Reading comprehension strategies for struggling readers

By the IEP Atlas editorial teamLast updated November 1, 2026

Short answer

Reading comprehension strategies are routines a reader uses on purpose to understand text: previewing and predicting, asking questions, monitoring and fixing confusion, finding the main idea, making inferences, using text structure, and summarizing. Struggling readers learn them best when the teacher models one strategy at a time, practices it with the student, then fades support on texts the student can mostly decode.

Strong readers use comprehension strategies without thinking about them. Struggling readers often need each one taught out loud, practiced with a partner, and checked with data. This guide covers which strategies to teach, how to teach them in a before, during and after routine, and how each one turns into a measurable IEP goal.

Each strategy below comes with the goal it leads to and how to measure it. The worked lesson uses one short fictional passage from start to finish.

The short version

Teach a small set of strategies explicitly, one at a time, with modeling and guided practice.
Use texts the student can decode with about 95% word accuracy, or read the text aloud so decoding does not block meaning.
Tie each strategy to a goal with a matching measure: a rubric for retell and summary, accuracy for main idea, opportunities for monitoring.
Check decoding and fluency first. A comprehension goal will not fix a decoding gap.
Teach text structure and build background knowledge alongside the strategies.

Rule out the decoding problem first

Before you plan comprehension work, find out why the student misses questions. Many students referred for comprehension trouble cannot read the words accurately or fast enough. If a 5th grader reads a grade 5 passage at 88% accuracy, the passage is too hard to show what the student understands.

A quick check sorts this out. Give the same passage twice: once read by the student, once read aloud by you. Ask the same kind of questions after each. If the student answers far more questions correctly when listening, the main barrier is word reading. Start with phonics and decoding goals or fluency goals and keep comprehension work going through read-aloud text.

If listening and reading scores are both low, the student needs comprehension and language work. Vocabulary and background knowledge are often part of it. The reading intervention guide walks through this full chain from screening to diagnosis: see reading intervention for students with IEPs.

Two federal practice guides cover comprehension instruction. For kindergarten through grade 3, the What Works Clearinghouse guide recommends teaching students how to use comprehension strategies, teaching them to use text structure, guiding focused discussion about the text, choosing texts on purpose, and building an engaging context for reading.^[1]

For grades 4 to 9, the WWC intervention guide recommends a routine set of comprehension practices. These include building word and world knowledge, having students ask and answer questions, teaching a strategy for finding the main idea, and teaching students to monitor their understanding. It also calls for practice with challenging text, with support.^[2]

The National Reading Panel report reached a similar conclusion earlier: teaching students to use comprehension strategies, alone or several together, improved their understanding of what they read.^[3]

Both guides point the same way. Teach a few strategies explicitly, use them on real text, and talk about the text. A worksheet of practice questions with no modeling is not strategy instruction.

Strategies to teach and the goal each one leads to

Pick 2 or 3 strategies for a year, not 7. The table matches each strategy to a goal type and its measure. Every linked template has full goal wording you can adapt.

Strategy	What the student does	Goal type	How to measure	Template
Main idea	States what a paragraph or section is mostly about	Main idea and details	Percent accuracy on 5 to 10 items	Main idea of informational text
Inference	Answers a question the text does not state, with a clue	Inference with evidence	Rubric points per response	Inferences with text evidence
Retell	Tells a story's parts in order in own words	Narrative retell	Story grammar rubric	Retell with story grammar parts
Summary	Sums up a section in 1 or 2 sentences	Summarizing	Summary rubric	One-sentence summary of a paragraph
Text structure	Names the structure and organizes the ideas	Text structure	Percent accuracy	Name a passage's structure
Monitoring	Notices confusion and uses a fix-up step	Comprehension monitoring	Opportunities out of planned stops	Use a fix-up strategy
Questioning	Writes and answers a question for each section	Asking questions	Opportunities out of sections	Question for each section

Use rubric scoring for retell, summary and inference. Use percent accuracy when items are right or wrong. Use opportunities when you count whether a strategy was used at each planned stop. For dozens more goals by grade, see the comprehension goals page and the reading comprehension strategies goal hub.

Main idea

Teach the main idea as a question the student can answer. A simple frame works: "Who or what is this about? What is the most important thing about it?" Have the student cross out details that do not answer the second question. The main idea goal hub has goals for single paragraphs through full articles.

Inference

An inference joins a clue in the text with something the reader already knows. Teach it as an equation: text clue plus what I know equals my inference. Require the clue every time. An answer without a clue is a guess, even when it is right. See the inferencing goal hub.

Retell and summary

Retell is longer and keeps the order of events. Summary is short and keeps only what matters most. Younger students start with retell using story grammar: character, setting, problem, events, solution. Older students move to summary. Goals for both are in the retelling hub and the sequencing hub.

Text structure

Informational text comes in a few common patterns: description, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Teach the signal words for each, then a graphic organizer that matches. A student who knows a passage is cause and effect knows what to look for.

Comprehension monitoring

Monitoring is noticing that meaning broke down. Many struggling readers keep reading after a sentence stops making sense. Teach a stop signal, such as a sticky note or a tap, and a short fix-up list: reread the sentence, read ahead one sentence, look at a picture or heading, ask what a word means.

A before, during and after routine

This routine takes about 20 to 25 minutes with a short text. The fictional passage below is used for every step. It fits a 4th or 5th grader reading near a grade 3 level.

Before reading (5 minutes)

Set a purpose and wake up what the student knows.

Read the title or first sentence aloud and ask what the student knows about beavers.
Teach 2 words the passage depends on: "dam" and "lodge." Show a picture of each.
Ask for a prediction: "What do you think beavers change?"
Name the purpose: "Read to find out how beavers change the land."

