Reading Comprehension interventions

Does the student understand the exercise goal/task?

Observe the student as they work through the exercise demo to determine where their understanding may be breaking down. If the student is demonstrating difficulty, take the following steps to help encourage accuracy, confidence, and independence.

1. Set a clear goal.
• Set a goal in student-friendly language prior to beginning the exercise. The goal should be positively stated, written using clear and concise language, and be observable and measurable.
• Review the goal with the student and check for understanding.
2. Introduce and model how the student will monitor their goal.
• Choose or create a self-monitoring chart for students to track their progress over time. Use the chart to motivate, encourage, and allow the student to practice self-monitoring. Include the goal on the self-monitoring chart.
• Explain and model the steps needed to complete and interpret the self-monitoring chart.
• Practice completing and interpreting the self-monitoring chart with the student.
3. Clarify the expectations by modeling and reviewing the specific steps required to complete the exercise.
• Review the steps of the activity with the student.
• Model or explain the steps of the activity.
• Practice completion of the task with the student.
• Encourage the student to explain or show you how to complete the task.
• Monitor independent practice and provide feedback and prompts as needed.

Is the student on task and engaged with activity?

When a student is struggling to stay on-task and engaged, consider the strategies below as a starting point to increasing student engagement.

• Adjust the pacing or duration of instruction.
• Provide built-in breaks as well as allow the student to request breaks as needed. Involve the student in determining their preferred and most successful work schedule. Some students prefer longer work periods and longer breaks while others prefer shorter work periods and more frequent breaks. Adjust as needed to increase student momentum, success, and confidence.
• Consider student motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. How to motivate the student is largely dependent on their learning needs, preferences, and reinforcers. Student observation, reinforcer surveys, rapport building, and parent and student questionnaires can be helpful in determining how to increase student motivation.

Are there words in the task (prompt and response) that the student doesn’t know?

• Define and review key vocabulary used in the task.
• Display key vocabulary words and definitions.
• Promote student practice with vocabulary sentence strips, guided notes, response cards, or notecards.

Is the student noticing details in the picture to provide clues?

• Provide the student with multiple opportunities to practice responding to pictures outside of this activity.
• Model how to interpret information displayed via pictures.
• Think aloud as you look at a picture of a scene or event. Describe the environment, characters, and events that are taking place in the picture. Explain the main idea of the picture and the details that support it.
• Have the student practice identifying details that support the main idea of a picture independently, with peers or teacher support.

Is the student struggling with sentence building?

• Using the exercise demo, work through some sentences together. First, build several sentences, modeling how to approach the task. Think aloud about how you reject wrong answers and select correct ones. Then, have the student build several sentences. Ask them to explain their process to you, and provide supportive coaching.
• Provide multiple opportunities to practice sentence building using the model similar to the Art Walk activity (fill-in-the-blank, guided writing prompt).
• Practice a sentence starter by beginning the sentence for the student using the sentence building strip. Begin by building the sentence starter with the word strips. Have the student complete the sentence with the word strips. Verbally model and explain how you are building the sentence. This should be primarily done in a textual or visual format as that is the expected behavior of the student.
• Print or write sentences on strips of paper and cut into segments (at least 1 word on each segment). Model building the sentence by putting the segments in the correct order while you state the steps to complete the task aloud. After demonstrating how to complete the sentence building activity, practice with the student and then allow the student to practice independently with supervision. After this practice, consider extending the activity by having them practice with a partner or multiple students receiving the same intervention. Provide immediate positive and corrective feedback as needed.

Does the student understand the exercise goal/task?

Observe the student as they work through the exercise demo to determine where their understanding may be breaking down. If the student is demonstrating difficulty, take the following steps to help encourage accuracy, confidence, and independence.

1. Set a clear goal.
• Set a goal in student-friendly language prior to beginning the exercise. The goal should be positively stated, written using clear and concise language, and be observable and measurable.
• Review the goal with the student and check for understanding.
2. Introduce and model how the student will monitor their goal.
• Choose or create a self-monitoring chart for students to track their progress over time. Use the chart to motivate, encourage, and allow the student to practice self-monitoring. Include the goal on the self-monitoring chart.
• Explain and model the steps needed to complete and interpret the self-monitoring chart.
• Practice completing and interpreting the self-monitoring chart with the student.
3. Clarify the expectations by modeling and reviewing the specific steps required to complete the exercise.
• Review the steps of the activity with the student.
• Model or explain the steps of the activity.
• Practice completion of the task with the student.
• Encourage the student to explain or show you how to complete the task.
• Monitor independent practice and provide feedback and prompts as needed.

