In educational circles there is a saying that children “learn to read” in K-3, and after that they “read to learn.” Unfortunately for many children such as those from impoverished or English Language learning backgrounds, this is not the case. Children who are reading below grade level in the upper elementary grades (4th and 5th grade) and middle school (grades 6th, 7th and 8th) often have a difficult time in school. The phonological weaknesses of children with the most common form of reading disability require that they receive reading instruction that is phonemically explicit and systematic. When older children lack the grade level reading skills it is difficult for them to catch up to their peers. In grades 4–8, reading expectations change to applying sight-word and decoding skills, gained in earlier grades, to content-area information. Many older children, however, need more practice with basic decoding skills as well as continued emphasis on comprehension of what they are reading.