Readers who struggle often do so not because of a lack of aptitude but because what they’re being asked to learn just hasn’t engaged them in the right way for them yet. This is especially true of readers who can read fluently but whose comprehension of what they’re reading may lag behind that level of fluency.
Often, when we think of students having trouble with reading, we imagine them struggling to decode letters in a text or to figure out what the words are in a piece of writing. But what about the student who might be able to read beautifully, but who has no ability to decipher what they’ve just read? These students can read, yes, but they have trouble understanding vocabulary and figurative language, as well as other meaning-making skills such as inferencing and being able to logically sequence a text. In short, they might be able to read but they really don’t comprehend.
This type of struggling reader has long existed but is much less noticeable in the classroom than those who have difficulty decoding, because they appear superficially to hit all the markers of a good reader. Often, it’s not until they’re older that problems become obvious, and by then it might be too late. We’re left with older students who sound like they’re reading but understand nothing that they have read.
CARS & STARS Online is uniquely positioned to identify and help this type of reader, being able to give a full and instantly updated picture of a student’s reading comprehension ability across twelve targeted strategies so that teachers can easily see which areas a student might be struggling in, and how to address those struggles. What’s more, the new Focus Reading offers intensive, targeted instruction in the six core reading strategies that are most central to higher-order thinking, offering a more complete and focused way of helping these learners in just the areas they’re finding challenging.
CARS & STARS Online is designed with differentiation as a core value. In fact, the program is made to be used with different students on different levels at the same time, matching content to students rather than trying to jam every student peg into the same content hole. For readers who might be fluent but lack comprehension, that means they’ll always be receiving help at their level – and improving where they need to improve.
If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.
