Elements of an Effective

Reading Remediation
Program
To Improve Reading Skills in
Struggling Readers
1. Teach All Skills Directly
 Always explicitly teach the student exactly what they need to
know. Never leave it to chance for a student to discover essential
elements on his own. Direct instruction prevents situations where
the student does not learn simply because they inadvertently
missed essential information or skills. While some students may
be able to learn with indirect, analytic, embedded or incidental
approaches, many do not. Statistically the majority of children
fail to learn to read with indirect and embedded instructional
methods. At best, these methods are inefficient. To maximize
effectiveness and efficiency all skills should be directly taught to
the student. Direct instruction is particularly critical in
remediation as these students previously failed to acquire
necessary skills. Direct instruction helps ensure the student learns
all necessary skills.
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2. Teach In a Systematic Manner
 Present information in a deliberate, pre-planned carefully controlled
manner. This step-by-step instruction allows the student time to
practice and master individual skills before additional information
and complexities are taught. Start simple. Introduce new skills and
knowledge a bit at a time, adding complexity as the student learns.
The English language is complex. Systematic presentation helps
students manage and master the complexities. A carefully designed
program that directly teaches the complete code and progressively
builds skills and knowledge in a direct systematic manner prevents
the chaos and confusion that is created when you toss the entire
complex English language at the student at one time. Systematic
presentation helps the student make sense of our complex written
language. The purpose of a carefully controlled systematic
presentation is to help the student learn.
3. Always Provide Immediate Correction
 Do not allow the student to learn or practice skills
incorrectly. Immediate correction is especially critical in
remediation. Correction is necessary to help the student
extinguish incorrect approaches and develop necessary
skills. It is a disservice to allow a student to perform a
skill incorrectly. It is always easier to learn the correct
way than to try and unlearn incorrect habits. If the
student can not correct himself, or does not understand
then you need to teach them the skill they are lacking. As
the teacher, it is your job to ensure the student is learning
correctly. Correction is NOT a negative action but rather a
positive opportunity to help the student learn correctly.
4. Develop Phonemic Awareness
 Directly develop phonemic awareness skills. Although
some children and adults have a definite natural
phonological weakness, phonemic awareness (PA) can be
taught and learned. The scientific evidence proves that PA
instruction has a significant positive effect on both
reading and spelling. Directly teach students how to hear,
recognize and manipulate sounds within words. To
maximize effectiveness the program needs to directly link
the phonemic awareness skills to print. When remediating
older students it is particularly important not only to
develop PA but to link these oral PA skills directly to the
printed phonemic code.
 
5. Develop and Engrain Proper Tracking
 It is essential the student develops and engrains proper directional
tracking where they process letters in order from left to right. It is
especially important to directly teach and emphasize proper
directional tracking to remedial readers. Many struggling readers
make frequent tracking errors. They try to look at all the letters at
once or hop around searching for words or portions of words they
recognize. Overcoming these incorrect strategies requires direct work
on proper tracking skills. Physical pointing, with either the finger or
other pointer, is a highly effective way to directly teach this critical
skill. The multisensory benefits of having the student physically move
their finger or pointer (kinetic motion) develops and engrains this
essential subskill. Especially in remediation, you need to ensure the
student processes all the letters in a word in order from left to right.
Teach this essential skill until proper tracking is automatic.
6. Teach Smooth Blending
 The skill of smoothly blending individual sounds together into words is
critical. The student needs to learn how to say the sounds smoothly
without pausing between the sounds. The instructor needs to always
demonstrate the correct blending technique of not pausing between
the sounds. Choppy/segmented sounding out makes it very difficult
for some students to push the sounds back together into a word. They
might know all the individual sounds but by the time they get to the
end of the word with separated choppy sounding out they forget what
sounds they just said or add in extra sounds when they try to put it all
together. If the student keeps the sounds smoothly ‘hooked’ together,
the word doesn’t ‘fall apart’. If the student has any difficulty with
this essential skill, it is important to directly teach smooth blending
7. Teach the Complete Phonetic Code
 Directly teach the complete phonetic code. All necessary phonograms need to be directly and systematically
taught. The phonograms are the alphabetic letters or groups of letters that symbolize the smallest speech
sounds of English. The student must have knowledge of the direct print to sound relationship. Although it is best
to start with the simple and most frequently encountered sounds, it is not adequate to stop there. It is essential
to teach the complete code necessary to master our phonemic based written English language. This includes
teaching: the sounds written with more than one letter (/th/ /sh/ /ch/ /oy/..); the multiple sounds for the
vowels (o=/o/, /oa/ and /u/); the numerous vowel-combinations (ee, ea, oa, oi, ai, ou…); the multiple sounds
for certain letters/combinations of letters ( s = /s/ in sit & /z/ in has); the r-controlled vowel combinations (ar,
or, ir, ur, air, ear…etc) and other complexities (ph=/f/).
  
