Focus on Struggling Learners:
Recommended Reading

Resource collection

IRA Literacy Study Groups Struggling Readers Module (includes books, position statements, journal articles, discussion guides, and other resources for personal or school-based professional development)

Books

Click on a title below to find a detailed description, and to browse contents and sample chapters.

After Early Intervention, Then What? Teaching Struggling Readers in Grades 3 and Beyond, edited by Rachel L. McCormack and Jeanne R. Paratore

Four Powerful Strategies for Struggling Readers, Grades 3–8: Small Group Instruction That Improves Comprehension, by Lois A. Lanning   NEW!

The Guided Reading Kidstation Model: Making Instruction Meaningful for the Whole Class , by E. Francine Guastello and Claire R. Lenz

Informed Choices for Struggling Adolescent Readers: A Research-Based Guide to Instructional Programs and Practices, by Donald D. Deshler, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Gina Biancarosa, and Marnie Nair

Inspiring Reading Success: Interest and Motivation in an Age of High-Stakes Testing, edited by Rosalie Fink and S. Jay Samuels

No Quick Fix, The RTI Edition, edited by Richard L. Allington and Sean A. Walmsley

Response to Intervention: A Framework for Reading Educators, edited by Douglas Fuchs, Lynn S. Fuchs, and Sharon Vaughn  NEW!

Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers, by Beverly Tyner

Struggling Adolescent Readers: A Collection of Teaching Strategies, edited by David W. Moore, Donna E. Alvermann, and Kathleen A. Hinchman

Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers: Strategies for Classroom Intervention 3–6, by Dorothy S. Strickland, Kathy Ganske, and Joanne K. Monroe

Teaching Struggling Readers: Articles From The Reading Teacher, edited by Richard L. Allington

Why Jane and John Couldn’t Read—And How They Learned, by Rosalie Fink

Articles

Highlights from recent issues of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy:

“Instructional practices, struggling readers, and a university-based reading clinic,” by Pamela J. Dunston (Feb. 2007; vol. 50, no. 5)

“Evaluating the interventions for struggling adolescent readers,” by Douglas Fisher and Gay Ivey (Nov. 2006; vol. 50, no. 3)

“Resistance, struggle, and the adolescent reader,” by Kimberly Lenters (Oct. 2006; vol. 50, no. 2)

“Reading, writing, and assistive technology: An integrated developmental curriculum for college students,” by Ellen Urquhart Engstrom (Sept. 2005; vol. 49, no. 1)

“Using the picture book Thank You, Mr. Falker to understand struggling readers,” by Debby Zambo (March 2005; vol. 48, no. 6)

“Can adult low-skilled literacy learners assess and discuss their own spelling knowledge?,” by Neva M. Viise and Ottilie F. Austin (Feb. 2005; vol. 48, no. 5)

“Reading coaches: Adapting an intervention model for upper elementary and middle school readers,” by Stephanie Bacon (Feb. 2005; vol. 48, no. 5)

From Reading Research Quarterly, the field’s leading source of evidence-based research and practice:

“Anything but lazy: New understandings about struggling readers, teaching, and text,” by Leigh Hall (Oct./Nov./Dec. 2006, vol. 41, no. 4) FREE!

“A transactional perspective on reading difficulties and response to intervention,” by John E. McEneaney, Mary K. Lose, and Robert M. Schwartz (Jan./Feb./March 2006, vol. 41, no. 1) FREE!

“Investigating the instructional supportiveness of leveled texts,” by James W. Cunningham et al. (Oct./Nov./Dec. 2005, vol. 40, no. 4)

“Reading-related cognitive deficits in developmental dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and developmental coordination disorder among Chinese children,” by Connie Suk-Han Ho et al. (July/Aug./Sept. 2005, vol. 40, no. 3)

“The effects of theoretically different instruction and student characteristics on the skills of struggling readers,” by Patricia G. Mathes et al. (April/May/June 2005, vol. 40, no. 2)

“Repeated reading and reading fluency in learning disabled children,” by Carol A. Rashotte and Joseph K. Torgesen (Winter 1985, vol. 20, no. 2)

Freely available from the e-journal Reading Online:

“Juxtaposing traditional and intermedial literacies to redefine the competence of struggling adolescents,” by David O’Brien (March 2003)

“Using computer simulations to teach decision making in reading diagnostic assessment for re-mediation,” by Michael W. Kibby and Logan Scott (Oct. 2002)

“One preservice teacher’s experiences teaching literacy to regular and special education students,” by Janet C. Richards and Timothy E. Morse (June 2002)

“Teaching readers who struggle: A pragmatic middle school framework,” by Gwynne Ellen Ash (March 2002)

“Web Watch: Internet resources to assist teachers with struggling readers,” by Denise Johnson (April 2001)

Selections from The Reading Teacher, IRA’s journal for those working with children up to age 12:

“Dyslexia and the brain: What does current research tell us?,” by Roxanne F. Hudson, Leslie High, and Stephanie Al Otaiba (March 2007; vol. 60, no. 6)

“Incorporating movement with fluency instruction: A motivation for struggling readers,” by Jodi Peebles (March 2007; vol. 60, no. 6)

“Book leveling and readers,” by Brenda Stein Dzaldov and Shelley Peterson (Nov. 2005; vol. 59, no. 3)

“‘If they don’t read much, how they ever gonna get good?’,” by Pat Cunningham (Sept. 2005; vol. 59, no. 1)

“Thinking aloud: Struggling readers often require more than a model,” by Barbara J. Walker (April 2005; vol. 58, no. 7)

From IRA’s membership newspaper, Reading Today:

“Striving Readers Act introduced,” (April/May 2007)  FREE!

“New report discusses response to intervention,” (Aug/Sep 2005)  FREE!

“Mountains and sky,” by Matt Freeman (Oct/Nov 2004)  FREE!

“Catching them early,” (April/May 2003)  FREE!

For more information about the Association’s resources on struggling readers and writers, contact IRA’s Public Information Office.