Assisted Reading Strategies: Like Learning to Ride a Bike

Learning to read is like learning to ride a bike. The foundational skills in reading are best developed through instruction, followed by practice with support and feedback. As teachers we need to find ways to support our readers in their reading while providing formative feedback during and after their reading. In this article, you will learn ways that assisted reading strategies can help emerging readers successfully bridge the gap between being read to and reading independently.

Assisted Bike Riding  

I noticed an increasing number of children riding their bicycles in my neighborhood as spring began to overtake winter. Seeing one father helping his daughter with her new two-wheeler reminded me of my own initial experience with my first bicycle.

The bike I received for my birthday had no training wheels on it, and so I floundered on my first attempts to ride on that spring afternoon. My dad came home from his factory job and saw me struggling to keep my balance as I tried my best to ride the bike on my own. Getting out of the car, he walked over to me and had me get on the bike while he steadied it by grasping the seat. As I pedaled and steered, he ran next to me, holding me up and keeping me steady. 

When I turned, I usually leaned too much or too little into the curve; my dad gave me feedback (he’d say “lean the other way”) and supported me by tilting the bike in the opposite direction. After a few trips up and down the block, he gave me a push, let go of the seat, and before I knew it, I was riding without his help. I could ride my bike! Later that afternoon, my father gave me a few more tips on bike safety and expressed how proud he was of my accomplishment.

Assisted Reading Strategies

This experience reminds me of what happens during assisted reading with feedback. Assisted reading is an activity that can be a transition between modeled reading (when children are being read to by proficient and fluent readers) and independent reading. In the process of assisted reading, developing readers receive support and assistance from a more proficient reading “assistant,” such as a teacher, parent, sibling, or older child, or even a prerecorded version of the text being read. This assistant reads along and provides advice and feedback on areas of challenge or text features, helping the developing reader practice to a point of fluency and independence.

Types of Assisted Reading

There are several assisted reading strategies. Assisted reading can be implemented at home or in school settings. Research shows that utilizing assisted reading strategies can yield powerful results and progress for developing readers. Not only will students improve on the text they are reading, that improvement will also generalize to new reading passages.

Paired Reading

During paired reading, a proficient reader and a developing reader orally read the same text for approximately 10 to 15 minutes. The developing reader listens and follows along to the proficient reader’s voice, strengthening the connection between the written and spoken word and mapping the reader’s expression. In this approach, the developing reader chooses the text and controls the shared reading experience. The proficient reader provides support when the developing reader encounters difficulty, in order to ensure fluency and meaning.

Reading Together

This type of assisted reading strategy combines two approaches: the method of repeated readings (Samuels, 1979) and the Neurological Impress Method (NIM) (Heckelman, 1969). To implement reading together, a proficient reader and a developing reader read together from two copies of a single text that is just inside the student's instructional level, for 20 minutes.

The process begins with the NIM, in which the proficient and developing reader read together out loud, but the proficient reader adjusts the reading rate to be slightly faster so that the developing reader keeps pace. The proficient reader divides the text into manageable chunks and implements repeated readings after completing each section. Finally, the developing reader reads the section aloud, providing an opportunity for practice with immediate feedback on accuracy, pace, and expression.

Technology and Assisted Reading Strategies

There are many options for assisted reading with technology. In this type of assisted reading, developing readers read the print version of the text while listening to a recorded fluent reading. This can be accomplished through an application or computer program with assisted reading technology/voice recognition, or a recorded text such as an audio book. These recorded texts can be created by proficient readers or accessed through audio libraries.

The Importance of Feedback

With any assisted reading strategies, feedback is critical. A considerable body of theory and research in reading acquisition tells us that the foundational skills in reading (Common Core State Standards—phonics, word recognition, and fluency) are best developed through instruction followed by practice with support and feedback. When a struggling or developing reader reads a text while simultaneously hearing it read to him or her, the developing reader will eventually be able to read that text (and others) without assistance. An essential key to the assist, however, is to provide formative feedback to the reader in the same way that my father gave feedback to me. That feedback can take a variety of forms: emphasizing a word that was mispronounced, providing the definition to a word or phrase, or briefly discussing the text after reading. The focus is on how well he or she read, or if there is an area of need.

Most learning, it seems, is facilitated by an assist, scaffold, or support provided by another. Learning to read and learning to ride a bike are no exceptions. As teachers and caring adults, we need to find ways to support our readers in their reading while providing formative feedback during and after their reading. When we do so, we will find our students not only making great progress in their reading but also viewing themselves as competent and independent readers.

Rasinski, Timothy & Young, Chase. (2014). FEATURE ARTICLES Assisted Reading-A Bridge from Fluency to Comprehension. New England Reading Association Journal.

Rasinski, Timothy & Young, Chase. (2023). Build Reading Fluency: Practice and Performance with Reader’s Theater and More (Building Fluency through Practice and Performance) 2nd Edition. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.