What instructional strategies can best assist struggling adolescent readers?

A new study, A Synthesis of Reading Interventions and Effects on Reading Comprehension Outcomes for Older Struggling Readers, seeks to answer that question. It’s behind a paywall (there are different ways to access papers behind a paywall that may or may not work).

Based on my quick review of the study, three instructional strategies seem to stand-out for their effectiveness:

Reciprocal teaching (including a specific reference for ELLs) in cooperative learning groups, explicit reading strategy instruction,  and the use of graphic organizers.

One other interesting part of the study was that their description of “reading strategies” for comprehension seemed similar to the ones identified by the National Reading Panel.  Here’s how the paper listed them:

Good readers used the following skills and strategies: (a) reading words rapidly and accurately; (b) noting the structure and organization of text; (c) monitoring their understanding while reading; (d) using summaries; (e) making predictions, checking them as they read, and revising and evaluating them as needed; (g) integrating what they know about the topic with new learning; and (h) making inferences and using visualization

I’m adding this info to The Best Posts On Reading Strategies & Comprehension.

Thanks to Evidence In Brief for the tip. Here’s a comment that they make about the study:

The findings suggest that secondary readers benefit more from socially and cognitively engaging instruction than from additional reading periods or technology.