Struggling and Striving Learners
It's hard work, it matters . . . and nothing brings more joy than reaching a child who is struggling. The problem is each of these students presents a unique array of challenges and needs that don't allow for a uniform approach. Here are the stories from our contributors of their breakthrough moments, one child at a time.
Latest Content
A Thanksgiving Take on Differentiating Instruction
Kathy Collins looks around the holiday table and discovers that differentiating instruction is similar to hosting a Thanksgiving feast.
Unlucky Lists: Raising Non-Writers and Non-Artists
These lists created by S. Rebecca Leigh are a fun way to size up the messages we send students about reading, writing, and drawing, and how these may influence lifelong literacy habits.
Understanding Students in Intervention Programs
Using data to make wise decisions about students who are struggling is one of the most important tasks in schools. In this series, Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan take you through the process of linking data to instruction plans in intervention programs.
Ecstatic: When Words Shape Thinking
Carol Wilcox prepares her struggling intermediate readers for state exams, and finally experiences a breakthrough in linking vocabulary learning to authentic reading.
5th Grade Grandfather
Misunderstandings abound when working with struggling readers and writers. Jennifer Jones connects an experience in her personal life to one student she is supporting and gains new insight.
Overcoming Slumps: Principles for Student Writers
Clare Landrigan finds she is struggling as a writer and runner. Getting out of both ruts helps her develop three simple principles for working with students in slumps.
Are You Scaffolding or Rescuing?
How much is too much support while conferring? Terry Thompson explores the language of scaffolding and rescuing.
What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About . . .?
Ruth Shagoury and Melanie Quinn asked their colleagues to share the “most beautiful thing” about the puzzling student each of them is looking at closely in their study group. This is a great activity you’re looking for a quick and easy icebreaker to spark some positive energy in your next study group or staff meeting, and remind everyone of the joys of our profession.
Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind
This is a terrific article for a team considering struggling learners to read together and discuss. Franki Sibberson asks some critical questions, including how many transitions and different adults some children work with each day in the name of getting all the support they need.
How Can School and Classroom Libraries Support Struggling Readers?
Franki Sibberson tries to imagine what school and classroom libraries look like to struggling readers who are gazing at scores of books beyond their reading levels.
Animals as Ambassadors: Using Class Pets to Reach an English Language Learner
When a student is struggling, language barriers can make it even harder for teachers to connect. Andrea Smith finds webbing during conferring is an excellent strategy for assisting a young English language learner in her writer's workshop.
What My Son’s Reading Difficulties Taught Me About Teaching Struggling Readers
No matter how many education methods courses and professional development workshops you take, if you’re a parent, your children will always teach you the most about how students learn. Tammy Mulligan shares three practical strategies for reaching struggling readers that she learned from experiences with her son.
Why and Watch Me: Making the Abstract Concrete for Readers
Clare Landrigan and Tammy Mulligan present some teacher question and reflection prompts for helping struggling readers understand why and how reading is a meaning-making process.
Staying True to Our Beliefs When Working With Struggling Readers and Writers in Grades 3-6
Franki Sibberson writes about the challenges of holding true to our beliefs in working with struggling readers, and shares the questions she asks herself as a way of self-monitoring her teaching with strugglers.
Fitness Boot Camp Helps Me Understand Struggling Readers
Franki Sibberson finishes 29th out of 30 participants in her fitness bootcamp mile run. In the process, she learns many lessons about herself and the needs of struggling learners in her classroom.
Forming Teams to Help Struggling Readers:A Pilot Project (TEMPLATES)
Andrea Smith shares observation strategies used within a teaching team. The article includes templates developed by the group.
Helping Struggling Writers
How can we help students who are stuck when it comes time to write? Franki Sibberson shares a couple new strategies, including a book basket of texts selected by students themselves as useful for sparking writing topics in this photo essay.
5th Grade Strategy Group on Summarizing
In this strategy group, Karen Terlecky brings together three of her 5th graders to reread a nonfiction article shared with the whole class. They discuss main ideas, and do a writing activity together to build summarizing skills.
Case Studies in Professional Learning Communities
In this brief video, Literacy Coach Pam Hahlen and Principal Karen Szymusiak meet with two teachers in a professional learning community group to discuss ongoing case studies.
Puzzle Kids: Observing and Analyzing Challenging Students (E-GUIDE)
This E-Guide provides teachers with a tool to analyze children who need additional observation and analysis to create successful learning opportunities.
My Son Clark Kent
Lisa Koch shares a parent's perspective of the damage too much emphasis on reading levels in the classroom does to her young son.
A Strategy Lesson for “Drive-Thru” Readers
Who is a “drive-thru” reader? One who zips through the start of a book and discards it before finishing, moving ever more quickly through random books. Aimee Buckner has some minilesson suggestions for dealing with those students who can’t or won’t finish any books they start.
Jose the Late Bloomer
Stella Villalba has practical advice for reaching a young English language learner who is reluctant to write and often frustrated.
Rhyme and Reflect: Fostering Fluency Through Poetry
Joanne Emery recommends using poetry to help children practice their oral expression. She offers many poetry books and strategies for fluency practice.
What Is ORF Anyway?
Dana Murphy reminds us that teaching students to read faster is often a surface-level answer to a much deeper question. Reading is a complex process; if you’re wondering what to do about oral reading fluency scores, then Dana offers powerful encouragement.
Instructional Routines That Promote Agency for Multilingual Learners
Cultivating agency is a matter of building small, intentional moves that ask students to be part of the learning process. Stella Villalba offers three ways educators can support the growth of multilingual learners in all learning spaces.
Shake It Up: Active Learning Strategies That Engage Students
When Gretchen Schroeder found herself wanting to make her lessons fun and enjoyable, she realized she was focused on trying to entertain and dazzle rather than facilitate learning. She offers three ways to help students be active learners through conversations, reflection, and collaboration.
A Hand to Hold: Crying and Community in Preschool
Sometimes it takes a village to help a preschooler feel a part of the group, especially one who cries almost all the time. Kelly Petrin finds her young students have more empathy and resiliency than she imagined when she enlists their support.
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