A Good Reader Has a Plan: Helping Students With Learning Disabilities

The National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Common Core State Standards require students, starting in elementary school, to read an increasing amount of informational text (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Students with learning disabilities, however, typically struggle with expository text and require even more direct instruction than do students without such disabilities. In the past decade, evidence-based research has supported highly specific instruction for struggling readers. This article presents three areas of intervention that assist all students, but particularly those with learning disabilities, to understand expository text. We focus on the areas of text features and structures, content enhancements, and cognitive strategies. We also provide suggestions for classroom interventions for each of the three areas.