Reading is the foundation for learning that can lead to academic and future success. While it is primarily learned in a classroom, many students need extra time and help. Research shows that online tutoring is a great way to support struggling readers. In this article, we present how online tutors can support struggling readers in alliance with careful planning and appropriate training.
When we think of reading issues, we imagine children who struggle to decode letters in the text and turn them into spoken language. This type of reader has poor phonological skills. However, some students read nicely but have difficulty understanding vocabulary and figurative language, verbal reasoning, grammatical development, inferencing, and oral expression. Mentioned below are a few strategies for online tutors to try out with struggling readers:
Students with poor vocabulary skills struggle with comprehension and understand less of what they hear. So an online reading tutor should teach the meaning of new words through the use of multisensory strategies like pictures, mnemonics, and graphic organizers.
Once the vocabulary improves, the likelihood of understanding the words students encounter in the written text will also increase. Since it is impossible to know every word one might encounter, learners need to be taught about the different types of context clues and how to use them to determine the meaning of unknown words.
Once students have the vocabulary, they will be able to make it through the text. But will often struggle with complex thinking or sustained attention required to keep up with all of the important details. Access to information that is implied and not directly stated would also be difficult. Here, online reading tutors can instruct students on cognitive strategies that can be used by them. Many common text reading strategies include:
Students can learn and use these strategies that best work for them depending on the text they are reading. Taking out a deeper meaning from the text through these thinking strategies can be beneficial not just to reading but to writing too.
According to recent research, reading comprehension difficulties may stem from an underlying oral language weakness. The same can exist from early childhood before reading is even taught. It turns out that students who have poor reading comprehension skills, also understand fewer spoken words and less of what they hear.
Their spoken grammar is also not at par. So, to address the reading comprehension difficulties effectively, online tutors may have to use an approach that teaches vocabulary, thinking skills, and comprehension, first in spoken language and then in writing.
After the cognitive strategies are taught, they can be practiced and implemented through the use of reciprocal teaching. Here, students are encouraged to take the leadership role and should particularly rotate between the following roles:
Students should be taught comprehension skills directly. These include - sequencing, story structure, how to make an inference and draw a conclusion, and different types of figurative language. Students should have the opportunity to first use the skills with the text that they hear the online reading tutor read aloud, and later with the text, they read independently.
The comprehension skills and strategies mentioned above are necessary components for helping students who struggle with reading. However, success lies in how an online reading tutor uses them - which means choosing appropriate texts, listening carefully to students, determining their abilities, and adapting the method according to their needs.
