Four Powerful Strategies for Struggling Readers, Grades 3-8: Small Group Instruction That Improves Comprehension

"Lanning reduces the long list of skills and strategies found in curriculum documents into four key comprehension strategies, setting out a very workable plan for enhancing reading comprehension."
—Richard Allington, Professor of Education
University of Tennessee

"These four powerful strategies come to the rescue with detailed and engaging lessons and examples for guided reading instruction. The clarity and insight make this book a must-read for elementary and middle school reading specialists and classroom teachers."
—H. Lynn Erickson, Educational Consultant
Author, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction

Focused techniques to help struggling readers strengthen comprehension skills!

Children who struggle with reading by the time they reach third grade risk falling further behind as they progress through school. This important resource presents four targeted, research-based comprehension strategies to help struggling readers in small group settings understand what they read.

Four Powerful Strategies for Struggling Readers, Grades 3–8 shows teachers how to support students'' reading comprehension by teaching the strategies that highly effective readers use: summarizing, creating meaningful connections, self-regulating, and inferring. The author examines how, why, and when to use each strategy and what each strategy looks like in practice. The book also covers:

• A gradual-release approach that begins with teacher-directed instruction and leads to student-directed learning as skills increase
• Specific teaching techniques to use with each strategy
• Detailed lesson examples for reading instruction and content area reading
• Reflections in each strategy chapter

The underlying principles in the book make these powerful strategies relevant for all elementary teachers, literacy coaches, and instructional leaders working to help students learn to read for deep understanding.