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
The Power of Linking Words and Perceptions
The school year is underway, and all across the country teachers have undoubtedly already identified the children in their classrooms who are going to give them a run for their...
No More Excuses: Reading Workshops in Nontraditional Middle and High School Settings
Think you don't have enough time for reader's workshop in your classroom? Worried that you don't have enough books to go around? Feel like you just don't have the space...
Coaching Reluctant Writers
I'm not sure I've ever met a reluctant writer. Oh, she may look reluctant or he may sound reluctant, but they rarely are. Take, for example, Eduardo. Eduardo slunk into...
Book Matchmaker: Helping a Struggling Reader in 5th Grade
Deb is a teacher who works with struggling readers in grades 3-5. She is particularly interested in finding books for one of her 5th graders who is reading at...
Book Matchmaker: Short Vowel Practice with Older Students
Ellen is a school volunteer working with a group of students who are not reading at grade level in third grade. She is concerned about their understanding of short...
Reorganizing Books in the Reading Support Classroom
You could say teaching is in my blood . . . literally. There is a long line of teachers in my family. My mom is a reading support teacher, and...
Coaching Beyond the Curriculum: Reframing Our Talk and Attitude Toward Difficult Students
"Can Darren spend some time with you? He needs to take a break from our classroom right now." Translation: Darren is driving me crazy and I need a break from him so...
Helping Students Deal with Distractions
We have had the privilege of spending the last few weeks in many teachers' classrooms supporting them as they launch their literacy workshops. The first few weeks of school are...
Teaching Revision to Struggling Writers
Revision can be a difficult process for many writers—kids and adults alike! As writers, we both know how difficult it is to come up with a topic, get our ideas...
A Thanksgiving Take on Differentiating Instruction
As I've traveled between conferences and classrooms this fall, I've heard a lot of buzz around the concept and practice of "differentiation." When I've asked teachers, literacy coaches, and language...
Unlucky Lists: Raising Non-Writers and Non-Artists
In my work as a literacy educator at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, I often walk by a poster at the elevators that makes me pause and think: "Unlucky Arithmetic:...
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 one district we worked with, the data team wanted...
Ecstatic: When Words Shape Thinking
Tonight I'm happy. Maybe even ecstatic . . . I'm trying, as best as I can, to get my struggling, intermediate grade readers ready for state examinations without taking too...
5th Grade Grandfather
I have a student that I see daily for reading intervention, Lanie. She is in third grade and has been retained, so technically she is a fourth grader. Her vocabulary...
Overcoming Slumps: Principles for Student Writers
I began last summer in two slumps: a running slump and a writing slump. I injured my lower back in early May and could not run for about six weeks....
Are You Scaffolding or Rescuing?
Do you remember where you were when you first saw the (now familiar) scaffolding diagram? Oh, come on. You know the one. The long rectangle with a diagonal line stretching from...
Why and Watch Me: Making the Abstract Concrete for Readers
Recently Tammy visited New Mexico and had the opportunity to hike the Petroglyph National Monument. It was amazing to see that even thousands of years ago literacy was alive and...
What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About…?
We've been meeting each week this spring with a group of teachers pre-K through grade 12, all of us exploring literacy teaching in our classrooms around our teacher research questions....
Aligning Curriculum with Struggling Readers in Mind
Years ago in a workshop, Shelley Harwayne asked us to think about how many books our struggling readers were reading on any given day. When you think about struggling readers,...
How Can School and Classroom Libraries Support Struggling Readers?
In her article Room for Beliefs, Debbie Miller says, "Step outside your classroom door and look back in, as if for the first time. What do you see? Do you want...
Animals as Ambassadors: Using Class Pets to Reach an English Language Learner
Teachers collect a variety of usual and unusual items for their classrooms and students. You just never know when and why you'll need these treasures, but you know you will...