 The student needs to look at the black printed letter(s) and immediately and directly know and process the
correct sound. Teaching activities should establish this direct accurate print = correct sound efficient
processing. The sound knowledge needs to be direct, automatic, and phonetically correct print to sound. Avoid
indirect processing as it is inefficient and makes reading harder for the student. For example, activities that link
the sight of printed letters to a word/object (‘b’ = book), or link letters or sounds to a picture ‘b’ or /b/ = 
are indirect processing.
  
 A well designed direct systematic phonics program teaches the complete phonetic code including the multiple
sounds for the vowels, the consonant digraphs, vowel combinations, r-controlled vowels and other complexities.
It uses direct and accurate print to sound instruction. It includes systematic presentation and allows the student
time to practice so that the sound knowledge is automatic. An effective program helps the student acquire
automatic, direct knowledge of the complete phonemic code, an essential skill for proficient phonologic
processing.
 
8. Use Targeted Multisensory Processes
 Multisensory processes refer to utilizing the different senses to aid learning. The general concept is we learn
and remember more when we involve multiple senses including visual processes (pictures, ‘seeing’ images),
auditory/oral processes (listening and talking), and physical/kinetic processes (motion, hands on, doing).
Multisensory instruction applies two or more of these senses to enhance learning. However, to be effective
in developing reading skills these multisensory activities must be carefully targeted. Multi-sensory
approaches in themselves will not help a student learn to read unless they directly build the exact skills
necessary for proficient reading. Effective multisensory activities directly teach correct directional
tracking, develop phonemic awareness, create a direct and automatic link between print and sound, teach
smooth blending, and establish correct proficient phonologic processing. It is not the multisensory process
itself but the application of these multi-sensory processes to the development of specific skills that is key to
enhanced learning.
 In summary, multi-sensory activities are effective tools in helping students learn to read. However, these
activities must be carefully designed and targeted to directly teach and reinforce the skill/knowledge
necessary for proficient reading. While students may naturally have specific learning strengths and
weaknesses, proficient reading requires the development of phonologic processing pathways. Effective
reading programs use a variety of carefully designed and targeted multi-sensory activities to directly teach
and develop the skills necessary for proficient reading.
9. Emphasize Attention to Detail
 To read proficiently, the student needs to learn to pay
attention to detail. Teach the student to carefully look at
all the sounds within a word and stop him immediately if
he skips details. This emphasis on attention to detail is
especially important with reading remediation as you need
to extinguish the old habit of not looking at all the details
and replace it with the careful attention to detail. Proper
tracking is also intertwined into the attention to detail
skill. An effective remediation program should be
designed to directly teach, develop and reinforce this
critical skill that is essential for skilled reading.
10. Develop Phonologic Processing (Use a Direct
Systematic Phonics Approach)

 The student needs to learn to read by using phonologic processing. The most effective way to ensure students
convert print to sound and develop the phonologic processing necessary for proficient reading is to teach them
with a strong phonics-first direct systematic phonics program. Directly teach students to convert letters into
sounds and blend these sounds into words. Validated research shows this type of direct-systematic-phonics
instruction has significant benefits for children in K through 6th grade and in children having difficulty learning to
read. [1] True phonics based programs teach students printed letters represent specific sounds and how to blend
these sounds into words. To maximize effectiveness, you need to teach the student explicitly and directly in a
systematic and complete manner. An important note: this absolutely is not a blanket endorsement for all
‘phonics’ programs. Many programs labeled ‘phonics’ use indirect, embedded methods or are in fact just sight
word programs with a token addition of a few sounds. Other ‘phonics’ programs are incomplete or rely on
indirect memorization of long complex lists of rules.
  
