*Article* **Read Like Me: An Intervention for Struggling Readers**

#### **Chase Young \*, Stacey Lagrone and Joyce McCauley**

School of Teaching and Learning, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77304, USA; sll038@shsu.edu (S.L.); edu\_jkm@shsu.edu (J.M.)

**\*** Correspondence: chaseyoung@shsu.edu

Received: 7 February 2020; Accepted: 21 February 2020; Published: 4 March 2020

**Abstract:** The current study reports on a reading intervention method titled Read Like Me. The intervention utilizes a stacked approach of research-based methods, including reading aloud, assisted reading, and repeated reading. The student involved was a second-grade boy reading below grade level who was identified as dyslexic and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Using a single-case experimental design, the intervention was monitored in four phases, including a baseline, intervention coupled with regular schooling, intervention only, and a return to baseline. The results indicated that the intervention combined with regular schooling improved his reading expression and rate and also his decoding skills, word knowledge, and reading comprehension. In conclusion, the authors offer Read Like Me as one more intervention that may be a viable option for teachers in their effort to support developing readers.

**Keywords:** struggling readers; reading intervention; reading fluency; reading comprehension

#### **1. Read Like Me: An Intervention for Struggling Readers**

The theory of automaticity essentially purported that the more automatic readers become in word recognition, the more cognitive resources can be reallocated to higher-level reading processes, such as reading comprehension [1]. Stanovich [2] referred to the theory of automaticity as a critical precursor to many important reading theory developments. Decades later, it is still used to frame studies in reading, especially those that examine practiced-based methods [3–6]. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a newly developed practice-based reading intervention for struggling elementary readers. The intervention, Read Like Me, is a multifaceted approach comprised of several researched interventions, including reading aloud, repeated readings, assisted reading, and the gradual release of responsibility. In light of the significant impact that the methods have on students' reading, the methods were combined to create a synergistic and potentially effective intervention.

Struggling readers need expert, research-based instruction [7] especially as the expectations grow for young readers. Students are increasingly required to read texts that are too difficult, a requirement that contradicts previous research [8,9]. Gradually, however, that perspective has changed [10], and students are frequently engaged in texts that are far more challenging. Allington [7] adamantly opposes this practice and reminds us that adults would likely refuse to read books at only 98%-word recognition accuracy, which would amount to approximately six unknown words per page. Regardless, here we are putting difficult texts into the hands of struggling readers.

Recently, Strong, Amendum, and Conradi Smith [11] described a similarly dim outlook on the current perspectives on text difficulty in modern reading education. However, the authors continued on to describe some of the research that may help educators consider the appropriate contexts for utilizing challenging texts. Before selecting a text, a teacher should consider the reader and also how much assistance will be provided. Thus, it might be possible for teachers to use difficult texts when administering interventions that provide sufficient supports for the reader.

Read Two Impress (R2I) [12] is an example of an intervention that calls for challenging texts, within approximately one year of the students' independent reading level. R2I is a hybrid of repeated readings [13] and the neurological impress method [14], both highly assistive methods for reading intervention. Read Two Impress has had large e ffects on students' reading fluency [15] reading comprehension [16] and independent reading level [17].

Young, Mohr, and Rasinski [15] claimed that the texts, however, were not frustrational, necessarily, but, rather, on the outer limits of the students' zone of proximal development [18] That is, adequate sca ffolds were applied, and the students were able to engage in successful reading. Furthermore, texts were modeled and then practiced, essentially following the tenets of the gradual release of responsibility [19]. Thus, in this case, the higher-level texts did not impede their reading growth but, rather, enhanced it. Similarly, researchers have found challenging texts optimal when engaging in close reading protocols [10]. Read Two Impress has had similar success with challenging text since its inception and first use with a third-grade boy named, Emilio (pseudonym).

Emilio started something back in 2009, though his story was not told until 2012 by Mohr, Dixon, and Young. He was a struggling third grader who did not respond to multiple reading interventions and intense guided reading instruction in the classroom. He was approaching a place where students rarely catch their peers in reading—the rich were getting richer, and Emilio was getting poorer [20].

