Supporting Older Students

A learner’s journey to becoming a fluent reader sometimes extends beyond the early elementary classroom. However, by grade 4, reading standards shift to focus on language comprehension and “reading to learn,” despite some older students still needing support in mastering foundational skills, as they were not taught to read effectively in the early grades. To address older learners’ literacy development, educators must ensure students are successful with all strands of Scarborough’s Reading Rope by explicitly focusing on language comprehension with grade-level text in core instruction and incorporating additional instruction of word recognition skills for students who need it.

Across the country, older students are experiencing reading difficulties at increasing rates, largely due to widened gaps in foundational literacy skills. The data supports this trend, as 2022 NAEP scores revealed only 31% of 8th grade students are at or above a proficient reading level. However, a focus on multicomponent interventions (word recognition and language comprehension) have proven to have a positive impact in supporting older students' ability to read. By explicitly teaching foundational literacy skills to the older learners who need that support, they can unlock the code and strengthen their ability to comprehend grade-level text.

Vision Setting and Building Buy-In

Fostering a common understanding of the importance of building foundational literacy skills in older learners can help your school community rally around supporting all students to become strong readers.

Kansas City Girls Prep Academy (KCGPA), a middle and high school, united their team around a vision for strengthening their older students’ foundational literacy skills by engaging in early literacy research. “We are trained as educators to address misconceptions with students, and I see teachers trying and trying to do that, but we can't keep repeating that process without considering something more fundamental that we need to differently, and that's teaching our kids how to read,” shares Annie Krieg, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at KCGPA. Often middle and high school teacher training does not focus on learning about the research of early literacy and foundational skills, so teachers can feel unequipped to teach these reading components. KCGPA literacy teachers participated in professional development on the science of reading led by Teach Like A Champion to build their content knowledge and create a vision for all components of literacy instruction.

To align teachers around a common “why” for supporting older students’ reading abilities, Collegiate Academies outlined a reading vision to aid “all learners [in becoming] powerful readers across content areas, equipped with skills needed to excel in high school and beyond.” Their vision lays out research-based reading assessments, curricula, and intervention strategies to equip older learners with the skills to excel both in the classroom and beyond:

Strategically Assessing the Components of Reading

Along with building content knowledge about the research and buy-in around a shared vision, it is also essential for schools to have the tools to assess older learners’ foundational skills and get an accurate understanding of students’ reading strengths and needs. For students who are not yet successful on grade-level comprehension tests, a critical next step is determining which components of reading need additional support. BELIEVE Schools utilizes Capti Assess to gather data to inform both in-class instruction and intervention supports. “After administering the test, literacy teachers were excited about the granularity of the data in comparison to other assessments that focus on reading levels,” explains Katilyn Reimer, Chief Academic Officer at BELIEVE Schools. BELIEVE administers Capti Assess to all students at the beginning of the year and uses the data to inform whole class instruction as well as plan for intervention supports based on the six subtests: word recognition and decoding, vocabulary, morphology, sentence processing, reading efficiency, and comprehension. For students identified as needing additional reading support, Capti Assess (sample report below) is used as a tool to monitor progress throughout the year.

Building Foundational Literacy Skills

Weaving Foundational Skills Instruction into Core Instruction

When incorporating foundational skills instruction into classroom practice, it’s essential that all students are working in grade-level text daily. Engaging with complex texts supports learners to build vocabulary and content knowledge, which are essential for language comprehension. Sequencing increasingly complex texts, such as those included in curricula listed by the Knowledge Matters Campaign, provides critical scaffolding “so that each text bootstraps the language and knowledge needed for the next. Gradually, students will be ready for texts of greater complexity,” notes Marilyn Jager Adams.

One evidence-based practice to support students in engaging with complex texts is partner reading. Partner reading enables students to engage in both fluency practice and comprehension work with complex texts at the same time. Partner reading has been used in grades from early elementary through high school with positive outcomes for students, including struggling readers, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners. These strategies can help students engage with and make sense of complex texts and grade-level material in their core ELA classes.

Building Foundational Skills through Intervention

Additional, dedicated literacy time in the school day offers teachers the opportunity to provide targeted supports to strengthen foundational skills. Leflore Legacy Academy has a daily 30-minute intervention block to support students’ individual needs around key literacy skills, such as decoding. Teachers develop individualized enrichment plans based on iReady data and HD Word Diagnostic Decoding Surveys, which help teachers organize intervention groups to address targeted foundational skills.

Like Leflore Legacy, Kansas City Girls Prep Academy (KCGPA) has also implemented intervention blocks to meet their older students’ literacy needs, using WIN (What I Need) blocks to provide additional opportunities focused on literacy skill building. Their instructional teams use the CaptiAssess data alongside teacher recommendations to place students into WIN blocks. Last year, Kansas City Girls Prep used Corrective Reading for students who needed support in decoding, Student Achievement Partners’ Fluency Protocol (see below) for students in need of additional fluency practice, and this year will be piloting STARI, a reading intervention program that combines fluency and comprehension instruction. This additional block in the school day provides students with individualized instruction based on their needs while also reinforcing the skills taught in core instruction.

Example activities from Student Achievement Partners’ Fluency Protocol 

Building Literacy Skills Across Subjects

In addition to building literacy skills in ELA classes and intervention time, other subject areas offer valuable spaces to support students’ holistic literacy development. BELIEVE Schools focuses on developing reading comprehension and higher order thinking skills in history classes through the use of a thematic history curriculum. “The history teacher focuses on cold reading where students pay attention to their experience and metacognition,” shares Kaitlyn Reimer. “Students conduct multiple rounds of reading the same text and get into analysis… The Rosalie Metro curriculum groups primary source documents thematically around essential questions for students to think deeply about their reading experience.” By prioritizing knowledge-building, comprehension strategies, and writing activities in non-ELA courses like BELIEVE Schools, you can help students strengthen critical thinking skills necessary to become proficient readers.

Find the full History Lesson Plan from BELIEVE here.

Next Steps for Supporting Older Learners in Becoming Strong Readers

Students become strong readers by developing and strengthening both their word recognition and language comprehension throughout their academic journey. Schools must ensure that students are supported to “learn to read” beyond the early grades so that they are well-equipped long-term to “read to learn.” By aligning around a clear vision for developing older students’ literacy skills, you can build students’ confidence as readers to set them up for future success!