Accommodations for Students who Struggle with Reading Comprehension

What some teachers I work with don’t realize is that students who have deficits in reading comprehension are affected in all of their classes, not just ELA. Most classes, especially as you get into middle school and high school, require you to do independent reading of some kind. Often reading out of a text book in social studies or science, reading novels in ELA, and even comprehending word problems in math.

Here are some tips that you can use to help support your students:

Read Aloud

Whether you read the passage or text out loud to them yourself, find an audio book, or use text to speech software; students who have stronger listening comprehension than reading comprehension could benefit from listening to text.

This is great for when students are expected to complete reading at home.

Extra Time

If a student who has deficits in reading comprehension is struggling with understanding a passage, they are probably going to have to read it multiple times. You should not expect these students to successfully complete the work in the same amount of time as a typical peers.

Pre-Teach Vocabulary & KWL Charts

This will help a student begin an assignment ready to learn with some of the necessary background knowledge they may need to be successful. A KWL chart may not be appropriate. Use whatever background teaching that you feel matches the needs of you students would be helpful.

What strategies do you use in your classroom to support students who struggle with Reading Comprehension?

Comment Below!

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