Reflection 6: Working with Struggling Readers (D&Z Chapter 11)

Chapter 11 of Subjects Matter: Every Teacher's Guide to Content-Area Reading is on strategies for helping struggling readers. The following six strategies are discussed in the chapter: 1) build supportive relationships; 2) model thoughtful thinking; 3) use activities build engagement with text ; 4) promote self-monitoring; 5) use materials students can successfully read; and 6) provide books and articles on tape.

When you are teaching struggling students,
keep in mind just how much
courage
it takes for them to still be there.

As with struggles in any area in life, it takes a lot of courage to keep trying in the face of repeated failures. Daniels and Zemelman give the following quote by William Glasser to introduce the first key strategy. The psychological concept of compensation takes place when "people who have repeatedly failed at something usually cope by focusing their lives elsewhere to avoid still more failure." As a result, when students struggle with reading or any subject in school, one of the most important thing for teachers to keep in mind is that these students don't need anymore hurt/embarrassment than what they've already experienced from before. Building a supportive relationship with the struggling students--making them feel safe even when they don't succeed and being there to help them--should be a priority. Mathematics is a subject that a lot of people experience difficulty. And because of that, math teachers should make building supportive relationships a priority in their classrooms.

As success is often a powerful ingredient in promoting more successes, choosing materials that the students can read successfully is a wise practice. At times, it might be beneficial to choose text that challenge the students a bit. However, too many challenges in school and life can be simply exhausting. As a result, teachers can incorporate choices in students' reading and vary the reading levels a bit with optional reading assignments. With math, the teachers might consider assigning text reading at or below the students' grade level (might want to choose a text reading below their grade level when they're struggling with math to begin with).

Modeling thoughtful thinking and using activities to build engagement are pretty standard practices that were discussed numerous times in previous readings. Providing reading on tape and making students record readings are strategies to help develop reading fluency. However, I'm not seeing how that is applicable to teaching secondary math.

Teachers want students to become independent
learners.

Promoting self-monitoring, however, is a key practice that students of all levels should have if their goal is to become independent learners/readers. As I wrote in another reflection before, teachers are not going to available throughout their students' lives to teach and assess their understandings. And it's ultimately up to the students to do the work, monitor their understanding, and learn (and eventually, to learn independently). With the increasing emphasis in teacher accountability, teachers are under more pressure than before to be responsible for students' scores and learning. However, as a seasoned student, I can honestly say that teachers (even the best ones I've had) were not responsible for all my learning! In fact, I feel safe to say that my own hard work (and my decision to actually do the work) was responsible for the majority of my past learning. And dare I say that highly motivated students with average intelligence can learn great things with or without a teacher inside the classroom? My point is that all teachers are responsible to keep improving as educators, but the responsibility is not all on them. Perhaps instead of feeling all the pressure of students' achievement, it might be helpful to communicate to the students that they're largely responsible for their own learning.