The reading specialist then did some research and presented a few potential interventions to the students. Emilio chose repeated readings [13]. After several weeks, his reading rate and comprehension had improved, and his stagnant reading level shifted positively for the first time in a long while. However, he still read in a monotone voice and appeared to not enjoy reading, despite his progress. Because of his improvement, the reading specialist was hesitant to remove repeated readings as an intervention, and so, it was decided to add neurological impress [14] to improve his reading prosody. The methods were combined and appeared to have a synergistic e ffect on Emilio's reading. By the end of the ten-week intervention, Emilio was reading at grade level with adequate reading fluency and comprehension.

In addition, Emilio showed an interest in reading and claimed his favorite author was Je ff Kinney. This was important because he had no favorite authors or books at the beginning of the intervention [21]. It seemed that he was motivated by his progress, which is why the current study added an additional component to the R2I protocol, reading aloud. While R2I has been used successfully with struggling readers, it seemed there were two missing pieces, including a complete modeling of the text and an opportunity for the student to read the text aloud as a whole.

The genesis of Read Like Me resulted from the promising results of R2I, and while the method improved reading fluency and comprehension, it failed to improve students' attitude [16]. It was decided that the method, while powerful, lacked authenticity. Students were not given the opportunity to read the text as a whole and feel the success of reading a challenging text from beginning to end. Therefore, the researchers added a few other elements, a concept often used with struggling readers typically referred to as "stacked instruction". This approach takes multiple research-based interventions and stacks them to work in a more synergistic and powerful way [21].

Thus, the researchers framed Read Like Me based on a whole-part-whole instructional process in the hopes of adding authenticity while simultaneously stacking instruction. In Read Like Me, the tutor reads the entire text aloud and entertains the student with a prosodic read aloud, then the tutor and student use R2I to assist the student in developing mastery of the text, and finally, the student reads the entire text aloud—in the end, the student engages in successful authentic reading.

#### **2. The Benefits of Reading Aloud**

Reading aloud is one way to model how words printed on a page are converted into oral language with all of the variables of timing, phrasing, intonation, and emphasis (prosody) that speakers use. More simply, reading aloud models how the written word becomes the spoken word. The e ffects of good read alouds on literacy learning have been supported in the literature for many years [22–25]. These include fostering vocabulary growth [26,27], developing listening comprehension [28,29] and expanding an understanding of good sentence and story structure [30,31].

Beyond the cognitive benefits of read alouds (and perhaps more importantly) is the impact on a ffective factors. Choosing to read is determined by attitude and desire [32,33]. Reading aloud positively influences the attitudes of children toward reading and motivates them to want to read [23,34]. Hearing a story read in its entirety, being swept away by the words and the images they create, and experiencing the power of language to cause one to laugh or cry or wonder or hold your breath—all encourage youngsters to want more and, eventually, to be able to read it themselves. Having good models that bring text alive through the natural rhythm and beauty of language, encourages children to want to read just like that.

In Read Like Me, the interventionist begins the session with a powerful read aloud, allowing the child to hear the text in its entirety. Modeling the way language works to create vivid pictures of story, pulls the child into the text right from the start. As the text is revisited in smaller sections (using the impress method), the child is encouraged to use the same timing, phrasing, intonation, and emphasis. At the conclusion of the session, the child reads the whole book back.

As we know from years of research, perception of self as a reader, an a ffective factor, is an important determinate in reading success [35–37]. Using this intervention, Read Like Me, encourages children to see (and hear) themselves as good readers.

#### **3. Significance of the Study**

Early literacy was considered a hot topic and deemed the most important in the 2018 What's Hot What's Not survey [38]. Reading research has been conducted for centuries, but yet, there is still a need for additional reading interventions, as no one intervention will work for every student. Thus, teachers need access to a plethora of options to support young readers who find the process di fficult. This research aimed to describe a newly developed option for reading intervention and to track the growth of a second-grade student who has di fficulty reading for a variety of reasons. The research was guided by the following research question: What are the e ffects of Read Like Me as a supplemental and a standalone intervention for a second-grade student who struggles with reading?
