ABSTRACT
Reading comprehension is necessary to promote academic achievement and positive postsecondary outcomes, including college readiness and employment. To ensure that all secondary students have the necessary but complex set of knowledge and skills to comprehend text at the secondary level, teachers should provide evidence-based literacy instruction throughout the school day that facilitates students’ ability to learn content from upper-level text and secondary students with reading difficulties and disabilities intensive supplemental reading intervention that targets foundational skills. Thus, secondary literacy instruction and intervention should be comprehensive by targeting multiple aspects of reading comprehension, including forms of knowledge (e.g., background knowledge) and essential components of reading (e.g., reading fluency). In the current chapter, we provide a detailed overview of the literacy needs of secondary students that researchers and practitioners need to understand to develop, implement, and evaluate reading instruction and intervention and ultimately improve literacy outcomes for secondary students.
