Accommodations to Support Reading Comprehension

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Many of the students on my caseload have goals in reading comprehension. When a student gets to eighth grade and still is below grade level in reading comprehension, it feels super overwhelming to try to keep them progressing with their academics because reading comprehension is one area that affects them in every class. When you think of reading comprehension, you think of ELA; but think of all the reading that is required in social studies and science. Even being able to comprehend word problems in math class. Reading Comprehension is a skill that follows students into all of their classes.

Here are some accommodations and modification ideas for you to try with your students who are below grade level in reading comprehension.

Graphic Organizers

Using graphic organizers to organize the information presented in a text, or working on a plot diagram with a fictional reading assignment, can help your students with their reading comprehension. This is something that you can do with them and scaffold to help them keep track of what they have read. Using the plot diagram can help them with sequencing and cause and effect.

Extended Time

Allowing students extra time to complete reading comprehension assignments is a great option when you are unable to modify the reading passage. This is a great accommodation for state testing (if offered).

Text to Speech

Many students who struggle with reading comprehension are stronger with their listening comprehension skills. If this describes the student that you’re working with, try letting them listen to the reading audibly. You can find audio books for most novels on YouTube, or you can read the story aloud. There are also Google Extensions that can read aloud webpages and pdfs for you.

Pre-teach Vocabulary

Pre-teaching vocabulary can help students comprehend the reading as they go. Spend a little time highlighting words in the text that your students may not know. You can then preview these words and their definitions with your students. You can do this as a whole class or a small group.

Activate Background Knowledge

Activating background knowledge is a proven strategy to help with reading comprehension. Filling out a KWL chart, or simply having a planned conversation with your students about the topic and having them share information they may know are all useful.

Small Group Instruction

This would be more of a modification, but when a student struggles with reading comprehension, sometimes they require small group remediation of skills. See my blog post 4 Middle School Reading Resources for some websites that offer lesson plans.