Children sometimes struggle with the most basic aspect of reading: pronouncing the words on the page. Develop strategies for helping reading skills by showing students how to sound out words. Show a student how to count on his fingers the number of sounds in a word. The word "hat," for instance, contains three distinct sounds. Have a struggling reader practice this method for each word in a written sentence. Help him go through the words multiple times until he can read the sentence quickly.
One way to help students bring their reading levels up to par is to have them read the same text over and over again. This strategy is appropriate for students who can pronounce basic sounds, but have trouble with fluency when reading. Have a student practice a paragraph or page of text multiple times. Help him with difficulties he may be having. As the student re-reads the text, he should get better and better at reading it. Move on to more challenging texts as he improves.
Students sometimes struggle with reading because they do not understand some words in the text. Use vocabulary activities to help struggling students learn difficult words. As a student reads, have him write down every word he does not understand. When he is done reading, have him look up definitions of those words. Write each problem word on one side of flashcard and write the definition of the word on the back of the card. Use the flash cards to help the student expand his vocabulary.
Even when a student can read a text fluently, pronouncing words correctly and understanding their definitions, he might still have trouble understanding the content as a whole. Have this student develop pre-reading strategies to help him with overall comprehension. Teach the student to size up the text before reading. He should do things such as look at titles, subheadings and pictures to imagine what the text will be about. He should also reflect on whether his predictions about a text are correct. Encourage the student to develop mental images of characters, the setting and the plot.