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-Don't give up
-It gets easier
-Take notes
-Ask for help
-Read carefully and slowly
-Think critically
-Practice reading and writing at home
-Participate in class

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A video demonstrating reading strategies for struggling readers

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Reading Strategies for Struggling Middle School Readers : Reading Lessons

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Description: The students pair up and read to each other.  When one child is done reading, the other may read or they may take turns interchangeably.  Their reading levels can be matched or mixed when partners are being assigned.

Advantages: The teacher is able to walk freely and observe/listen to students read. This allows much more time for other activities since the teacher is not sitting in on every child individually to listen to them read.  Children are able to communicate effectively and listen to others read a story while collaborating.

Disadvantages: Students may feel uncomfortable reading to another student.  Students may also be reading incorrectly.  Some students may try to help and only provide the struggling student with an incorrect word or answer. If students are taking turns reading pages, one may get stuck with more challenging words than their partner.  The books may not accurately represent both of their reading levels.

Link:

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Paired Reading | Classroom Strategies | AdLit.org

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AdLit.org offers resources (articles, research, teaching strategies, book recommendations) for parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.

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Questioning, making connections, inferring, visualizing, synthesizing, and determining importance.

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Description: Exit tickets or exit slips are an easy way to allow a child to reflect on what they have learned in the class or what they have taken away from an activity. This is an after reading strategy.  An exit ticket usually involves one question and the students must finish the slip before they leave.  The question can be a review of the lesson or a question about something they did not understand.

Advantages: Students are able to easily explain to the teacher that they do not understand something. The teacher is able to see what the student still does not understand or has questions about.  The teacher can use these exit slips in order to plan for future lessons and cater to childrens' needs.  Exit slips are a great informal assessment for teachers to give to their students.

Disadvantages: The question may not cover what the student does not know since the exit slip usually only involves one question. The student may feel uncomfortable writing down what they did not like or did not understand.

Source: "Let's Make Literacy 'Sparkle' For Your Students!" Packet (Carol Reimann) pg. 31

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Description: Story maps are a visual way to organize the important elements of a story. It may include elements such as characters, setting, conflict, climax, resolution, and main events.  Some story maps have arrows to guide the reader along with the story structure.

Advantages: Story maps are visual guides that help readers link reasoning and explanation to a story.  It also requires students to create a picture and summary of the main events that happened in the story.

Disadvantages: Story maps may be too developed for students who lack concept skills.  More complex story maps may be misleading or hard to understand or comprehend..  Non visual learners may struggle with this activity.

Link: Click on the link and go to "Story Map 1" (pg. 19)

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Description: Venn Diagrams are a during reading strategy and can even be used as an after reading strategy. The diagram involves two or more circles overlapping each other and they are used for comparing and contrasting.  In the two separate circles, you have two separate things (people, events, items, etc.) that you are taking notes about.  Where the circles overlap is where you put the two items similarities.

Advantages: Students are able to easily organize notes.  Students are also able to easily to see similarities and differences between the two objects, situations, or people. These are good when dealing with similarities and also appeal to visual learners.

Disadvantages: The diagram is only used for compare and contrast.  There may be no similarities between the two. There may not be much detail.   The activity is usually used with older children since the thinking level is a little higher.

Link: Click on the link and go to "Venn Diagram" (pg. 24)

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Description: The Frayer Model is a graphic organizer presented before, during, or after a story to focus on and improve vocabulary.  The model also allows children to provide examples of this vocabulary from the book.

Advantages: The model helps children improve vocabulary. The model also teaches children to support their answers with examples from the text. It is a great strategy for visual learners and requires the students to think critically.

Disadvantages: Some students may struggle completing the activity individually. If drawing is involved, students may want to draw and become distracted where they are no longer focused on the activity.

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Description: Summarizing is an after reading approach that allows students to reflect on a story and respond to it. Some summarizing
may include a limit on how many words the students can use and it may include who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Advantages: Students are able to review the story and reflect on the events that occurred. By limiting the summary, students can evaluate what events are the most important to include as well. Summarizing also allows the teacher to evaluate
whether or not the student grasped the main ideas of the story and its important events.

Disadvantages: Summarizing leaves out details, especially when given a limit on how many words can be used.  Students may use words directly from the book instead of providing their own summary.  Some students may not fully grasp summarizing yet so this is most likely an upper level activity.

Source: "Let's Make Literacy 'Sparkle' For Your Students!" Packet (Carol Reimann) pg. 27

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Description: An anticipation guide can be used as a before reading strategy.  An anticipation guide usually consists of statements in which the reader marks as correct or incorrect based on their knowledge before reading the book.  After reading the book, the reader then returns to the guide and can correct or look back on what has been taken away from the story and how their answers have changed.

Advantages: Anticipation guides allow a reader insight to what the book may be about. They also allow the reader to utilize or think back on prior knowledge. These are short and easy and work great for nonfiction books.

Disadvantages: Anticipation guides only work as a before reading strategy although they can be referred back to again when the story is finished. Anticipation guides also primarily only work best with nonfiction stories. The activity could be modified for fiction stories and could be based more on prediction than previous knowledge.

Source: "Let's Make Literacy 'Sparkle' For Your Students!" Packet (Carol Reimann) pg. 6

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Description: The graphic organizer involves a picture of a sandwich that is split up by the ingredients. The top piece of bread is where the topic goes. The details go on the tomatoes, lettuce, and meat. The bottom piece of bread contains the concluding statement.

Advantages: This strategy can be used after reading a story to understand the contents. This strategy can also be used to help a child organize their own writing or to get started on a topic to write on. The bread can be their main idea they want to talk about, the toppings can be the three points they want to make, and the bottom piece of bread can be their point they want to reiterate in their conclusion.

Disadvantages: The sandwich may be too little for the children to fit all the details on. They may leave out smaller details that may be of greater significance. The sandwich chart leaves out many parts of the story.

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Description: KWL charts can be used in a classroom in order to determine what students already know, what they want to know, and what they have learned in order to plan instruction accordingly and see improvements.

Advantages: Teachers are able to see what students already know about the topic. Students are able to recall knowledge they have previously gained about the topic.  Teachers and students can see what information has been gained along the way.

Disadvantages: The section involving "What I Learned" may be misused (teachers need to have students complete this section with no other resources).  Students may not have much prior knowledge on the topic.

Link: Click on the link and go to "KWL Chart" (pg. 12)

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Description: Sequence Chains can be used when teaching the Importance of the sequence of events in a book.  Sequence Chain is a graphic organizer that allows students to record the title and author of the book, the story's characters, and where the book takes place.  Then, the handout focuses solely on the main parts of the story and the order in which they occur.

Advantages: Sequence chain provides students with a neat and organized way to track the story's events and details. It also allows students to break up the different parts of the story and understand why events did/did not happen and why they happened the way they did. It also allows students to understand why characters acted a certain way.

Disadvantages: Students (mostly younger ages) may get their event boxes switched up which may result in having their events out of order.  There also may not be many events that happened in the story or there may be too many to fit on the organizer.

Link: Click on the link and go to "Sequence Chain" (pg. 16)