Last Updated: 7/13/2026
By: Amy Schlueter
“We’ve tried everything.” As a reading specialist, I hear that phrase every year. Heck, sometimes I even say it!
Every now and then it’s true. But sometimes “everything” really means:
- We referred the student to intervention.
- We crossed our fingers.
- We hoped 30 minutes a day would magically erase years of reading struggles.
- We are basing our opinion on the past performance of other students
I hate to break it to you, but reading specialists don’t own magic wands. If we did, trust me, we’d use them- ALOT.
Imagine walking into school with a giant wand labeled “Instant Decoding Skills.” I promise you, it would be the first thing packed in my bag- right next to my lunch and my computer.
Unfortunately, literacy growth doesn’t work that way. Don’t get me wrong. Reading intervention can be incredibly powerful. I’ve watched students make unbelievable growth when they receive explicit, systematic, evidence-based instruction.
But here’s the reality: Intervention was never designed to work alone.
A student might spend 44 minutes a day with me. They’ll spend the other six hours in their Tier 1 or Instructional classroom. That’s not pressure.
That’s power.
Before any classroom teacher starts stress-eating potato chips after reading that sentence, let me reassure you: This is not another article telling you to completely overhaul your reading block or add twelve more things to your already overflowing to-do list. You already wear enough hats.
Teacher. Nurse. Tech support. Lost-and-found coordinator. Professional pencil finder. (Seriously…where do all the pencils go?) Therapist. Referee.
You do so much! So this isn’t “one more thing.” This is truly about recognizing the incredible influence you already have and making a few intentional shifts that can strengthen the impact of intervention.
Because reading specialists aren’t the only ones who make a difference. Not even close.
First, Let’s Bust a Myth
One of the biggest misconceptions about reading intervention is that struggling readers are “sent to intervention to get fixed.” And that’s a big, fat no.
Reading intervention isn’t a car repair shop. Students don’t get dropped off with decoding problems and picked up a few months later reading chapter books. The actual reading growth happens when Tier 1 instruction and intervention work together, reinforcing the same evidence-based practices day after day.
Think of it this way: Intervention is the targeted practice. Tier 1 is the daily reinforcement.
Students need both. When those two worlds are aligned, students don’t just improve. They thrive.
Five Ways Tier 1 Can Supercharge Reading Intervention
1. Protect Intervention Time Like It’s Today’s Lunch Break
Imagine telling a student:
“Sorry, you can’t go to lunch today because you need to finish yesterday’s lunch.” Wait, what?
And yet, struggling readers are often pulled from their intervention to make up classroom work, finish tests, complete projects, or go to assemblies. Recently, my district has been protecting students’ intervention time with the highest priority and that makes my heart glad because intervention only works when students actually receive it. Captain obvious, right?
But seriously, whenever possible, protect that time. Those thirty or forty minutes aren’t extra. They’re essential. A student who needs intervention isn’t missing out on something else. They’re receiving the instruction they need to access everything else.
2. Give Students Lots of Opportunities to Actually Read
This sounds obvious. It isn’t. Sometimes struggling readers spend more time listening than reading. Or waiting for their turn. Or completing worksheets. Or scrunching down into their seat hoping you won’t see them or call on them or notice them…
How do you get better at playing the piano? Practice. How do you get better at gardening? By gardening. We can only get better at something by actually doing it. Students need frequent opportunities to apply the skills they are learning in connected text at their instructional reading level. Not perfectly. Not flawlessly. But successfully enough that they experience growth.
Every successful reading experience strengthens the pathways their brains are building. And where is the best place for this to take place? Small reading groups. Students get lost (or they quickly learn to hide) in the whole group setting. Opportunity, discussion, wait time, and your undivided attention can really only take place when you’ve got that focused time with them.
3. Reinforce What They’re Learning in Intervention
Here’s some good news:
You don’t need to become a reading specialist overnight. You don’t need to teach a full phonics lesson. You don’t need to add another binder to your already impressive collection.
But if you know your students are learning vowel teams, prefixes, suffixes, syllable types, or multisyllabic word strategies during intervention… Point them out. Celebrate when students use those skills independently.
Use similar language. For example: “How many vowels do you see? Let’s chunk that word into parts.” Those tiny moments of reinforcement matter. Students learn faster when the adults around them sound like they are on the same team. Because they are.
4. Please Stop Teaching Students to Guess
I know. Some of us were taught strategies like:
“Look at the picture.”
