Struggling with the Struggle
In this last post, I want to expand on my previous blog.
Struggling readers, struggling writers, struggling mathematicians, struggling scientists, struggling students … we have read and discussed it frequently throughout this program, in each of our classes, about the struggles students have in school, in subject/content areas, with skills, and so on.
And yet, if you are like me, you are struggling with the potential struggle you might struggle with when working with a struggler ….. (Ha sounds like the start of a Lil Wayne verse... he does what I was trying to do there a little better than me: Carter 5 – Let it Fly [1:47] https://youtu.be/Gn2oCc3bPZc?t=107 you’re welcome).
How do we reach the struggling student?
Why are they struggling?
What does it mean to struggle?
Bomer and Bomer describes struggling readers as, “People who, for one reason
or another, misapprehended the reading process and have not put a reading
system together that adds up to meaning; these are struggling readers.” (p. 89)
But, in math, we read about how the point of struggle/confusion
is not only natural, but actually essential to learning. Carter, S. (2008) suggests disequilibrium is the point of struggle is the point at which students begin their learning.
This is a simple but POWERFUL idea.
Bomer and Bomer also mention the importance of students
recognizing struggle is natural and that everyone, at one point or another,
struggles. Suggesting the goal is to
have an open and honest discourse about the struggles of reading, talking about
the difficulties each student feels as a reader, enlighten the “whole community
to the realization that these struggles are not a function of intelligence,
ability, or age” (p. 90), all the while not having the students in need of
support feel as though they are being “singled out”, tracked, or grouped by
ability.
So, why is this idea so outlandish?
Why is it viewed as / looked at as weakness?
Does it have to be a weakness?
Why do we, as a society, instill in children the notion that
perfection is an immediate necessity … and expect children to be perfect
immediately. AND THEN, when they’re not, when they don’t know, we get annoyed
and reproof them?
Why not => YET? … Not there YET?
Dr. O talked about this all the time – I remember
specifically when we were talking about spelling and writing – how adults
(parents and even teachers) expect the students to have perfect penmanship,
have the ability to
F ul8 …
words and construct complex sentences ....
O rm
O rm
….LIKE..uhhh.. you know... once they start talking!
<<This
kid can’t even write in a straight line… Struggling… Remediation!>>
...Well… the kid did spend 9 months in there, couldn’t even
be bother to knock out a rough draft…, huh?
Go pick up a golf
club, get a ball, tee it up and let’s allow the kids to rip all over your
immediate perfection. By the way, the greatest hitters in professional baseball…
they failed 2 out of every 3 times they went up to bat…
The current education system and society as a whole, relies so
heavily on competition and is results-based, meritocratic. Struggling readers,
or struggling (name something), begin to see themselves negatively. Eliminating
or at least mitigating tacit conclusions students draw as they compare
themselves to other students is absolutely ESSENTIAL.
When
students begin to compare themselves with other students around them – adults
do this too – there is significant chance that the students struggling can gain
a negative idea about themselves. They can lose confidence and self-worth and
they are likely to become embarrassed, nervous, disengaged… their eyes duck
down, pleading in their head the teacher not call on them, ensuring not to make
eye contact. They feel small, want to be invisible. They feel they are
behind…EVERYONE. They may feel they are not smart, something is wrong with
them… that they “are not the kind of person who reads” (Bomer & Bomer, p.
91).
“This measuring of self against others may be unavoidable in our society, but if reading is taught realistically, in all its diversity, the comparisons need not be this detrimental” (Bomer & Bomer p. 90).
How do/can we ensure we to lift up our students rather than allowing them to go down this path?
A Personal Experience: Gotta talk about myself…always… you’ve been warned!
Is there any possibility of turning this into a strength-based comparison,
where the students learn (or we teach the students to) assess self as “I can do
that. I’m close to doing that” rather than “I suck…omg…I am the slowest reader ever… I am
just going to pretend to read”?
–-This was ME
as a student growing up (and I still can’t
do in-class busy work or reading or assignments well because I conditioned
myself to fake it till I got home and then spent my 10 hours reading 10 pages
and then overcompensating by writing 10 pages on a 1 page max limit…) I was
reluctant because I was a “struggling” reader (I read significantly slower than
everyone around me and that’s the most embarrassing thing EVER, right?) And these ideas and self-comparisons to my classmates
hurt me significantly as a reader developmentally and likely caused me to
become a reluctant reader (or attributed significantly to my reluctance).
Eventually, not until college, I recognized that… although it still sucks
to be a brutally slow reader, I comprehend the material with just one read.. and
a lot of people can’t do that…
<< sometimes
I remember too much… sorry all and all teachers, professors, group members, and
anyone
else in my past that has been impacted by my rambling and TMI!
>>
… I was never taught, told, shown, … and I never really saw this
as or realized it was a strength because I never talked about my “struggles”. I
always finished work at home rather than even trying to work in class, and I completely
bombed on Reading Comp Standardized Tests because….well, I AM SLOWWWWW and the
time limits are ridiculous –time limits and page restrictions (NOT A FAN)!
