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Distinguishing Between Students Who Cannot Read and Those Who Will Not Read

Understanding why a student struggles with reading can help the teacher strategize support and instruction.
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Understanding the differences between students who are successful readers and those that cannot read or chose not to read can help teachers make better decisions about instruction. Student readers can be classified into three broad categories:
  • strategic
  • reluctant
  • remedial
 
Strategic Readers
Strategic readers are able to use strategies, such as prediction, drawing inferences, recognizing cause and effect relationships, summarizing, questioning, and rereading. These strategies permit comprehension of a text at or above the instructional reading level.
 
Reluctant Readers
These readers usually are able to read any material that is interesting to them. Reluctant readers are frustrated by text they find difficult and do not understand how to effectively apply reading strategies to ease their burden.
 
Remedial Readers
These readers typically enter high school reading several grade levels below their peers. They have a limited vocabulary and few internalized strategic reading skills. Often, remedial readers have stalled at or below a fourth-grade reading level and need help reading and understanding information from high school texts.
While strategic readers generally need little content reading instruction, reluctant and remedial readers require reading instruction and intervention in order to succeed in the content area.

Distinguishing Between Students Who Cannot Read
and Those Who Will Not Read
One of the most important steps in helping a struggling reader is determining if a student cannot read or simply will not read. If a school reading specialist is available, request to have the student tested. The information provided by such testing, such as a grade level reading equivalent and instructional reading level, is invaluable.

Students reading independently on a seventh grade reading level might require more text-explicit questions to read and understand expository texts; whereas, remedial readers need more intense modeling of reading skills in order to comprehend the text. 

Informal Reading Assessments
If professional testing is not available, conduct a private informal reading assessment yourself. Organize a series of increasingly difficult passages that reflect the content you teach. Ask the student to read aloud each passage as you note such things as the student's application of decoding skills, fluency, and reading rate. Ask a few carefully chosen recall and inference questions to assess comprehension.

While informal testing is less conclusive than a formal reading assessment, the content teacher can develop an idea of a student's capability and then attempt interventions and instruction to help this student succeed. Regardless of whether a student is labeled as remedial or reluctant, there are specific strategies teachers can apply that will permit these students access to the complex content involved in secondary- level classes. 

Using Assessment Data
Use the information you glean from reading assessments to determine how to manipulate the reading materials in your content area to suit this student's weaknesses. Ultimately, teachers concerned with making the content accessible to reluctant and remedial readers will ease students into the content, expecting more and more independent reading as students become confident and able to read the text.
 
Read more about it…
 
Read the Teaching Today articles listed below for strategies that will help your struggling readers.
 
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