You’re well into the school year, and many students haven’t made the reading progress you hoped for—whether they’re struggling with multisyllabic words, guessing on new words, or losing confidence.

The encouraging news is that there is still plenty of time left to get them on the right track!

Spring is often when students make the biggest leaps, especially when we align intervention with what we know from the Science of Reading.

This blog post walks you through three strategies that help both classroom teachers and reading specialists support students who need a boost before summer.

Why Mid-Year Intervention Matters

By this point in the year, students understand routines, intervention blocks are established, and foundational skills have been introduced. 

That means every minute of small-group time is more productive. This is the moment when targeted intervention can truly accelerate progress.

Students have the background knowledge needed for more direct instruction, and you have enough data to tailor support to individual students’ needs.

Research reminds us that student growth happens when instruction matches those needs precisely.

As Timothy Shanahan explains, “Growth is more likely when we match instruction precisely to what students need, rather than giving them more of the same.”

The message here is simple: it’s not about doing more. It’s about doing the right things consistently.

Step 1: Focus on Foundational Gaps

Many students stall mid-year because of hidden gaps in phonemic awareness, phonics skills, or word recognition. A short diagnostic check can help you pinpoint exactly where to focus.

Reassess Accuracy and Needs

To effectively pinpoint gaps, your diagnostic review should go beyond a simple fluency check. Focus on the core building blocks:

• Decoding and Blending (Reading Accuracy): Check the students’ ability to blend sounds into words and decode specific phonics patterns.
• Vowel and Syllable Patterns: Diagnose specific phonics gaps by checking for secure knowledge across the full progression of vowel patterns: short vowels (typically K-1), long vowels and vowel teams (grades 1-3), and r-controlled vowels (grades 2-4). Mastery of these patterns forms the essential bridge for students to successfully approach complex multisyllabic words (grades 2-5).
• Encoding/Spelling: Assess the student’s ability to successfully map sounds to letters, which is the mechanism for making words instantly recognizable.

Remember to check for these foundational skills even with older students, as they may have compensating strategies that mask these specific phonics gaps.

One of the simplest ways to get this precise data is by using a quick, evidence-based diagnostic assessment.

This Free Phonics Diagnostic Assessment provides a structured way to check both decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) skills. This resource is ideal for pinpointing foundational gaps, specifically in K–2 students, and gives you clear next steps for targeted intervention.

For a more comprehensive tool or assessments designed for older students, scroll down to learn about the resources available in the Reading Intervention Collaborative (RIC).

Use Short Daily Review

A brief but consistent routine (5-7 minutes) helps strengthen new learning and move skills into automaticity. You can integrate these routines as warm-ups for any small group:

• Sound Mapping Practice: Use Elkonin boxes to guide students in segmenting sounds and matching them to letters for 4-5 targeted words daily. This is key for phonemic awareness and phonics application.
• Targeted Word Study Activities: Dedicate time to having students spell words on whiteboards (and build words with magnetic letters) and write sentences that specifically use the phonics pattern you are currently teaching.
• Decodable Text Rereading: Students should reread a text that aligns exactly with their current phonics focus. Rereading builds fluency and confidence with the targeted pattern.
• Oral Reading Fluency Warm-ups: Use a short, challenging passage (at their instructional level) for timed reading once or twice a week to track growth and practice expression.

These routines reinforce foundational literacy skills that the National Reading Panel and current, evidence-based reading research call key components of proficient reading.

RIC Tools You Can Use Today

Inside the Reading Intervention Collaborative (RIC), you’ll find (K-5) resources that support both interventionists and classroom teachers, such as:

• A Multi-Skill Data Tracker to monitor and visualize student progress across multiple domains of literacy learning.
• Targeted Word Reading Lists for focused, explicit instruction on specific phonics patterns.
• Decodable Routines and Lesson Guides to integrate reading practice seamlessly.
• Fluency Rubrics and Passages to assess and build reading rate, accuracy, and prosody.
• Ready-to-use lesson planning templates and professional development to support evidence-based teaching daily.

