Struggling Reader Help


Below are programs we use to help children who struggle in the foundation skills in  reading and comprehension:

Developing Metacognitive Skills is a program designed by the Neuhaus Education Center which builds the foundational skills for comprehension and incorporates research-based strategies that simulate what good readers do before, while, and after they read. Metacognition is the act of “thinking about thinking.” Developing Metacognitive Skills provides group 30 to 45-minute lessons and activities for developing vocabulary and metacognitive skills to reinforce decoding and fluency. The curriculum is taught at three different levels:

  • Listening Comprehension
  • Transitional Metacognition
  • Guided Metacognition

Source: Neuhaus Education Center


REWARDS: (Reading Excellence: Word Attack & Rate Development Strategies)

This program uses research-validated strategies across all content areas to take middle and high school students closer to grade-level expectations. The intense intervention approach ensures students make gains in less time, and the scaffolded instructional approach (“I do, we do, you do”) moves students from guided to independent learning. REWARDS develops strong foundational skills for improved test taking.

REWARDS strategies help students determine the pronunciation of difficult words, vocabulary meanings and use of background knowledge.  Literal and inferential comprehension questions are used during student reading to build overall comprehension and vocabulary.  Repeated readings are used in REWARDS to build fluency; strategies for answering multiple choice questions and short answers commonly found on assignments and test are practiced. Strategies for writing summaries and extending responses to writing prompt are done at the end of each application lesson to build students’ confidence in their reading and writing abilities.

REWARDS Writing teaches critical writing skills, including sentence fluency, word choice, and sentence revising strategies while giving valuable practice in writing.

Source: Cambrium Learning


Just Words by Wilson provides a curriculum for the study of word structure through the six syllable types in English and the most common Latin roots.

It is a highly explicit, multi-sensory decoding and spelling program for students in grades 4 -12 and adults who do not require intensive intervention but do require explicit decoding and spelling instruction due to word-level deficits.

Just Words is based on the research validated Wilson Reading System and moves at an accelerated pace by focusing primarily on the concentrated study of word structure for reading and spelling.

Source: Wilson Language Training Corp.


Evan Moor Reading Comprehension follows a research-based model that supports and supplements the core language arts curriculum; predictable visual format and opportunities for daily strategy and skill practice help to facilitate optimal learning through deep practice. The explicit instruction and error monitoring allow for easy and effective differentiated instruction. The materials provided allow for necessary practice for students to integrate discrete skills into a more automatic understanding of how to comprehend what they read.

The program divides the task of reading comprehension into six main metacognitive strategies that are supported by the National Reading Panel: Making connections to personal experiences, visualization of what the student is reading, organizing of the text pattern, determination of important information, asking questions before, during and after reading, and monitoring comprehension. From metacognitive strategies, it is further divided into 11 specific skills established in reading research: Main Idea and Details, Sequence, Cause and Effect, Fact and Opinion, Compare and Contrast, Making Inferences & Prediction, Character Setting, Fantasy vs. Reality, Author’s Purpose, Nonfiction Text Features and Visual Information.

Source: Evan Moor http://www.evan-moor.com/


S.P.I.R.E. is a comprehensive and multi-sensory reading intervention program. It is designed to prevent reading failure and to build reading success through an intensive, structured, and spiraling curriculum. It integrates phonological awareness, phonics, handwriting, fluency, vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension in a 10-step lesson plan that is specifically designed for the way struggling readers learn.

Source: http://www.te21.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=240514