The ability to read is essential for academic success and full participation in the home, school, community and workplace. Many secondary students with disabilities struggle with reading.

The ability to read is essential for academic success and full participation in the home, school, community and workplace.  Many secondary students with disabilities struggle with reading.  This article identifies two successful instructional reading models that have been designed and developed specifically for secondary students with disabilities.  The two models are Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) (Klingner & Vaughn, 1998), and Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) (Deshler & Schumaker, 1988).  Both these models include four factors identified by Peterson, Caverly, Nicholson, O'Neal and Cusenbary (2000) as necessary for students to become proficient readers: 1) motivation, 2) ability to decode, 3) ability to comprehend, and 4) ability to transact with text, ie. actively seek information and respond to it.  The SIM model also includes Concept Enhancement Routines that help teachers manage and present information in ways that help students learn.  These routines can help students connect concepts they already know to ones they are learning and can be used for organizing, understanding, recall and application of concepts. (author/jlkrause)