Literacy Instruction for Secondary Students With Disabilities

Abstract

While the professional literature and discourse has continually reinforced the importance of building and strengthening the reading skills of young children, it has long overlooked the importance of literacy instruction at the secondary level, particularly for adolescents who still struggle with reading. Recent initiatives aimed at improving the reading skills of the nation's youth (e.g., Reading First, No Child Left Behind) have resulted in improvements in skills across learners in the early grades; however, the same improvements have not been realized for adolescents. According to the recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), there was no significant change in the percentage of readers considered proficient in eighth grade from 1992-2007, whereas the percentage of proficient readers in fourth grade rose significantly over the same period of time (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007). Compounding the problem, remedial support for literacy is typically provided only at the elementary school level. Consequently, students who enter secondary school still struggling with reading tend to continue to struggle throughout their middle and high school years (Deshler, Palincsar, Biancarosa, & Nair, 2007; Hasselbring & Goin, 2004). In a recent meta-analytic review of interventions for adolescent struggling readers, Scammacca et al. (2007) offered several implications for practice. First, and perhaps most important, the authors indicated that adolescence is not too late to intervene and even older students with learning disabilities benefit from targeted interventions at both the word and text level. Specifically, interventions that focus on word study, developing word meanings and concepts as well as comprehension strategies are appropriate and beneficial for adolescent struggling readers. Adolescents who struggle to read have unique needs. Recent research suggests components of effective reading instruction as defined by the National Reading Panel (NRP) which we have situated within Chall's (1996) interactive model of reading development. We summarize Chall's model and the components of effective reading instruction detailed in the NRP, followed by a summary of several effective interventions focused on the development of these components at the secondary (i.e., middle and high school) level. Additionally, we provide readers with information about additional resources for improving literacy instruction for struggling secondary readers.