Tips for reading specialists who want results… and still like their job by Friday.
Last Updated: February 28, 2026
By: Amy Schlueter
Let’s be honest for a second.
Being a reading specialist can feel a little like being a detective, coach, and motivational speaker all before lunch. One minute you’re analyzing assessment data, the next you’re teaching phonics patterns, and five minutes later you’re helping a teacher organize her small groups.
But here’s the good news: when you lean into structured literacy instruction, develop your craft, hone your intuition and add a little creativity- something amazing happens. Students start making real progress—and suddenly your job becomes one of the most rewarding roles in education.
After ten years working with struggling readers—and training in multiple structured literacy programs—I’ve learned a few things about becoming a literacy rockstar.
And no guitar required—just strong phonics knowledge, great problem solving skills and a lot of patience.
1. Master the Science So You Can Be Creative
Programs grounded in the science of reading—like Wilson Reading System® and Orton-Gillingham—provide a clear roadmap for teaching struggling readers.
These approaches use explicit, systematic phonics instruction, which is exactly what students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties need. And once you understand the structure behind effective literacy instruction, teaching becomes much easier.
The biggest myth about structured literacy is that it’s rigid or boring. In reality, structure gives you freedom because now you have a roadmap…You can detour around tricky concepts by trying different teaching methods and still arrive at your destination. Structured literacy helps students systematically learn: phoneme awareness, phonics patterns, syllable types, morphology, fluency, and comprehension
Once that structure is in place, you’re free to bring energy, humor, and creativity to the lesson.
The sequence stays the same.
The delivery? That’s where your personality shines.
Games, movement, competition, and a little suspense can turn phonics practice into something students actually look forward to.
Structure keeps instruction effective.
Creativity keeps students engaged.
Rockstars need both.
2. Engagement Is Not Extra — It’s Essential
Programs grounded in the science of reading—like Wilson Reading System and Orton-Gillingham—provide a clear roadmap for teaching struggling readers.
These approaches use explicit, systematic phonics instruction, which is exactly what students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties need. And once you understand the structure behind effective literacy instruction, teaching becomes much easier.
Why?
Struggling readers often carry years of frustration. Many of them quietly believe something like, “Reading just isn’t my thing.” But our job is to change that narrative. Engagement is not fluff—it’s the gateway to learning.
A few strategies that work especially well:
Turn practice into games.
Suddenly decoding words becomes exciting when there’s a chance to win.
Add suspense.
Mystery words, surprise cards, or quick competitions make practice memorable.
Let students move.
Standing, slapping, sorting, tossing beanbags onto sounds—movement strengthens memory.
Celebrate small wins.
Reading -_le endings correctly might seem tiny to us, but for a struggling reader it can feel huge.
The best sign you’re doing it right?
When students ask, “Can we play that again?”
3. Become Obsessed with Phonics Patterns
Literacy rockstars know phonics patterns the way musicians know chords. One of the biggest shifts that happens after a few years in reading intervention is that you stop seeing errors as mistakes. You start seeing patterns.
A student reads brade instead of bread?
That points to a vowel team issue.
A student reads hopping for hoping?
That’s syllable pattern confusion.
Experienced reading specialists quickly learn to diagnose decoding errors and connect them to specific phonics skills that need reinforcement.
Once you develop this lens, planning intervention lessons becomes much more precise—and much more effective. If you’ve worked with struggling readers long enough, you know this truth: Worksheets rarely inspire excitement.But turn the exact same phonics practice into a game, and suddenly students are leaning forward, arguing about whose turn it is, and begging to play again. And it’s essential to use games of all types- not just the ones that reward speed, but ACCURACY. Then those kiddos who take a little more time to process suddenly start to win games. 🎉
4. Keep Your Lessons Predictable (Students Actually Love It)
Struggling readers deal with a lot of cognitive overload during the day. A consistent lesson structure removes unnecessary stress. When students know the rhythm of a lesson, they can focus their brainpower on learning instead of guessing what’s coming next.
