Corrective Reading is a powerful Direct Instruction remedial reading series that solves a wide range of problems for struggling older readers, even if they have failed with other approaches. Explicit, step-by-step lessons are organized around two major strands, Decoding and Comprehension, which may be used separately or together to customize instruction for particular student needs. Each strand of Corrective Reading has four levels that teach foundational skills for non-readers to seventh-grade-level material – potentially all in about 2 1/2 years.

Corrective Reading is typically taught to students in grades 4 and above who exhibit misidentified words, confusion among similar words, omissions or insertions, lack of attention to punctuation, and poor comprehension. It is effective with students who have poor attention, poor recall of directions, or who meet the criteria to receive special services. With a high success rate, frequent teacher feedback, and built-in opportunities to earn reinforcement throughout each lesson, even students with histories of failure remain motivated and on task.

Decoding lessons range from instruction in letter sounds and blending to the reading of sophisticated passages found in content-area textbooks. Comprehension lesson skills range from simple classification and true-false identification to complex analogies, analyses, and inferential comprehension strategies. As students progress through each level, they read increasingly difficult material with accuracy, fluency, solid comprehension, and improved study skills. The program is ideally complemented by the Expressive Writing or Reasoning and Writing Direct Instruction programs.