I met with a reading teacher at a local high school last week to help her learn how to use data to place students into her English class for struggling readers. Unfortunately, the meeting was convened because on the first day of school, there was only one student on her roster. Although she works in a high-performing high school, I was quite sure there was more than one struggling sophomore reader wandering the halls.
As we were starting the meeting, a new student, who had just been added to the class, wandered in the room. The student, who I'll call Callie, had shoulder length blond and hot pink hair-probably not her natural colors. As her eyes, heavily outlined in black, scanned the room of mostly adults, she thought there clearly must be mistake on her schedule.
The teacher explained this was an English/Reading course and asked Callie if she had any idea how she had been placed here. Callie shrugged her shoulders and said,
"No."
So, the teacher pressed on and asked Callie what kind of grades she received in English last year. Callie smirked and said,
"I failed English."
Next, the teacher asked Callie if she's ever had difficultly reading.
"I can read just fine," was her response.
I couldn't resist. I have heard these identical responses many, many times, so I asked Callie about her other classes last year and what kinds of grades she received in those classes. She smiled.
"I don't really DO school. I'm just not motivated to do my work."
BINGO. I can tell you with complete certainty, 'I don't do school' is code for 'I tried, but I failed so many times that I just gave up. It's easier to fail because I'm not trying, than to fail because I did try.'
Since we were planning a data dig during the meeting anyhow, I looked up Callie's history of standardized reading assessments. As a 7th grader, she was reading at an appropriate level for her age. However, on the same assessment a year later, her score remained exactly the same, which now meant that she was falling about a year behind her peers.
I said to Callie, "Let me guess, it was sometime during 8th grade when you decided to 'not do school' anymore. Am I right?"
She laughed and said, "Yep!"
I knew it. Callie's situation and responses are SO typical of struggling readers - 'I don't do school,' 'I'm just not a good test-taker,' 'I didn't really try on that test,' 'I wasn't feeling well that day.' Unfortunately, a lot of adults buy these stories from kids and then shrug their shoulders. And I get it! It's easier to accept a reason that is out of our control or realm of responsibilty, than to talk with students about their poor reading histories that cannot be chalked up to a bad test day and procede to DO something to help those students grow as readers.
But, we have to. We have to intervene and provide the support students need to develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives no matter what occupation they pursue.
By the way, there were 60 struggling readers in the sophomore class. Not just one.
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