We know you want to be as effective as possible with your efforts to remediate the reading problems of struggling readers. That is why we’ve made the following free tools available to all educators.

Learn strategies for teaching systematic, explicit, multisensory phonics-based instruction to beginning readers, struggling readers, and ESL students:

Reading Horizons 30-Day Online Workshop >

It’s difficult to help remediate your students reading problems if you don’t know which areas are causing them the most difficulty. It is crucial to assess each struggling reader’s strengths and weaknesses in order to provide him/her with the proper remediation:

30-Day Access to Phonemic Awareness Assessments >

Learn from the most experienced teachers and trainers when it comes to remedial reading. Any of the webinars in this ongoing series can be viewed for free anytime:

Branch Out Webinars for Reading Teachers >

Download free lesson plans, worksheets, and teaching tools:

Free Printable Lesson Materials >

This free e-book takes a look at the most common learning disabilities and how each affects reading:

E-Book: Teaching Reading to Students with Learning Disabilities 101 >

This free e-book looks at what research has found to be the most effective strategies for teaching struggling readers:

E-Book: Using Research to Reach Struggling Readers >

Need funding for materials? Here is a list of available grants and the tools that give you the best chances for earning the grant money your school can use to better serve your students’ needs:

Grant Help >

Remedial reading teachers all share the same instructional goal: help students become fluent readers who understand what they read.

The idea is to reach this goal as quickly as possible because studies show that the longer struggling readers wait to “catch up” to grade level reading, the further they fall behind in their overall education. This is especially important because the older the struggling reader becomes, the less likely they will be to ever advance to reading at grade level. For example, only one-in-six middle school readers who are two grades or more behind their class ever catch up to their peers.  

That’s why it is critical that reading intervention resources work quickly. More importantly, the reading system and methodology must be something that the teacher can learn and convey in record time.

However, fast can often lead to a rushed, ineffective process.

How can you get the benefits of fast remediation without letting quality suffer?

Recent research has found that intensive, 12-week phonemic awareness training is actually more effective for struggling readers than longer, traditional reading remediation. In the study, children that were given this type of intensive remediation performed better in every reading assessment (word decoding, spelling, reading speed and reading comprehension) than the children that were given traditional remediation.

Phonemic awareness training was used in the study because as Ulrika Wolff of the University of Gothenburg explains: “Most researchers agree that the underlying problem [for struggling readers] is a limited phonological ability, in other words limited awareness of the sounds that make up spoken words.”

How can you replicate this program for your students?

Here is what was included in the 12-week intensive training used in the study.

40 minutes of daily training on:

• Letter blends (grapheme and phoneme combinations)
• Phonetic and decoding skills
• One-on-one reading practice (both aloud and silent)

It's important to note that this study was only effective because the instruction was effective.

Learn strategies for teaching letter blends, phonetic and decoding skills, and transfer activities with 30-days of free access to Reading Horizons Online Workshop! ›

Did you know?

That according to the U.S. Department of Education, about a third of 2007-08 first-year college students have taken at least one remedial course. That number rises to about 42% at two-year community colleges.

USA Today reports that, education observers worry that the vast numbers of students coming to college unprepared will pose a major roadblock to President Barack Obama's goal for the United States to once again lead the world in college degrees.

According to studies done by the U.S. Department of Education, many secondary schools across the nation aren’t adequately preparing students to excel at college. Universities and community colleges are stepping in to fill the gap by offering remedial college courses in subjects like reading and math.

Reading comprehension is such a critical skill, in college, because textbooks become more complex, leaving many students unprepared for advancement.

Will Taxpayers Pay for the Same Education Twice?

Remedial training is costly. The Alliance for Excellent Education reports that the nation loses $3.7 billion a year due to the fact that students have not learned the basic needed skills, like basic reading, comprehension, and fluency.

According to 2004 Education Department data, students who need remedial classes are more likely to drop out of college. For example, those taking any remedial reading, only had a 17% chance of completing a bachelor's degree,

Remedial Reading programs should be research-based and implemented with fidelity by teachers who have received sufficient training.

Reading concepts should be explicit while moving sequentially from the simplest concepts to the more complex.

For a free instructional reading framework, click here >

One of the primary missions of education is to develop capable readers. Reading failure is largely preventable. 

Investigators found that the volume of white matter in an area of the brain that governs the use of language was increased following a six-month daily reading program. Training poor readers to get better at sounding out words and comprehending what they read seems to have an unexpected benefit: a physical change in brain structure and not just function, according to a study published in the December 10, 2009 Neuron.