During reading (10 minutes)

Stop at planned points and practice one strategy out loud.

Model first. After sentence 4, think aloud: "Water backs up behind the dam. I think that means the water piles up because it cannot get past."
Monitoring stop. After sentence 5, ask: "Did that make sense? Why would an underwater door keep beavers safe?" If the student is unsure, reread together.
Question stop. Have the student write one question the passage answers, such as "What do beavers use to build a dam?"
Inference stop. Ask: "Why might the frogs leave if the dam breaks?" Expect a clue ("the pond can drain") and a link to knowledge ("frogs need water").

After reading (5 to 10 minutes)

Pull the ideas together.

Main idea. Ask what the passage is mostly about. Target answer: beavers build dams that make ponds, and the ponds change the land for other animals.
Structure. Ask the student to fill a cause and effect organizer: dam built, then pond forms, then new homes for animals.
Summary. Have the student write one sentence. Score it on a 4-point rubric: main topic, most important idea, own words, no small details.

Record one data point for the goal you are tracking. On a rubric scoring data sheet, that might be the summary score: 2 of 4 today.

Teach each strategy in four moves

Each strategy goes through the same release of support. Plan 2 to 4 weeks per strategy before you combine them.

Explain and model. Name the strategy, say when to use it, and think aloud on a short text.
Guided practice. Do it together. You prompt, the student does the work, you give feedback right away.
Partner or supported practice. The student uses a cue card while you watch and score.
Independent use. Remove the cue card and test on an unpracticed passage.

Reciprocal teaching combines four strategies (predict, question, clarify, summarize) in a small group with rotating roles. It works well once students know each strategy alone. A goal for it is carry out reciprocal teaching roles.

Choosing the text

Strategy practice needs text the student can mostly read. Aim for the student's instructional level when the student reads it, or grade-level text when you read it aloud. Short informational passages of 100 to 300 words fit one lesson.

Do not stay on easy text all year. Older students also need practice making sense of harder grade-level text with support, such as a read-aloud, a preview of key words, or text-to-speech.^[2] Plan both: instructional-level text to learn the strategy, grade-level text to apply it.

Worked example: one strategy across 12 weeks

A fictional 5th grader, Andre, decodes grade 4 text at 96% accuracy and reads 98 words correct per minute. His decoding is close to grade level. On 3 baseline probes of unpracticed grade 4 informational passages, he stated the main idea correctly on 3 of 10, 4 of 10 and 3 of 10 paragraphs. His median baseline is 30%.

The team writes a goal from the main idea template: "Given an unpracticed grade 4 informational passage of 5 to 10 paragraphs, Andre will state the main idea of each paragraph in his own words with 80% accuracy on 3 consecutive biweekly probes."

Week	Instruction	Probe score
1 to 2	Model the who or what frame on single paragraphs	3 of 10
3 to 4	Guided practice, cross out details	5 of 10
5 to 6	Cue card, partner practice	5 of 10
7 to 8	Cue card faded, mixed paragraphs	7 of 10
9 to 10	Independent, longer passages	7 of 10
11 to 12	Independent, social studies text	8 of 10

The numbers are illustrations, not benchmarks. The flat stretch in weeks 5 and 6 is normal. The team kept the plan because the student's errors changed from naming a detail to naming the topic without the key point. That is a step forward the score alone hides, which is why you should note error types on the data sheet.

Common mistakes

Weak: Teaching 7 strategies in a month. Better: Teach one strategy for 2 to 4 weeks, then add the next.
Weak: Asking questions with no modeling. Better: Think aloud first, then guide, then fade.
Weak: Practicing on text the student reads at 85% accuracy. Better: Use instructional-level text, or read the text aloud.
Weak: Accepting an inference with no clue. Better: Ask "What in the text made you think that?" every time.
Weak: Measuring every strategy with "percent of questions correct." Better: Match the measure to the strategy, as in the table above. The guide on how to measure reading comprehension for IEP goals shows each method.

From strategy to IEP goal

Once you know which strategy the student needs, the goal follows. The IEP must state measurable annual goals and how progress will be measured and reported.^[4] Name the text type and level, the strategy, the criterion and the measure.

For 16 worked goals with baselines across main idea, inference, retell, summary and more, see IEP goals for reading comprehension. For goals across all reading skills, see IEP goal examples for reading. Paste your draft into the goal checker to catch vague wording before the meeting.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most effective reading comprehension strategies for struggling readers?

Main idea, questioning, comprehension monitoring, text structure, inference and summarizing are the core set. Teach them explicitly with modeling and guided practice, one or two at a time, on text the student can mostly decode. Discussion about the text and background knowledge matter as much as the strategy itself.

How many comprehension strategies should an IEP target?

One to three per year. Each needs several weeks of modeling and guided practice before the student can use it alone. Pick the strategies that match the student's error pattern, such as naming details instead of the main idea, or answering inference questions with no clue.

Should comprehension practice use grade-level text?

Use both. Teach a new strategy on text the student reads with about 95% word accuracy. Apply it to grade-level text with support, such as a read-aloud or text-to-speech, so the student keeps access to grade-level content and vocabulary.

Is reciprocal teaching appropriate for students with IEPs?

Yes, once the student can use each of its parts alone. Reciprocal teaching rotates the roles of predicting, questioning, clarifying and summarizing in a small group. Teach each role first, then combine them, and score each student's role on a short rubric.

Use it in IEP Atlas

Sources

Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9, What Works Clearinghouse, Institute of Education Sciences
Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
34 CFR §300.320: Definition of individualized education program, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

Written and checked by the IEP Atlas editorial team under our editorial policy. This guide describes general practice and federal rules. It is not legal advice; your state may add requirements, and the IEP team makes the decisions for each student.