 Remediation is not only teaching the correct skills but also helping the student overcome old incorrect habits. By
design remediation programs need to insure the student develops and uses correct techniques. Teaching
strategies must also prevent the use of incorrect strategies. Remember phonologic processing is more than
knowing the sounds. Efficient phonologic processing requires integration of direct knowledge of the complete
phonemic code, proper directional tracking, smooth blending, and attention to detail.
  
11. Ensure Phonologic Processing -
Avoid Sight/Whole Word Reading
 It is important to avoid teaching a sight word approach where the student learns to “read” by trying to recognize what
whole words “look like”. Many students who struggle with reading have adopted this incorrect ‘whole word’ visual
word recognition strategy. Remediation must focus on eliminating this detrimental habit of trying to visually recognize
the entire word.
  
 A ‘whole word’ approach to reading fails because there are too many words and words are too similar to learn by
overall visual appearance. Initially, a simple short list can be successfully “read” by whole word strategies and
guessing. For example, a short list of visually different words like …a, the, cat, ball, house, green. This whole word
identification “instant reading” may be exciting at first but can encourage the child to develop incorrect reading
strategies where they think “reading” equates to simply looking at what the word looks like, recognizing a few letters,
and then “word guessing”. Some children, especially those with strong visual memory skills, are very good at this in
the beginning. However, as vocabulary expands visually similar words are encountered. The student who has adopted a
whole word reading strategy is certain to fail. Not only are there absolutely too many words but words are too visually
similar. A child starts school with something like a 24,000 word speaking and listening vocabulary. His vocabulary is up
above 40,000 by 3rd grade. It is impossible to learn such an extensive vocabulary visually as whole words. Remember,
only 26 letters make up all those words. To read proficiently, the student must look at each and every letter in order
and process it phonologically. The neural imaging studies confirm this. The linguistic fact is our written language is
NOT made up of whole word “pictures” but sounds that blend together to form spoken words. In linguistic history,
written alphabets replaced pictographs precisely because there were too many words to represent by pictures.
12. Teach Phonetically Accurate Representations of Print - Avoid
teaching “word families” and “blended consonants” as unique units

 Use phonetically accurate representations of print. Avoid teaching with inaccurate

representations of print such as word families (at, ig, it, am & the hundreds of other
possibilities) and blended consonant clusters (bl, cr, fl, sc, sl, bl & the other 60+ possible
beginning and ending blended consonant sounds) as unique letter/sound units. There is no
need to do this. All it does is add hundreds of additional combinations for the student to
learn. Teach the necessary single sounds and blending skills and the student can then read all
possible combinations. For example by knowing 6 sounds (a e m n d t) and developing
blending skills the student can sound out 10 different common combinations (am, an, ad, at,
and, em, en, ed, et, end). At best, the teaching of blended consonant and word family units
is an inefficient and indirect way to teach the necessary blending skill. However, the serious
concern is these incorrect representations actually create reading difficulties in some
students.
 Problems arise when students adopt a strategy of trying to memorize the cluster groups as a visual unit instead of
processing each sound. Not only is the sheer number of combinations overwhelming but the visual similarities
between the clusters make visual “what it looks like” strategies very difficult for a child to master (such as bl, pl,
lb, ld). In addition, if students hop around within words looking for familiar clusters and word families, they often
confuse the left to right tracking and sounding out skills that are absolutely necessary. They inappropriately pull
out word family combinations from words. They pull out ‘it’ from wait, ‘in’ from coin, and ‘ag’ from page. These
blended consonant clusters and word family units encourage some students to not look at all the letters. By
overlooking the necessary attention to detail, students who learn with consonant clusters frequently insert
blended sounds when they are not present. They read camp as ‘clamp’, tack as ‘track’, fake as ‘flake’, tide as
‘tride’, set as ‘sent’. Because they learned the cluster as a ‘hunk’ they actually ‘see’ the cluster when it is not
there. These difficulties are all actual errors made by students who were taught word family and consonant cluster
techniques.
  