These tools save time and make it easier to provide explicit instruction daily.

Step 2: Build Confidence Through Success

Some students need more than practice. They need a win.

Whether you work with a group of first graders or 4th graders, choosing slightly easier texts for a short period can rebuild accuracy, confidence, and motivation by ensuring the texts align with the specific phonics pattern or skill being reinforced.

This doesn’t lower expectations. It simply removes unnecessary cognitive load so you can focus on the skills that matter most.

As David Kilpatrick reminds us, “Struggling readers need high-success practice opportunities to strengthen the connections that build reading.”

Students who feel successful are more willing to engage in reading, take risks, and apply comprehension strategies.

Growth-tracking also helps. Try:

• Progress monitoring chart Progress monitoring charts help students see their growth at a glance and give you quick data to guide instruction.
• Small reflection sheet help students notice what’s getting easier, build confidence, and set simple goals.
• Color-coded trackers give students a visual way to see which skills they’ve mastered and which ones they’re still working on.

The RIC includes ready-to-use growth-tracking templates you can print today so you don’t have to create them from scratch.

Step 3: Connect Reading and Writing in Simple Ways

While intervention must prioritize reading instruction, research confirms that writing supports word recognition and orthographic mapping. These two skills are interconnected, as spelling requires students to actively map sounds (phonemes) to letters (graphemes), solidifying the word in memory for instant reading recall.

You don’t necessarily need a separate spelling or writing intervention block. A few short, consistent routines (5-10 minutes) can make your reading intervention time more powerful without taking away from decoding instruction.

Try These High-Impact Routines:

• Dictation Focused on Current Phonics Patterns
  • How: Begin by having students segment the sounds in the target word using their fingers or Elkonin boxes (sound boxes). Then, have them write the letters that correspond to those sounds.
  • Purpose: Dictation moves phonics from theory to practice. Use words or short sentences that only contain phonics patterns you have explicitly taught (e.g., if teaching the digraph sh, dictate the word ship). This reinforces spelling and directly builds orthographic mapping pathways.
• Sentence Expansion with Decodable Structures
  • How: Start with a simple, phonetically controlled sentence (e.g., “The cat ran.”). Guide students to expand it by adding adjectives or descriptive phrases that still primarily use taught patterns (e.g., “The big, black cat ran to the mat.”).
  • Purpose: This activity builds language comprehension while providing practice applying phonics skills within meaningful, controlled contexts. It helps students connect word-level accuracy to sentence-level meaning and structure.
• Short Written Responses to Build Connections
  • How: Following the reading of a short decodable passage, ask a simple comprehension question that requires a one or two-sentence written answer. For older students, this might be a quick vocabulary application.
  • Purpose: Requiring a written response requires the student to retrieve and spell target vocabulary and phonics patterns, confirming their understanding of the connection between sounds, spelling, and meaning within the text.

These simple, consistent activities help students apply phonics instruction to real reading and writing tasks, ultimately strengthening their foundational skills and accelerating their ability to read words automatically.

Final Encouragement and Next Steps

Whether you’re a classroom teacher supporting grade-level small groups or an interventionist providing intensive intervention, you play a key role in helping students experience meaningful reading growth this spring.

You don’t need a full overhaul. Small, consistent shifts can make a big difference.

You know your students’ strengths better than anyone. With the right tools and a clear plan, you can help them grow into more confident, skilled readers before summer.

If you’re looking for evidence-based resources that simplify intervention planning and ensure fidelity in your instruction, we can help.

Ready to make those big leaps before summer?

The Reading Intervention Collaborative has everything you need to support students with evidence-based intervention:

• Progress monitoring tools
• Intervention resources
• Lesson planning templates
• Ongoing training and support

We provide the resources and training you need to get your students on track. Click here to learn more about the Reading Intervention Collaborative!

Happy teaching!

References

Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties. Wiley.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). U.S. Government Printing Office.

Shanahan, T. (2020). Shanahan on Literacy [Blog]. Retrieved November 25, 2025, from https://shanahanonliteracy.com/