Essential Reading Intervention Materials All Teachers Need

Last updated on September 29th, 2024 at 07:17 pm

It’s back-to-school time! Whether you just went back this week, like me, or you’ve been back, or are going back soon, it is upon us. I am so happy to be back as a reading interventionist for a third year! Back when I first started college, I had no idea this was the position I’d end up pursuing and becoming passionate about. But, here I am!

I thought I learned a lot about teaching reading as a lower elementary teacher, but there has been SO much more to learn. One of which, is what essential reading intervention materials are needed for teachers who provide some sort of reading intervention to their students. Which is, most likely, ALL teachers!

When providing reading intervention for students, you need to know if the students need basic foundational skills, comprehension skills, or a blend of the two. This will determine what materials you will need for each group you are working with. That is why I am going to sort this list by foundational skills materials and comprehension materials. For a blended group, you will use a mix of the materials listed in both.

Foundational Skills Essential Reading Intervention Materials

1. Tools for Hearing Sounds- If your students struggle with phonemic awareness, you will need at least one tool for students to use to help them focus on hearing the individual sounds in words. I suggest having multiple. Students will stay more engaged by swapping out materials, and what works for one student may not work for another. These tools can, also, be used for sound chunking, as in hearing and counting syllables in words. Here are some tools I have used in the past that worked for my students!

• The most budget-friendly is grids on paper. You can make boxes known as Elkonin boxes for students to use. They can have 2-5 boxes and students can tap their finger in the boxes for each sound they hear or you can provide a manipulative, such as foam dots, mini-erasers, Bingo chips, etc. Then, slide their finger under the boxes to read the word.
• One I just tried this past year with much success are Pop-Its! I have 10-frame Pop-Its, but you could use any Pop-It for popping sounds. Say a word, students pop one bubble for each sound, then run their finger under the bubbles popped to read the word. Here is my Amazon affiliate link to the Pop-Its!
• Another one my students enjoyed was Play-Doh. Each student had a small can of Play-Doh labeled with their name that they used for the year. To use it for sounds, we held up a finger for each sound we heard in a word, then we rolled a small ball for each sound. Once the balls were made we sounded out the word again, smushing one ball per sound to see if we were correct. Then, slid our finger under all the balls to read the word. Click here to purchase Play Doh through my Amazon affiliate link.
• Beads on a pipe cleaner is another tool that can be easily made. I placed 4 beads of different colors on a piece of pipe cleaner and folded over the ends. Students slid a bead from right to left for each sound and then pushed all the beads over from left to right to read the whole word. That way students were reading in the correct reading direction. The only issue with this was students would push the beads too hard and they would come off the pipe cleaner or get stuck in the folded crease.

2. Alphabet Letter Manipulatives- I have small magnetic letters and boards. One for each student in my group. With these we are able to build words and manipulate them. Typically we use them for word chaining activities. If students are still learning the alphabet, these can be used for putting letters in order. The alphabet letters do not have to be magnetic. You could use letters on cards as well.

For more on using magnetic letter tiles, check out my post Magnetic Letters: A Mighty Literacy Tool.

3. Something for Students to Write On with Writing Utensil- This could be as easy as notebooks or looseleaf paper and pencils. Each of my students has a notebook for recording dictated words and sentences, and for doing word sorts. I, also, have whiteboards with dry erase markers and my Elkonin box sheets are in page protectors, so they can be written on. You could, also, laminate them to be able to write on them. Having students write is essential because you need to see how students are encoding words and how they form their letters. By analyzing what your students are recording, you will begin to see a pattern to the errors they are making and know what you need to teach to correct these errors.