“Skip the word.”
“Look at the first letter”
Those strategies may help students survive one page. They don’t help them become stronger readers. Strong readers don’t guess their way through text. They solve words.
Instead, try prompts like:
- “What sound does that spelling make?”
- “Read the whole word.”
- “What pattern do you notice?”
- “Try that again.”
- “I think you’re missing a sound- let’s sound that out slowly together.”
We are teaching students to become word detectives—not word guessers.
5. Praise the Process, Not Just the Product
Many struggling readers have spent years believing they are “bad at reading.” They don’t need another reminder that they aren’t the fastest reader in class. They need opportunities to recognize their own growth.
Celebrate:
- Using a decoding strategy independently.
- Self-correcting.
- Rereading when something doesn’t make sense.
- Sticking with a challenging word instead of giving up.
- Applying a skill they learned in intervention.
Confidence isn’t built by pretending reading is easy. Confidence is built by showing students they are becoming more capable every day. I often like to show my students how far they’ve come through direct evidence. In the classroom think test scores, quizzes, writing pieces, reading levels, etc. Like marking the wall as your children grow each birthday, we don’t see the growth day-to-day until we look back.
Reading Success Is a Team Sport
As reading specialists, we provide targeted instruction. Classroom teachers provide something just as valuable: Daily opportunities to reinforce those skills. Neither role is more important than the other. They are different pieces of the same puzzle. When intervention teaches a skill on Tuesday… The classroom reinforces it on Wednesday… Students practice it again on Thursday… That’s when the magic happens.
When adults work together with consistency and purpose it can almost feel like the results are magic. But the truth is, struggling readers rarely need more random activities. They need more adults pulling in the same direction. And when Tier 1 instruction and intervention work as partners instead of separate worlds, students don’t just become better readers. They begin to believe they can become readers.
And that is where real transformation begins.
🤓 Research Nerd Corner
The Research Behind Why Tier 1 Matters
📖 Gersten, R., et al. (2009).
Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades.
Where it all began…This foundational practice guide emphasizes that strong core instruction is essential and that intervention should supplement—not replace—high-quality Tier 1 reading instruction.
📖 Al Otaiba, S., Connor, C. M., Folsom, J. S., Wanzek, J., Greulich, L., Schatschneider, C., & Wagner, R. K. (2014).
To Wait in Tier 1 or Intervene Immediately: A Randomized Experiment Examining First Grade Response to Intervention in Reading.
This study highlights the importance of providing effective instruction and timely support rather than waiting for struggling readers to fall further behind.
📖 National Center on Intensive Intervention. (2013).
Implementing Intensive Intervention: Lessons Learned from the Field.
This is the “how do we actually make this work on Monday morning?” guide—sharing real-world lessons from schools that successfully implemented intensive intervention through strong systems, collaboration, progress monitoring, and consistent support for struggling learners.
📖 Shanahan, T. (2023).
A Review of the Evidence on Tier 1 Instruction for Readers With Dyslexia.
This review reinforces that students with dyslexia benefit from strong classroom instruction. Intervention is not a replacement for Tier 1—it is an additional layer of support.
Bottom line: Students make the greatest gains when the adults around them use consistent, evidence-based practices across settings.
📚 Amy’s Bookshelf
This Month’s Favorite Read
Implementing Intensive Intervention: Lessons Learned from the Field
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you are looking for a research-based resource that actually explains how to make intensive intervention work in real schools, this is it. Many research articles explain what schools should do. This one digs into how schools successfully put those ideas into practice. It highlights the importance of:
- collaboration
- leadership support
- scheduling
- progress monitoring
- staff expertise
- building systems that last
Basically, it’s the “here’s what this looks like when humans (not theories) have to implement it” resource. And as a teacher, that’s the kind of research I can get excited about.
One Last Thought
If you’re a classroom teacher reading this, THANK YOU. You don’t have to be a reading specialist to change a child’s reading future. Every time you reinforce a decoding strategy… or celebrate growth… or give a struggling reader another chance to practice successfully…You are helping build a stronger reader.
You have more power than you think. Reading specialists don’t create readers alone. Classroom teachers don’t create readers alone. But together?
That’s where the magic happens.
Oh, and if you’re thinking about how you’re going to keep the rest of your students busy while you’re meeting with your small group, check out my games and activities for struggling readers. Until next time, happy teaching!