I NTERVENTION IN SCHOOL AND CLINIC VOL . 41, NO. 3, J ANUARY 2006 ( PP . 131–137) 131 Reading Comprehension for Older Readers S HARON VAUGHN AND MEAGHAN E DMONDS J ohn, Lucas, and Sabrina are students with reading disabilities in Mrs. Sanchez’s fifth-grade class. These students’ fluency rates indicate that they are accu- rate readers (making few mistakes in word identi- fication); however, they are slow readers, reading 60 to 80 words correct per minute. Additionally, these stu- dents have difficulties reading to learn. Lucas often says, “There is too much information. I don’t know what’s im- portant.” Sabrina gets frustrated when she encounters unfamiliar words and quickly loses interest in the book. John likes to read, but he is unable to summarize what he has read. Although he knows several strategies by name, he struggles to apply them while reading. All three students have difficulty understanding what they read. To successfully read to learn, students must be able to read with comprehension; that is, they must get mean- ing from written text (Duke & Pearson, 2002; Pressley, 2000). Reading to learn is a struggle for many students, especially students with learning disabilities (LD; Bryant, Vaughn, Linan-Thompson, Ugel, & Hamff, 2000; Ger- sten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001). Teachers who un- derstand that reading comprehension is a complex goal are on the path to successfully teaching students to un- derstand and enjoy text. Knowing why and how compre- This article provides an overview of a multicom- ponent comprehension strategy and graphic orga- nizers designed for older readers to gain meaning from text. Practices designed to capitalize on the best research-based elements associated with improved outcomes in reading comprehension, par- ticularly for expository texts, are described. The graphic organizers provide visual representations and organizational schema, which are useful for assisting students in organizing key concepts, vo- cabulary, and information from text.