Do you have a student who is struggling with learning to read?

I don’t know about you, but every year when I was teaching, I seemed to have one student who worried me far more than the others because he wasn’t progressing in reading. (And it usually was a boy…)

Often these children are reluctant readers, as well. They have encountered failure so much that they give up trying. When you read those words, I bet you are immediately thinking of one of your own students, past or present.

Questions such as the following come to mind when I think about teaching struggling readers:

Am I teaching them wrong?

• How do we decide how and what to teach them?
• What is holding them back?
• What do we do when they keep forgetting what we have taught them?
• Are we helping them too much? Too little?
• Do I have them reading a book that is too hard? Too easy?
• What do I do when the child just stops at an unknown word?
• The readers has so many difficulties. How do I know what to tackle first?
• How can I motivate the reader?

All these questions and more are answered in 20 Tips for Teaching Struggling Readers.

While I used to feel guilty that I couldn’t help these students, now each struggling reader is a challenge. Actually, the children I’ve taught to read over the years have been my teachers, and I’m happy to share what I’ve learned about teaching reading with you.

Happy teaching — and especially teaching those struggling readers!