A predictable routine might look like:
- Quick review
- Word reading or sorting
- Fluency
- Reading controlled text, then authentic text
- Spelling practice
- Game
Once that structure becomes familiar, something wonderful happens.
Students begin to feel competent. Confidence grows. Stamina increases. Participation increases.
And the student who once avoided reading suddenly volunteers.
5. Use Humor to Lower Stress and Build Connection
Struggling readers spend a lot of their day feeling pressure. They’re trying to keep up, trying not to make mistakes, and sometimes trying not to draw attention to themselves at all.
One of the best things you can do as a reading specialist is lower the emotional temperature of the room.
Students don’t need perfection. They need connection—and a learning environment where it feels safe to try.
Humor is one of the fastest ways to get there.
Some of the most effective lessons I’ve taught didn’t come from fancy materials. They came from moments like:
- reading a fluency passage in a silly voice
- using completely ridiculous sentences (A cute mule in rose glasses ate a grape while it rode a bike.)
- letting students help create the silliest sentence possible with the target phonics pattern
- treating decoding mistakes like puzzles instead of problems
When students start laughing, something important happens. The tension disappears. Instead of worrying about getting every word right, they’re willing to take risks, try decoding, and keep going when a word gets tricky. Sometimes a student will guess a crazy letter in a game of hangman and the whole group bursts out laughing. That moment might look small, but it’s actually powerful. The student just played a game without being embarrassed and actually enjoyed it.
Now reading isn’t just work.
It’s something they can actually enjoy—and that’s a huge step forward for struggling readers.
6. Track Growth (Because It’s Easy to Forget)
Progress in structured literacy can feel slow. Sometimes very slow. But when you zoom out over months instead of days, the growth becomes clear. The student who struggled to blend CVC words in September may be reading two-syllable words or vowel digraphs by spring.
The student who guessed at every word may now be analyzing syllable types. I’ve worked with Wyatt (now a 6th grader) for the past 18 months. He was in my lowest group- reading about 50 words a minute (fall of 5th grade) and butchering anything with a vowel digraph. Now? His most recent ORF was 148 wpm, he’s reading grade level text and I’m releasing him from intensive reading support when he enters 7th grade in the fall. That’s huge! Not just for Wyatt’s academic life, but for the rest of it.
Is it laborious? Boring? Yes and yes. How do you keep track of all that data? Running records and graphs, mostly. But tracking progress reminds you of something important: Your work is changing students’ futures.
7. Step Into Your Role as a Literacy Leader
One of the most overlooked parts of being a reading specialist is this: You are not just an interventionist teaching one specific intervention. You’re a literacy leader in your building.
Because you work closely with struggling readers, you often notice patterns others miss.You see which students truly need intervention, which students might succeed with stronger Tier 1 instruction, which groups are mismatched, which scheduling decisions could help (or hurt) student progress.
Reading specialists often have valuable insights when it comes to:
Student grouping.
You understand decoding levels, skill gaps, and the whole child picture better than anyone.
Supporting classroom teachers.
Sharing quick phonics strategies, generating ideas for differentiated centers, and communicating with parents can make a huge difference.
Scheduling recommendations.
You may notice when a student needs a different placement next year or when a class roster could create better learning dynamics.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is simply speak up and share what you’re seeing.
Your perspective matters.
8. Protect Your Own Joy
Here’s something every literacy rockstar eventually learns. You cannot pour energy into students if your own tank is empty. Protect your enthusiasm.
That might mean:
- trying new games
- collaborating with other reading specialists or sign up for a PD webinar
- celebrating small classroom victories
- remembering that perfection is not the goal
Progress is.
And when a student who once hated reading looks up and says: “That word was actually easy.”
That moment?
That’s the standing ovation.
Final Thoughts
When you combine structured literacy instruction, engaging lessons, strong phonics knowledge, and a little humor, something powerful happens.
Students who once avoided reading begin to participate.
Confidence grows.
Skills improve.
And the students who once believed they weren’t “good at reading” start to see themselves differently.
That’s the real goal of reading intervention.
Not just better decoding.
But students who believe they can succeed.
And that’s exactly what literacy rockstars do. 🎸📚