Reading involves the recognition and decoding of printed text and the comprehension of that text.  A child who is a remedial reader struggles with reading in any of the skill areas.

            1. Decoding or pronouncing the individual letters and words.
            2. Comprehension of the text’s meaning.

                Literal comprehension is when the student recalls the details of the passage that is directly stated,
                remembers a sequence of events, states the main ideas, and explains meaning of vocabulary words.

                Interpretive comprehension is when a student makes judgements and draws conclusions from
                what he/she has read, determines author’s point of view, figures out the mood and tone of the story,
                and recognizes facts from opinions.

**Comprehension involves active thinking before, during, and after reading that causes the reader to interact with the text.

                        Independent reading level  - The student’s word recognition is 95% or better
                                                                        with 85% comprehension or better.

                        Instructional reading level – The student’s word recognition is 90% or better
                                                                        with 75% comprehension or better.

                        Frustrational reading level – The student’s word recognition is 85% or less
                                                                        with 50% or less comprehension.

        To check if the textbook or reading material you are using is too hard for the student to read, select
a 100 word passage and have the child read it out loud to you. Mark words he misses and figure out the percent.
Then ask him/her to anwer questions about this passage and figure out percent.  If the student falls in either the independent or instructional reading level this material is fine.