Is the student on task and engaged with activity?

When a student is struggling to stay on-task and engaged, consider the strategies below as a starting point to increasing student engagement.

• Adjust the pacing or duration of instruction.
• Provide built-in breaks as well as allow the student to request breaks as needed. Involve the student in determining their preferred and most successful work schedule. Some students prefer longer work periods and longer breaks while others prefer shorter work periods and more frequent breaks. Adjust as needed to increase student momentum, success, and confidence.
• Consider student motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. How to motivate the student is largely dependent on their learning needs, preferences, and reinforcers. Student observation, reinforcer surveys, rapport building, and parent and student questionnaires can be helpful in determining how to increase student motivation.

Are there words in the task (prompt and response) that the student doesn’t know?

• Define and review key vocabulary used in the task.
• Display key vocabulary words and definitions.
• Promote student practice with vocabulary sentence strips, guided notes, response cards, or notecards.

Is the student identifying facts or key details?

• Provide the student with multiple opportunities to practice identifying facts from short passages, tables, and schedules.
• When presenting the student with a reading passage, table, or schedule, provide a graphic organizer for the student to track 3 key details prior to identifying the main idea. If needed, you can use the graphic organizers from the Data Stream Graphic Organizer Worksheet.

Does the student understand the exercise goal/task?

Observe the student as they work through the exercise demo to determine where their understanding may be breaking down. If the student is demonstrating difficulty, take the following steps to help encourage accuracy, confidence, and independence.

1. Set a clear goal.
• Set a goal in student-friendly language prior to beginning the exercise. The goal should be positively stated, written using clear and concise language, and be observable and measurable.
• Review the goal with the student and check for understanding.
2. Introduce and model how the student will monitor their goal.
• Choose or create a self-monitoring chart for students to track their progress over time. Use the chart to motivate, encourage, and allow the student to practice self-monitoring. Include the goal on the self-monitoring chart.
• Explain and model the steps needed to complete and interpret the self-monitoring chart.
• Practice completing and interpreting the self-monitoring chart with the student.
3. Clarify the expectations by modeling and reviewing the specific steps required to complete the exercise.
• Review the steps of the activity with the student.
• Model or explain the steps of the activity.
• Practice completion of the task with the student.
• Encourage the student to explain or show you how to complete the task.
• Monitor independent practice and provide feedback and prompts as needed.

Is the student on task and engaged with activity?

When a student is struggling to stay on-task and engaged, consider the strategies below as a starting point to increasing student engagement.

• Adjust the pacing or duration of instruction.
• Provide built-in breaks as well as allow the student to request breaks as needed. Involve the student in determining their preferred and most successful work schedule. Some students prefer longer work periods and longer breaks while others prefer shorter work periods and more frequent breaks. Adjust as needed to increase student momentum, success, and confidence.
• Consider student motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. How to motivate the student is largely dependent on their learning needs, preferences, and reinforcers. Student observation, reinforcer surveys, rapport building, and parent and student questionnaires can be helpful in determining how to increase student motivation.

Are there words in the task (prompt and response) that the student doesn’t know?

• Define and review key vocabulary used in the task.
• Display key vocabulary words and definitions.
• Promote student practice with vocabulary sentence strips, guided notes, response cards, or notecards.

Is the student noticing details in the graphic organizers?

• Provide the student with multiple opportunities to practice reading various types of graphic organizers outside of this activity. Use the Data Stream Graphic Organizer Worksheet.
• Model how to interpret information displayed via graphic organizers.
• Think aloud as you look at graphic organizers. Identify key details or facts.
• Have the student practice completing graphic organizers independently, with a peer, and/or with teacher support.

Does the student understand the exercise goal/task?

Observe the student as they work through the exercise demo to determine where their understanding may be breaking down. If the student is demonstrating difficulty, take the following steps to help encourage accuracy, confidence, and independence.

