What is remedial reading? A descriptive study

Abstract Remedial reading instruction in five classrooms in four different school districts was observed over a six‐month period of time. From these observations a description of remedial instruction evolved. Remediation consisted primarily of students completing skill lessons in workbook or worksheet activities with the teacher serving as a manager. In this role the remedial teacher offered little direct instruction but distributed and corrected academic work. Most remedial activities were not congruent with classroom tasks. Remedial students generally received no additional instructional time to acquire reading behaviors. Only a small amount of the remedial instructional time was devoted to teacher‐directed reading of connected text. These data are discussed within the framework of a general model of effective reading instruction.