Read STOP Write: Teaching foundational skills in a multicomponent informational reading and writing intervention

Abstract

Many adolescent readers experience difficulties comprehending informational text, which may result from underlying difficulties with foundational skills (e.g., word recognition and fluency), knowledge demands (e.g., background, text structure, and vocabulary), and/or reading motivation. Supplemental interventions for adolescents targeting only foundational skills demonstrate mixed results, but multicomponent interventions that combine multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and comprehension strategies that build word and world knowledge to support complex text reading can improve foundational skills and comprehension for students in upper-elementary and middle grades. In this article, we describe how prior research informed the design of Read STOP Write, a multicomponent intervention for students in grades 4–9. Read STOP Write integrates instruction in multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and vocabulary with comprehension instruction focused on building knowledge and using text structures to read and write about science and social studies texts. We summarize research conducted in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms and discuss implications for teachers of adolescents.