Choice Lit Topic: 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.
Results
Growing Toward Stories
At a recent meeting with two teachers who teach combined kindergarten and first-grade Learning Language Disabilities (LLD) classrooms, they expressed concern about their recent training in writing workshop. There’s just...
5 Strategies for Engaging Boy Writers
I was ashamed. I have spent a good too many years since—too many, I think—being ashamed about what I write. ...
Practical Advice for Dealing with Messy Handwriting
Do struggles with handwriting matter? They do when a student can't even decipher his own words. Katherine Sokolowski confers with fifth grader Sauvi to help him find solutions to the...
The Magic That Might Go Down
In her TED Talk, author Susan Conley tells a story about leading writing workshops for students. She explains that during one of her sessions a particularly intense student asked, “Why...
Pick a Poem
“Hey, look at the next page! It’s about a tiger!” Robert, whom many referred to as all boy or by some initialism that gets tossed around to explain student listlessness,...
High Standards and Struggling Learners
Jerry was a student in my class this past year. He was in my seventh-grade social studies class. He showed up to the first day of school in dirty sweatpants...
Confusing Children
Many kids show up in school with behaviors that confuse adults. Our understanding of the way brains work, especially our understanding of self-regulation, will determine our solutions or responses to...
Wounded Warriors: Trauma and Literacy Routines
When Rosie was in third grade, she brought a suitcase to school. It was an old-fashioned, hard black case with brown triangle patches on the corners. The stitching had unfurled....
They Don’t Read at Home
The building literacy team gathered around the table as the year came to a close, ready to look at the progress of their students during the school year. I’m geeky...
Moves for Struggling Writers
When I taught fifth and sixth grade, I remember one student who was a very reluctant writer. He had mastered a variety of ways to avoid putting words down on...
Tools for Striving Writers
As our district’s writing coordinator, I love working with children who are struggling to write. Yes, I love to work with the gushing writers, but there’s something really rewarding about...
Using Student Checklists in Literacy Intervention
I don’t know about you, but I am a list person. In fact, I adore lists in all their splendor: lists on sticky notes, on notebook paper, on whiteboards, and...
Eighth-Grade Conference: Empathetic Reading
Christy Rush-Levine confers with eighth grader Julian about his strengths as an empathetic reader.
Push Pause: Dealing with Failure in the Midst
“Take out your previous argumentative essay.” “The one I passed back last week.” “With the rubric stapled to it.” “I wrote on the rubric with blue ink.” “It should be...
Stuck at Level E
Dantrell loved school. He was the first one to burst through the door of the first-grade classroom at the beginning of every school day. He was the last one to...
Everybody Wants to Be a Hero (and Needs a Guide)
Every story has a hero. The Princess Bride has Inigo Montoya. The Wizard of Oz has Dorothy. Star Wars has Luke Skywalker. Everyone wants to be the hero of their...
Bridging the Gap Between Intervention and the Classroom
It was November, and our first intervention cycle was ending. Teachers had just finished giving their second reading benchmark assessment, and a meeting to go over the data with each...
Teaching Stamina Strategies to First Graders
Tammy Mulligan works with two seven-year-olds to teach them strategies for building reading stamina.
Understanding Josh: The Audio Reader
Years ago, when I was first working as an assistant principal and charged with managing special education needs, we had a student enrolled in our school who was severely autistic....
Lester Laminack on Bullying (PODCAST)
In this podcast, Franki Sibberson chats with Lester Laminack about bullying. Lester is the author of beloved books for children and teachers, including Saturdays and Teacakes and Unwrapping the Read Aloud. You...
SITO: Self-Imposed Time-Out
Last school year was my most challenging in terms of classroom management. I was faced with more students who had greater emotional needs than ever before—students neglected by absentee parents,...
