Lead Lit Topic: Supporting Struggling Learners
We’re in the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to struggling learners. There is less emphasis on pull-out programs and one-on-one instruction, and more time spent collaborating with teachers to push in to support these students in classrooms. Yet each learner is unique, and the range of struggles requires a range of possibilities. Here is where you will find case studies and examples of strategies that have worked.
Results
The Other Foundational Reading Skills
Cognition is but one factor in reading achievement, and test scores are but one indicator of how student readers develop. — Peter Afflerbach I didn’t truly become a reader until...
Don’t Be in Such a Hurry to Put Out the Fire (and Completely Miss the Flame)
I settled into a coaching conversation, ready to roll up my sleeves and find the next solution. The teacher began to share what was on her mind when the first...
Supporting Perseverance in Our Students: Before You Say ‘Keep Going,’ Pause to Consider
"Just keep swimming." This popular quote, which Dory chants in the movie Finding Nemo, is often used to remind students to keep going with something that gets difficult, to push...
Fixer of Everything
Fixer of Everything. This is what the nameplate reads on the cabinet behind my small-group desk. I placed it there after a colleague gifted it to me on a random...
Five Classroom Design Ideas for Supporting Readers and Writers with ADHD
Kids do well if they can. —Ross W. Greene In the world of literacy instruction, we talk a lot about literacy but maybe not enough about instruction. Specifically, I see a...
Crafting Action Plans with Teachers
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. —African Proverb Often as an English learners instructional coach, I get invited to observe...
Writing Realistic Fiction
One of the most memorable aha moments I have ever had with a student was with Wesley. He was working on an elaborate story that spanned days and maybe even...
Special Education and Classroom Teacher Meeting
Special education teacher Julianne Houser and fourth-grade teacher Heidi discuss how they can work together to support specific students, assessing needs and strategies to meet them.
Word Count Counts
Bob was planning a literature circle cycle for his third graders. It was the second quarter of the school year. He thought that 10 weeks of small-group lessons and interactive...
Newcomers and Read Aloud Time
I knew it was going to be a great day of learning, discovery, and reflection when I was invited to do an observation in a classroom. This time, I was...
Coaching in Classrooms with English Language Learners
Dear Stella, I’m struggling to find ways to help ELLs in the classroom. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. I know best literacy practices, but is that...
Allocating Services
Each autumn, a few weeks after the school doors have opened again after summer break, we gather a group of teachers, support staff, and administrators to consider our literacy data...
Poetry Love
Our school district offers an annual Summer Writing Academy, and each year we have a different topic or focus area for the writing. When we first bounced around the idea...
Stop Paying in Quarters: Changing Thinking and Practice
In my drive to La Porte, Indiana, for a writing retreat, I was prepared for the interstate tolls. Sitting on the seat next to me was a small pile of...
The Failures of a Doughnut
A good doughnut can do a lot of things. Good things. It can improve a lousy mood, take care of a craving, or jump-start a great day. What can’t doughnuts...
First Days of Reading Support
The first weeks of school set the tone for the entire year. In these beginning days, teachers and students start to build connections that will carry them through the year....
Starting the Year Together
One of the best things about working to support readers in a school community is the collaboration with teachers. There is the obvious benefit of having two sets of eyes,...
No Special Class
We recently received this note from the mother of one of our students. Take a moment and really read it. What story does it tell? There’s a high probability that...
The Words We Use
Our small team of teachers gathered around the table. The school hallways had not yet filled with the morning sounds of students entering the building, and our mugs were still...
Parents in a Foreign Land
For students who are new to the English language, nothing comes easy: They have to work hard to figure out a new language, new customs, new foods, new friendships, and...
Don’t Confuse the Already Confused
Bill had asked me to come in and think with him about his seventh graders’ understanding of theme development. He’d recently upped the complexity of the shared texts he was...
