Reading is part of learning in every classroom. Yet the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress found that 40% of fourth-grade students performed below the NAEP Basic level in reading , highlighting the scale of the literacy challenge facing US schools.
Supporting students with reading cannot sit with English, language arts, or special education teachers alone. Across general and special education, teachers can use reading strategies that help students access complex vocabulary, instructions, and subject-specific texts.
Building background knowledge, breaking down unfamiliar words, and offering different ways to access text can remove barriers without lowering expectations. When literacy support is embedded across the curriculum, more students can engage with grade-level learning and contribute what they know.
Identifying when students need reading support
Reading difficulties do not always look the same in every classroom. A student may cope well with a short story but find a science textbook difficult because of unfamiliar vocabulary. Another may understand a history discussion but struggle to get the same meaning from a written passage.
Signs that a student may need additional reading support can include:
- Reading grade-level text slowly or inaccurately
- Finding it difficult to understand what they have read
- Struggling with unfamiliar or longer words
- Avoiding tasks that involve a lot of reading
- Understanding information more easily when it is explained aloud
- Finding it difficult to summarize or find key information in a text
Looking at patterns across subjects can give teachers a fuller picture. It can also help distinguish between difficulty with a particular topic and a wider reading need. Persistent difficulties with reading, spelling, or working with sounds in words may also be associated with learning differences such as dyslexia.
Reading support within subject lessons should sit alongside, not replace, targeted reading intervention. Subject teachers can remove barriers to accessing content, while appropriately trained staff provide explicit support with skills such as word reading and fluency where needed.
Removing reading barriers through Universal Design for Learning
Teachers shouldn’t wait until a student struggles before making learning more accessible. Universal Design for Learning (UDL), is an approach to planning flexible learning experiences that work for different learners from the start. Instead of relying on one way to access information, teachers can give students different ways to engage with and understand the same content.
CAST's Universal Design for Learning Guidelines include providing different ways to perceive information and supporting access to language, symbols, and assistive technologies.
In practice, this could mean pairing text with a diagram in science or providing audio alongside a history text. Read&Write can support this by reading text aloud while highlighting it on screen, or using a picture dictionary to help students understand unfamiliar words.
These options give students different ways to access the same content without changing what they are expected to learn.
Present information in different ways
Giving students more than one way to access information does not mean lowering expectations or changing what they are learning.
Teachers might:
- Pair text with diagrams, images, or infographics
- Provide audio or text-to-speech alongside written content
- Introduce a concept through a demonstration or short video
- Break dense text into clear sections with helpful headings
These reading supports can be particularly important for students who find reading difficult, but they can make content clearer for everyone.
Build flexibility into reading
Students read at different speeds and process information in their own way. Building some flexibility into lessons can reduce unnecessary pressure while keeping students connected to grade-level content.
This could include giving students additional time, providing digital and audio formats, or allowing them to revisit a text after a concept has been introduced in another way.
The goal is not to make the learning easier. It is to make sure difficulty accessing the text does not become a barrier to understanding the subject.
Reading strategies that work across subjects
The Institute of Education Sciences recommends several approaches for supporting students who experience reading difficulties. Including building knowledge, working with complex words, improving fluency, and teaching comprehension strategies.
These are not strategies only English or literacy teachers can use. Subject teachers can reinforce them while helping students understand the language and texts specific to their discipline.
Pre-teach vocabulary and build background knowledge
A text becomes much harder to understand when several key words and concepts are unfamiliar. Before students start reading, identify the small number of words they need to understand the content. Explain each word clearly and connect it to something students can see, hear, or already know.
For example, before a lesson on photosynthesis, introduce terms such as chlorophyll, carbon dioxide, and glucose. In history, explain terms such as revolution or industrialization before students come across them in a textbook.
A short image, discussion, demonstration, or video can also build useful background knowledge. This helps students focus on the ideas in the text rather than trying to work out every unfamiliar term at once.
Break down complex academic words
Long words appear across the curriculum. Morphology means understanding meaningful parts of words, including prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Teaching students to recognize these parts can help them approach unfamiliar academic vocabulary with greater confidence.
For example, understanding roots such as bio, geo, and graph can give students clues when they encounter words including biology, geography, and biography.