Scientists from Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA, found that the volume of white matter in an area of the brain that governs the use of language was increased following a six-month daily reading program. Marcel A. Just, PhD, who conducted the study with Tim A. Keller, PhD said: “This is the first evidence for an increase in white matter in response to a remedial behavioral intervention. It provides evidence that repeated cognitive exercises can alter cortical connectivity of the human brain.”

In today’s society, the failure to read proficiently has profound educational and life consequences – it is the most likely reason that children drop out of school, are retained, or are referred to special education. Poor reading skills also greatly limit postsecondary school and work options. The importance of teaching children to read cannot be understated. (California Reading Initiative 1996)

Effective prevention and early intervention can increase reading skills of 85 to 90 percent of poor readers to average levels. (Lyon 1997)

When you combine this research information with the knowledge that teaching children to read is a fundamental responsibility of all educators, the effort and expense required to provide reading remediation is easily justified. Yet, with many districts looking at additional budget cuts, what can administrators do to balance budgets and provide effective reading programs?

We have an idea. What if every teacher in grades k-3 was a Reading Specialist? It wouldn’t be difficult, especially if the teacher used Reading Horizons’ Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself. This affordable, proven method can turn every single teacher into a Reading Specialist in only a few hours. Our unique system gives educators the tools they need to feel confident in phonics instruction. See how fast and effective the program is using explicit, systematic and logical teaching. Sign up for a free 30-day Online Workshop.

Source: Neurology Today, 21 January 2010; Volume 10(2); Pp 19, 23 – Talan, Jamie

Today one of USA Today’s headlines exposed the need for education improvements in the United States by exclaiming: “One-Third of Students Need Remedial College Math, Reading.” Interestingly, that number also closely resembles the percentage of students which do not naturally learn to read with traditional teaching methods: 30%. There is no research supporting a correlation between the two statistics, however it seems almost intuitive to connect the two. 1/3 of college students need remediation as a result of past educational experiences, and almost 1/3 of students expose the need for some form of remediation in the future. Clearly something needs to change.

Many education professionals believe the answer to the current learning gap is through implementing and improving Response to Intervention (RTI) programs. This solution appears to be a perfect fit for this problem since RTI programs help remediate reading and math difficulties in students.

I recently viewed a webinar hosted by Education Week titled: “Response to Intervention: Making it Work.” The presentation offered many suggestions and practices needed to develop and maintain a successful RTI program. Here are some of the key points from the presentation:

Effective RTI Programs:

1.    Teach effective core curriculums at Tier I of the RTI Triangle.
2.    Differentiate instruction to meet individual student needs.
3.    Review data often.
4.    Celebrate student success.

Common Problems in RTI Programs:

1.    Too many students in Tiers II & III of the RTI Triangle.
2.    Implementing or using too many interventions at one time.
3.    Uneven practices across classrooms within same school system.
4.    Do not allocate enough time to RTI programs.
5.    Students are not making progress.

RTI Triangle

One of the strongest emphasis’s throughout the presentation was the need for effective core curriculums. If the core curriculum doesn’t present students with an effective way of learning the material in the first place then intervention is first needed at the core level. The best way to know the efficacy of a core curriculum is through data analysis, another strong emphasis throughout the presentation. By assessing students and analyzing their results teachers can know if their core curriculum is effective.

Once an effective core curriculum is in place then improvements and interventions can be implemented for Tiers II & III. Of course, as clarified by the speakers, each change and intervention needs to be implemented successively. Only one intervention should be added at a time so the results can be measured. If the results can not be measured because of too many interventions are influencing the situation, than educators will not what is working and what isn’t working. Without these measures, RTI programs will struggle to improve.

It is important for RTI programs to be effective and strong. I continuously find research supporting that it is the solution to reading and writing problems universally. I also read an article the other day from an RTI specialist claiming that the best solution to these problems is using RTI curriculums as core curriculums in grades K-2. These programs are designed to ensure that every student will have the highest chance of success in building essential foundational skills. Core curriculums are clearly in need of improvement based on the daunting statistic that 1/3 of entry level college students are in need of remediation.

Register for Education Week's upcoming webinar on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 2 PM EST, titled: "RTI and Special Education: Putting It All Together"

Also find more information on this same topic by listening to one of Reading Horizons past webinar's titled: "Creating Synergy Between Mainstream Reading Instruction & Special Education"

Reading Horizons is often used as an effective, and measurable RTI reading program and reading remediation. For more information visit: www.ReadingHorizons.com/rti/