Where can I find example IEP goals for reading?

Building reading IEP goals for your child depends on what skills they're working on.

• Pre-reading goals: Reading starts with recognizing letters, learning sounds, including beginning sounds of words, rhyming, and letter-sound correspondences. Pre-reading skills also include listening to a story, looking at the pictures in a book, and understanding that the letters in the word make words with meaning.

  • A sample goal could read, “By (the next annual IEP), when shown a familiar object in the classroom or a picture, told the name of the object in English or Spanish, and asked what the word begins with, the student will respond with the beginning sound for the corresponding noun with 70% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.”

• Foundational skills goals: For younger students who cannot yet read or are emerging readers, reading goals should be tied to the Common Core’s Reading: Foundational Skills. However, these standards are limited to early grades. For middle and high school students, grade-level standards such as reading and comprehending complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently can be tied to any particular reading goal. For example, assuming that the child knows all the letter sounds, the next step would be reading CVC words.

  • The goal could read: “By (the next annual IEP), the student will read 10 CVC words with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.”

• Sight word goals: Goals for sight words should indicate the kind of words to be targeted, such as high-frequency words that appear frequently in children’s literature. Many children will be motivated by learning high-interest words (favorite people, characters, toys, etc.).

  • A sample goal might say, “By (the next annual IEP), when presented with flash cards, the student will read 30 sight words from the Fry’s first-grade list, using total communication (verbal, ASL, or their AAC device) with 95% accuracy as measured by teacher data in four out of five opportunities.”.

• Reading comprehension goals: Teachers often target reading comprehension with goals that require students to answer who, what, where, and when questions. It’s important to look at the way questions are being asked and whether the child understands the question. Graphic organizers can help support these goals by providing a visual framework for answering who, what, where, and when. Non-speaking students might have access to alternative means of answering the question, such as choosing picture cards from a field of three or using a premade page on their AAC service.

  • “By (the next annual IEP), when given a passage from a high-interest illustrated storybook previously read aloud, the student will read the passage and answer four who, where, what, when questions by choosing picture cards from a field of three, with 90% accuracy as measured by teacher data over five opportunities.”
  • “By (the next annual IEP), when given a passage at a first-grade reading level and a graphic organizer, the student will select three words or phrases from the passage and use them to construct at least two sentences to capture the ‘gist’ of the passage, with 75% accuracy as measured by teacher data over five opportunities.”

• Vocabulary goals: For many students, informational text is challenging because many words are unfamiliar, even when sounded out. Most elementary classes have social studies or science vocabulary words included in each unit of study that can be turned into picture match cards. Personal books also help students become familiar with academic words. It might be helpful to preteach these vocabulary words in the weeks before a new unit is introduced in class.

  • A sample goal might be: “By (the next annual IEP), when given a list of five science or social studies vocabulary words, the student will match the word to the definition with 70% accuracy as measured by teacher data over three opportunities.”

• Assistive technology goals: Assistive technology (AT) providers do not usually write goals but consult with teachers and other related service providers to ensure that the student has access to the curriculum through the AT provided. However, AT can be written into a reading goal.

  • A sample goal might be: “By (the next annual IEP), when given a grade-level text accessible through text to speech, the student will independently access the text (either by reading or by independently operating the AT to listen to the passage); quote accurately from the text by providing the answer either handwritten, typed, or by copy and paste; explain what the text says explicitly; with 70% accuracy as measured by teacher data over three opportunities.”

For more information, see our full article Reading Goals in the IEP.