Teachers do not need a separate vocabulary lesson every time. Drawing attention to useful word parts as they appear within a subject can build knowledge students can use elsewhere. Tools such as Read&Write can also help students create vocabulary lists to collect and revisit unfamiliar words.
Model how to make sense of difficult text
Confident readers often use comprehension strategies without realizing it. Other students can benefit from seeing those processes made explicit. A teacher might read a short section aloud and explain their thinking:
"That sentence contains a lot of information. I'm going to reread it and look for the main idea." Or: "I don't recognize this word, but the diagram and the next sentence give me a clue about what it means."
Supported reading can also help students build fluency while accessing challenging content. This might include teacher read-alouds, partner reading, or choral reading, where the class reads a short passage together with the teacher modelling pace and expression.
Use visual organizers and structured notes
Students also need to decide what information matters and connect it to what they already know. Simple visual organizers can make these relationships easier to see. A cause-and-effect chart might explain a historical event, while a concept map can connect scientific vocabulary.
Structured notes can serve a similar purpose. Rather than copying large sections of text, students can use a clear structure to record:
- Main ideas
- Key vocabulary
- Supporting evidence
- Questions or connections
This reduces the amount of information students need to organize at once and helps them focus on meaning.
Using assistive technology to improve reading access
Students should not have to wait until their reading skills catch up before they can learn science, history, math, or any other subject. Assistive technology can give students another way to access information while they continue developing their reading skills. These solutions are necessary for some learners, such as those in Special Education or with learning differences, but ultimately benefit everyone.
Text-to-speech and audio
Text-to-speech reads digital text aloud. This can support students who read slowly, experience reading fatigue, or need help accessing grade-level material independently.
A student might use it to listen to:
- A digital textbook chapter
- An online article
- Written assignment instructions
- A PDF or handout
Listening does not have to replace reading. Students can listen while following the text visually, pause to revisit important sections, and use other tools to check unfamiliar vocabulary. Audiobooks can provide similar access to longer texts and assigned reading.
Flexible digital reading tools
Digital tools can also let students adapt how they interact with text. Useful features include adjustable text size and spacing, highlighting, dictionaries, translation, annotations, and read-aloud support. The important point is choice. Different students benefit from different combinations of support.
Our products are designed around this principle, giving students different ways to read, understand, and express what they know without changing the learning goal.
Building a whole-school approach to literacy
Supporting students who find reading difficult does not sit with one reading specialist or intervention program. Students move between subjects throughout the day.
When every teacher understands their role in literacy, learners experience more consistent support and have more opportunities to practice the same skills. For education leaders, this means making literacy part of teaching and learning strategy across the school.
Create shared approaches
Consistency can make reading demands easier to navigate. Schools might agree on a small number of approaches that work across subjects. For example, teachers could use a shared method for introducing new vocabulary or similar visual organizers for comparing and connecting ideas.
This does not mean every classroom should look the same. A history teacher and a math teacher use text differently. Shared principles provide consistency while leaving teachers room to apply them appropriately within their subject.
Build staff confidence
Content-area teachers are subject experts, but many have not received extensive training in teaching reading. Professional learning can help staff understand how reading develops, recognize when students may need additional support, and make complex subject texts more accessible.
Useful areas for development include:
- Vocabulary and academic language
- Reading complex subject-specific texts
- Universal Design for Learning
- Assistive technology
- Recognizing persistent reading difficulties
- Knowing when specialist intervention is needed
The aim is not to turn every teacher into a reading specialist. It is to give every teacher practical ways to support students when reading becomes part of learning.
Frequently asked questions about supporting students with reading
What are quick ways to add reading supports without rewriting my curriculum?
Start with the text students already use. Pre-teach a few essential words, break longer passages into clear sections, add a visual where it improves understanding, or provide text-to-speech alongside the written version. Small changes can remove barriers without changing the learning goal.
How can I measure whether a reading intervention is working?
Start with a clear goal and measure the skill the intervention is designed to improve. Depending on the intervention, this might include reading accuracy, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension. Review progress regularly and adjust the approach when students are not making the expected gains.
Which free resources help students who find reading difficult at home?
Families can use library audiobooks, built-in accessibility features on phones and computers, and free reading resources from trusted organizations such as Reading Rockets. Schools can also help by showing families how to use the same reading supports students already use in class.