1. Set a clear goal.
• Set a goal in student-friendly language prior to beginning the exercise. The goal should be positively stated, written using clear and concise language, and be observable and measurable.
• Review the goal with the student and check for understanding.
2. Introduce and model how the student will monitor their goal.
• Choose or create a self-monitoring chart for students to track their progress over time. Use the chart to motivate, encourage, and allow the student to practice self-monitoring. Include the goal on the self-monitoring chart.
• Explain and model the steps needed to complete and interpret the self-monitoring chart.
• Practice completing and interpreting the self-monitoring chart with the student.
3. Clarify the expectations by modeling and reviewing the specific steps required to complete the exercise.
• Review the steps of the activity with the student.
• Model or explain the steps of the activity.
• Practice completion of the task with the student.
• Encourage the student to explain or show you how to complete the task.
• Monitor independent practice and provide feedback and prompts as needed.

Is the student on task and engaged with activity?

When a student is struggling to stay on-task and engaged, consider the strategies below as a starting point to increasing student engagement.

• Adjust the pacing or duration of instruction.
• Provide built-in breaks as well as allow the student to request breaks as needed. Involve the student in determining their preferred and most successful work schedule. Some students prefer longer work periods and longer breaks while others prefer shorter work periods and more frequent breaks. Adjust as needed to increase student momentum, success, and confidence.
• Consider student motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. How to motivate the student is largely dependent on their learning needs, preferences, and reinforcers. Student observation, reinforcer surveys, rapport building, and parent and student questionnaires can be helpful in determining how to increase student motivation.

Are there words in the task (prompt and response) that the student doesn’t know?

• Define and review key vocabulary used in the task.
• Display key vocabulary words and definitions.
• Promote student practice with vocabulary sentence strips, guided notes, response cards, or notecards.

Is the student struggling with retelling after reading a short paragraph or passage?

• Provide students with multiple opportunities to practice and respond to short passages. A short passage is typically 3 to 5 sentences. After the student reads the passage, have them tell you 1 key detail they remember.
• When the student is fluent in naming 1 key detail across a few short passages, ask them to tell you 2 and then 3 respectively.
• If the student is still struggling with a short passage, consider having them read 1 sentence and state 1 detail.

Does the student understand the exercise goal/task?

Observe the student as they work through the exercise demo to determine where their understanding may be breaking down. If the student is demonstrating difficulty, take the following steps to help encourage accuracy, confidence, and independence.

1. Set a clear goal.
• Set a goal in student-friendly language prior to beginning the exercise. The goal should be positively stated, written using clear and concise language, and be observable and measurable.
• Review the goal with the student and check for understanding.
2. Introduce and model how the student will monitor their goal.
• Choose or create a self-monitoring chart for students to track their progress over time. Use the chart to motivate, encourage, and allow the student to practice self-monitoring. Include the goal on the self-monitoring chart.
• Explain and model the steps needed to complete and interpret the self-monitoring chart.
• Practice completing and interpreting the self-monitoring chart with the student.
3. Clarify the expectations by modeling and reviewing the specific steps required to complete the exercise.
• Review the steps of the activity with the student.
• Model or explain the steps of the activity.
• Practice completion of the task with the student.
• Encourage the student to explain or show you how to complete the task.
• Monitor independent practice and provide feedback and prompts as needed.

Is the student on task and engaged with activity?

When a student is struggling to stay on-task and engaged, consider the strategies below as a starting point to increasing student engagement.

• Adjust the pacing or duration of instruction.
• Provide built-in breaks as well as allow the student to request breaks as needed. Involve the student in determining their preferred and most successful work schedule. Some students prefer longer work periods and longer breaks while others prefer shorter work periods and more frequent breaks. Adjust as needed to increase student momentum, success, and confidence.
• Consider student motivation. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. How to motivate the student is largely dependent on their learning needs, preferences, and reinforcers. Student observation, reinforcer surveys, rapport building, and parent and student questionnaires can be helpful in determining how to increase student motivation.

Are there words in the task (prompt and response) that the student doesn’t know?

• Define and review key vocabulary used in the task.
• Display key vocabulary words and definitions.
• Promote student practice with vocabulary sentence strips, guided notes, response cards, or notecards.

Is the student struggling to identify words to complete a sentence?

• Provide additional practice with the fill-in-the-blank activity using a paired word bank or response options, guided writing prompts, and guided notes.
• Provide additional practice and support with acquisition of vocabulary.
• Utilize sentence starters at the beginning of writing tasks.
• Allow the student to access a word log related to the task during writing activities.
• Model and practice writing and complete sentences with the student.