Instruction to Support Advanced Word Reading Skills for Students in the Intermediate Grades

As students move into the upper elementary grades, they face text with more complex words, yet many lack a systematic approach for decoding these words. These reading demands continue to increase dramatically as students transition from middle to high school and, at the same time, formal literacy instruction largely disappears. Students with reading disabilities, even those who have attained foundational reading skills, often experience substantial difficulty with multisyllabic words. This session will begin with an overview of processes involved in multisyllabic word reading and instructional routines to support students’ acquisition of word-level reading skills. Dr. Toste will describe the instructional practices that comprise Word Connections, an evidence-based targeted reading intervention program focused on multisyllabic word reading fluency.