In 2023 only 42% of Colorado’s eighth graders met or exceeded expectations on ELA CMAS. Utilizing high leverage instructional strategies to support our secondary and upper elementary students in becoming proficient readers is critical. In this class we will focus on 4 action oriented research based recommendations from the IES (Institute of Education Sciences, March 2022) We’ll learn specific ways to effectively use them in our practice to support struggling readers. The research is based on students in 4th-9th graders, but strategies are appropriate for high school teachers as well. This class will include considerations for diverse populations of students who struggle with reading, including students with disabilities and multilingual learners. (Recommendations focus on building decoding skills in order to read complex, multisyllabic words, purposeful fluency building activities, routinely using a set of comprehension building practices, and providing students with opportunities to make sense of challenging text.)

Required Text:

• Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9 by Vaughn, S., Gersten, R., Dimino, J., Taylor, M. J., Newman-Gonchar, R., Krowka, S., Kieffer, M. J., McKeown, M., Reed, D., Sanchez, M., St. Martin, K., Wexler, J., Morgan, S., Yañez, A., & Jayanthi, M.

Upon completion of this course, the educator will be able to:

• Identify  and describe the 4 instructional recommendations developed by the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) in conjunction with the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to support struggling readers in grades 4 and above.
• Analyze additional instructional resources to evaluate their potential to support implementation of recommendations.
• Develop instructional plans targeted specifically to struggling readers, including students with disabilities and multilingual learners.
• Implement specific instructional adjustments aligned to  research based recommendations in order to build reading skills for struggling students.