Language Arts Intervention Strategies

Reading and writing are fundamental skills required for basic functioning both inside and outside the classroom. Despite this, some students are slipping behind or are not being addressed by whole-classroom education methodologies. Here are three tactics for bringing struggling learners back up to grade level in language arts that may be employed during the intervention to assist you in reaching these students.

Reading in Pairs

Reading in pairs is when a skilled reader (such as a fellow student, parent, or instructor) reads to a struggling student. The successful reader and the learner should read aloud together, and a quiet signal (such as a hand tap) should be used when the lower-performing learner wishes to read aloud alone. If the signal is given, the other reader should sit quietly and listen to the material being read aloud. If a student misreads or has difficulty with a word, the stronger reader should halt, point out the error, and practice reading the word correctly together.

Mapping the Main Ideas

During intervention sessions, graphic organizers are quite helpful. A visual tool that helps struggling students organize their ideas and notes is beneficial. As a result, mapping important concepts is an excellent method for improving reading comprehension.

During this exercise, you will explain to students that paragraphs often contain sentences that convey the “point” or significant meaning. You may illustrate by identifying the crucial facts that support the primary notion after you model summarizing the central idea. When teaching the skill, always refer back to the visual organizer and double-check that each student follows along and takes notes. Allow learners to explore recognizing essential concepts on their own as well.

Text-Recall Questions

Struggling readers should be aware that they may return to the text and extract critical information. Choose a series of brief explanatory texts and create a few text recall questions for this intervention method. You may need to explain the distinction between text recall questions and opinion questions to learners before implementing this method.

Read the question aloud to the students and highlight keywords that indicate what to search for in the text to discover the answer. As you return to the book, describe your thoughts and seek solutions to the question. Return to diagrams, headers, first sentences, and conclusions to get answers. Keep in mind that using a visual organizer during the intervention is another wonderful chance. Allow learners to generate their text recall questions once they have experienced referring back to the text independently to prolong the lesson and reinforce the skill.

Conclusion

These tactics are best suited for minor group treatments, for the most part. They can also be separated into smaller lessons for those who require additional guided or autonomous practice. Finally, make sure to give formative assessments to students before and after classes. This will guarantee that their development is documented, and you will be able to determine which abilities they require further practice before the end of the year.