4. Decodable Texts- Decodable texts aren’t always the most engaging of stories, but for beginning readers they are a must-have. They don’t have to be the only books you use. In fact, I suggest that they aren’t. However, decodable books help students to gain confidence in their reading abilities. By teaching students phonics rules and decoding skills, they will be able to read more words than if they are only memorizing sight words or following a book pattern where they are highly relying on the pictures to read words (which are not usually read accurately). Students are able to practice using these new skills by reading decodable texts. There are many ways to get decodable texts cheaply or even for free. These are a couple websites that have some excellent free ones:

Or check out my post on the Top 10 Ways to Build Your Classroom Library on a Budget for more ideas!

Comprehension Skills Essential Reading Intervention Materials

1. Graphic Organizers- There are so many different graphic organizers out there to choose from! Choose a small variety for both fiction and nonfiction texts. The simple ones are best! They don’t need to be graphically fancy or have too many boxes to fill in. Graphic organizers that students can quickly recreate on paper are fantastic because, then, students can always easily access them for use. When students struggle with comprehension, graphic organizers help students to sort out the information they are looking for in their brain. Here are a couple places for free graphic organizers to get you started:

2. Vocabulary Four Square Graphic Organizer- I place this one separate from graphic organizers because understanding vocabulary is such an important part of comprehension. You can search for free versions online. I came across this type of graphic organizer through my LETRS training. If you are not familiar with LETRS training, check out my post on it here: LETRS: What is it? What does it entail?

3. Highlighters or Highlighting Tape- Highlighters or highlighting tape are used to highlight important information in a text. Use highlighters for text in workbooks or on worksheets and use highlighting tape in books you don’t want marked up permanantly. You could, also, have a variety of colors and assign them different meanings. One color for vocabulary words, one for main idea, one for details, etc. When students highlight, you can see exactly where your students’ thinking is correct and where there are errors to work on. Highlighting, also, helps students be able to quickly go back into a text to locate information they are looking for.

4. Sticky Notes- Sticky notes are used similar to highlighters. They are used to mark important information in a text. However, with sticky notes, students will elaborate. They can write questions that they have about certain parts, mark areas of confusion, and make note of interesting/favorite parts of a text.

5. Notebook/paper and writing utensils- Students need a place to keep their writing. A notebook is a great way to keep it organized and in one place. Comprehension of a text usually lends itself to writing information down in some form to show that a text was understood. Some comprehension will be done verbally, but, ultimately, we want students writing about their reading!

6. Reading Material- I mean, of course! We can’t teach students to read or comprehend what they’ve read without material to read. However, be selective about what you choose. Keep the skill level of your students in mind when selecting reading material for your students. Make sure there is a blend of fiction and nonfiction, along with different forms of each. Try to make the topics ones your students will be interested in reading about the best that you can. However, use what you’ve got. If your school/district uses a curriculum with books, find a way to use them. Not all books are created equal, believe me, I know! But, use the best parts of what you got. Don’t go broke trying to provide the “perfect” reading material for your students, but to help get a wider selection without breaking the bank check out my post that I mention above: Top 10 Ways to Build Your Classroom Library on a Budget

Tools Aren’t Enough!

You have supplied your students with the tools they need to succeed, now what? It’s not enough just to provide your students with these tools and hope they will learn to read and comprehend what they’ve read. Now you have to apply your knowledge and teach those students how to use those tools effectively. Have faith in yourself and trust yourself. You have a lot of knowledge stored up in you, whether a beginner or an experienced teacher. But, if you are looking for more knowledge about how to teach students to read, I highly recommend the LETRS program. I just completed this two year program at the end of last school year. For more on that, I have a few posts you may be interested in: LETRS Training Update, LETRS Training: Final Update!

This list is NOT an all-inclusive list of reading intervention materials available, but it IS a list of the ones I have found to be the most essential when teaching my students. This is a good starting place when just starting out as a reading interventionist or as a regular education teacher providing some intervention in the classroom. With the exception of books, where you will need a bookshelf or bins to store them, the storage for these materials is minimal. A shelf and/or a few drawers will do. Please let me know in the comments which items you use and/or add any that you deem essential!

Disclaimer: I am not being compensated for endorsing the LETRS program in any way. The opinions shared are strictly my own.