 It is simpler, more effective and prevents potential reading problems to teach students the necessary sounds and
develop phonemic awareness and blending skills so they are able to combine any letters. Students often do need
direct practice the blended consonants sounds as individual sounds within these consonant clusters are more
difficult to distinguish. For example, many children hear the first sound of ‘grip’ as /gr/ instead of /g/. These
students need to develop phonemic awareness to distinguish the separate sounds. Always teach the blended
consonants as processing and blending of the individual sounds NOT by learning cluster units. For example, teach
flap as blending /f/ /l/ /a/ /p/ NOT /fl/ /a/ /p/. Same with the common “word families”; teach the blending of
sounds /s/ /a/ /t/ NOT /s/ /at/.
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13. Guided Oral Reading is Essential
 Guided reading is reading out loud to an adult, or other proficient reader, with feedback. This is NOT
independent silent reading. The key part is ‘guided’. Correction and instruction helps the student
learn and improve skills. The validated research shows guided out loud reading has significant
beneficial impact on word recognition, fluency and comprehension across a range of grade levels.[2]
Guided reading benefits both good and struggling readers. In contrast, silent independent reading may
not actually improve reading skills for beginning readers. Numerous studies show the best readers
read the most and poor readers read the least. However, these studies are all correlational. It may be
the good readers simply spend more time reading. Although it sounds like a good idea to have
students read more alone, there is no research evidence showing independent silent reading actually
improves reading skills. If a poor reader sits flipping pages and struggling with the reading and making
errors, their skills will not improve, no matter how much time they spend. In contrast, guided oral
reading instruction helps the student improve skills. This is NOT saying students should not read to
themselves, or there are no benefits for children looking at books, or students do not need to read
more. Rather, it says to improve skills, particularly in learning stages, students need to read out loud
with feedback. At more advanced levels, silent reading does improve the higher skills of fluency,
comprehension and vocabulary.
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14. Develop Fluency
 Fluency is the ‘fast’ or ‘automatic’ reading where words appear to be almost instantly
recognized. Fluent readers read quickly and accurately without effort. Fluency is the
objective for phonologic decoding. The critical information to keep in mind for
effective reading instruction is that fluency or ‘fast reading’ is developed word by word
based on repeated accurate phonologic processing of specific words. To build fluency,
we first have to be sure the student is reading by correct, accurate phonologic
processing (sounding out the word correctly). This foundation of correct phonologic
processing is mandatory in order for the student to develop fluency. Students do not
become ‘fluent readers’ overnight but rather build fluency word-by-word over time.
With repeated practice correctly reading individual words, the student adds to their
storehouse of ‘fast’/fluent words. Effective tools to directly build fluency include
guided oral reading and a program of spelling/writing words by sound.
15. Teach Strategies for Handling Multisyllable
Words

 The majority of English words are multisyllable so it is critical to

read them effectively. It is more difficult to process multisyllable
words. It requires more advanced strategies and techniques than
decoding simple one and two syllable words. Many struggling
readers have difficulty with multisyllable words. A remediation
program should include both direct instruction and guided practice
in handling multisyllable words. Direct practice with common
affixes is also effective in helping students learn how to handle
multisyllable words. If conducted correctly, spelling can be used as
an effective tool for learning how to process these longer words.
16. Expand Vocabulary Knowledge
 Expanding a student’s vocabulary knowledge is important
to reading development. Vocabulary instruction leads to
gains in comprehension (noted by the National Reading
Panel). A comprehensive reading program needs to include
vocabulary development. The student can acquire
vocabulary both incidentally through exposure and
through direct vocabulary instruction. It has been shown
that various techniques designed to directly build
vocabulary are effective in expanding vocabulary
knowledge and improving reading comprehension. Optimal
learning occurs when vocabulary instruction involves a
combination of different techniques.
17. Directly Develop Reading Comprehension Skills

