Which strategy should the diagnostician suggest to the student s teacher to support reading?

• A. Increase recitation practice
• B. Focus only on decoding
• C. Add more spelling drills
• D. Reading intervention focusing on comprehension skills and tracking the students progress using a curriculum-based assessment (CBA) weekly

Answer: (D)

Reading comprehension is the essential outcome, so the most effective plan combines explicit instruction in comprehension strategies with ongoing progress monitoring. A reading intervention positioned to improve understanding should teach strategies like predicting, questioning, summarizing, and clarifying, provide guided practice with texts at the student’s level, and use a curriculum-based assessment weekly to track progress. This data-driven approach lets the teacher adjust instruction, support, and pacing based on whether the student is advancing within the actual curriculum.

Clocking in weekly progress checks is key because it shows whether the student is responding to intervention and helps determine if the supports should stay the same, intensify, or change. Merely increasing recitation practice mainly boosts fluency without directly improving comprehension. Focusing only on decoding addresses word recognition but not understanding. Adding more spelling drills supports decoding skills but again doesn’t focus on comprehension or progress monitoring. The strategy that centers on comprehension instruction with weekly progress data best aligns with how reading improvement is actually achieved.