Explicit Reading Instruction

By the fourth grade, and each grade thereafter, reading instruction time is reduced. Students are now reading to learn. Class instruction time now centers on content area learning, rather than reading instruction learning. Students who have not achieved reading skills, necessary to successfully read and complete content area lessons, are not only frustrated but anxious about daily assignments. Obviously, these students need additional reading instruction, to bring them up to their current grade level.

Implementing a remedial program, using explicit reading strategies, will benefit these students.

Aspects of explicit reading instruction are:

- Determine the student’s instructional level in reading, whether by aa district assessment or an informal reading inventory,
- Analyze the results , for example the assessment or inventory may show a particular student does not know long “a” sounds or has a limited sight word vocabulary,
- Set instructional goals for your student to master, within a specific period of time,
- Demonstrate the targeted skills to be learned to your students,
- Provide positive reinforcement to correct responses from your students,
- Log daily improvements and document targeted skills that need to Re-taught.

Children in the upper elementary grades, who are having difficulty reading feel discouraged and often have poor self esteem. These students avoid reading aloud during class and rarely participate in classroom discussions. Early interventions to remediate reading difficulties, will not only help students learn to read better, but also help them achieve academic success.