a positive attitude towards remediation.

For additional information see the articles:

Ø      How to Help a Student Who Struggles With Reading Overcome Difficulties and Achieve Reading Success

Ø      Elements of an Effective Reading Remediation Program

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This article was written by Miscese Gagen a mother with a passion for teaching children to read proficiently by using effective methods. She is also a successful reading tutor and author of the reading instructional programs Right Track Reading Lessons and Back on the Right Track Reading Lessons. The purpose of this article is to empower parents and teachers with information on teaching children how to read. We CAN improve reading proficiency, one student at a time!  More information is located at www.righttrackreading.com ~ Copyright 2007 Miscese R. Gagen