 Comprehension is deriving meaning from text. Comprehension is a complex higher level

skill. You can take direct actions to help students develop specific comprehension skills and
strategies. While readers acquire some comprehension strategies informally, explicit or
formal instruction in the application of comprehension strategies has been shown to be
highly effective in enhancing understanding (from the Report of the National Reading
Panel). These strategies help students think about, remember and understand what they
are reading. These comprehension strategies are effective for non-impaired readers.
Remember, if the student has decoding difficulties you need to first establish the necessary
fundamental decoding skills of proficient phonologic processing. Otherwise the difficulty
decoding will likely inhibit the development of the more advanced comprehension. Some
students have no difficulty decoding but struggle with comprehension. These students need
direct instruction in developing comprehension skills. Remediation programs should include
direct instruction in developing comprehension skills. The majority of comprehension
development can be accomplished as a part of guided reading.
18. Practice reading: Read! Read! Read!
 In general the student should read level appropriate material. Obviously, ‘appropriate’ is a relative term and the student’s reading
level will change and advance as the student gets older and as their skills advance. The appropriateness of material also varies
depending if they are reading alone or reading outloud with feedback. Multiple formal methods and systems for evaluating and rating
‘reading level’ exist. Most are based on readability factors such as vocabulary, number of multisyllable words, sentence length and
structure, grammar, and complexity of story plot. A few rating systems consider suitability of the content. Many of these systems
provide numerical ratings to evaluate and compare books. These technical methods attempt to provide objective information on the
actual ‘reading level’ of a particular book. The reading level then needs to be considered relative to the individuals’ skills to
determine what is ‘appropriate’ for the student. In addition to the formal methods, you can simply listen to your student read and then
adjust material to fit.
 The following simple rule of thumb can be used to help you determine if a book is the appropriate reading level for a particular student
at a certain time and situation:
 Independent level: This is material the student can read with few errors. If the student is making only a few errors on a page the
material is at the independent level. This ‘easy’ or independent level is ideal for silent reading.
 Instructional level: The learning level material is where the student reads with some errors and skill building. If the student is making
4 or more errors per page the material is considered instructional level and should be read to an adult as guided reading material. This
instructional or learning level is ideal for guided reading so you can help the student develop skills.
 Frustration level: This is where the material is ‘too hard’. The student makes frequent errors in every paragraph. The reading level is
really too advanced for the student. It is best to avoid frustration level material by finding another book. If frustration level material
must be read, it is should be read as guided reading with assistance.
 When a student learns to read proficiently, they should be able to read all grade level material. In other words, a 6 th grader may have
difficulty reading a college level physics textbook but should not struggle with their middle school science textbook or other classroom
material. If grade level material is consistently not ‘appropriate’ for your student, chances are they are lacking necessary decoding
skills and need direct instruction in developing the necessary phonologic processing skills.
  
19. Share the joy of reading

 And as always, share the joy of reading. Reading is wonderful. Students have
a natural excitement about reading that can be tapped into. Teaching
students to read using a direct systematic phonics program does not preclude
enjoyment and excitement with reading. In fact, it is the ability to read well
that removes roadblocks and provides the route to reading enjoyment. The
often quoted observation ‘good readers’ like to read and ‘poor readers’ do
not enjoy reading is absolutely true. However, this is a correlational, not a
cause and effect, relationship. This tendency to spend time and enjoy what
we are good at is simply human nature. It is difficult to ‘enjoy’ an activity you
don’t do very well, make frequent frustrating errors and can only accomplish
with difficulty and work. When students learn how to read they are able to
become ‘engaged’ and ‘excited’ about reading.
Thank you!!!