BUT, how do we compensate as teachers for a student like me?
How
do we identify this?
My struggle with reading was based on my preconception that you
have to read at a certain pace… a certain pace I was not and still not really
capable of reading at. I refused to let anyone know because of my competitiveness
and need to fit in… be a cool kid… ended on
being the hilarious kid (*Emoji Face*). That competitiveness also kept my head justtt above water
on the standardized tests… So, I was always considered a Math kid, lower/average
in ENG/LIT.
My response to Priscilla's post last week:
We talked about it in our class, how a
student isn’t necessarily struggling, but rather the teacher has not yet found
the student’s niche to engage that student and tap into his/her potential for
success. How we define struggling, or rather how it becomes defined within the
school, can and does stifle students’ literacy development. Schools focus or
place so much value on “basic reading and writing instruction”, the
fundamentals, that students “are not given opportunities either to engage with
the substantive content of the subject-based curriculum or to use language
throughout fully to explore [their] own ideas.” When the concept and idea of
literacy is so narrowly focused/defined, there becomes a disconnect between
in-school and out-of-school literacy. Students don’t fit the school definition,
so they are labeled and tracked, and are placed in remedial classes focusing
solely on basics/fundamentals that reading and writing becomes so mechanical
that the students’ notion of reading and writing for school and for self
becomes disconnected. This can minimalize the value of the students’ home life,
family, culture, and self, which can result in a “feeling of (being)
discriminated against at school,” (Haneda, 2006, p.340). So, what is viewed as
struggling, could be rather a misinterpretation due to the disconnect, as
students are engaging actively in literacy outside of school, but these modes
are not valued within the school. “Given that some students regard reading and
writing for self and for school as completely unrelated activities, a question
remains as to how teachers might tap into students’ literacy competencies that
are not publicly visible in school,” (Haneda, p. 340).
Is struggling viewed differently in math than
in lit, lit than in science, science than in math? Is struggling different?
My lingering
questions remains….
In
the current system, how do we reverse this toxic idea? Is it as easy as simply
reframing the idea, as with the idea of disequilibrium??? How would we go about
doing this?
How do we redefine our definition of struggling in order to
reach the most students possible? How do we implement it in our classroom?
(What practices, strategies, assessment ideas for identifying, and so on)? Is
it possible in the current system?
A lot of kids LOVE competition and games… how do we implement
games and competition into our classrooms and utilize them in a way in which
benefits struggling readers/writers (and/or math/science/etc.) instead
of tearing them down/lowering their confidence/self-esteem? (Let’s be honest… a
game/competition without a winner/loser is not going to fly with a lot of kids,
so how do we ensure gain out of a lose? …if that makes sense). Can this be
done?
--Austin
--Austin
***************
Reference
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a better world:
Reading and writing for social action. Heinemann, 88 Post Road West, PO Box
5007, Westport, CT 06881. (Chapter 5).
Carter, S. (2008). Disequilibrium and Questioning in
the Primary Classroom: Establishing Routines that Help Students Learn. Teaching
Children Mathematics, 15(3), 134-137.
Haneda,
M. (2006). Becoming literate in a second language: Connecting home, community,
and school literacy practices. Theory into practice, 45(4),
337-345.
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group
Let It Fly · Lil Wayne · Travis Scott Tha Carter V ℗ 2018 Young Money Records,
Inc. Released on: 2018-09-28
Great post Austin! Thanks for sharing your own experiences. It made it easier for me to relate to where struggling and/or reluctant readers are coming from. As an avid reader my whole life, I have this fear that I won't teach the struggling/reluctant readers well because I can't understand them. I have no idea if this will be true or not, but at least now I have heard a firsthand account of what it felt like and why it happened to you.
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about struggling readers a little bit for the past few weeks. One of the kids in mine and Addy's math/science group seems to fit the 'definition' of a struggling reader. But I didn't learn that until we started science lessons. In math he is fairly engaged in problem solving, remembers the stories well, and is good at math. Once we got to science, we did an activity where the kids were supposed to read books about arctic animals and record what they learned in their science journals. This student flipped through each book in less than a minute and, if asked about what he learned, declared, "I already knew everything in this book." When I engaged him one-on-one, I realized that he was only looking at the pictures and was not interested in reading any of the words. It's been interesting to me that, since I knew him first as a good math student, I was not put off by his 'struggles' with the reading activities. I already knew he was a smart kid (and I've since found out that he's a really good artist). I feel like the stigma of being a struggling reader stays with kids even in other subjects and 'taints' the teacher's opinions of their academic abilities.
Austin, you make some great points! It’s easy for us as adults to judge kids on what they don’t know. We so easily forget that we were once those kids struggling to read for the first time. Instead of criticizing them, we should help them. One way I think I might do this, is by having reading groups with all kinds of readers. If you group all the reluctant readers together, that doesn’t help anyone. I won’t always know that one book that will change a reluctant readers’ mind. However, I can utilize my other students’ reading interests to form new suggestions. Rather than pitting the students against each other, why not create a community of readers? Our society has become so obsessed with competition from such a young age, that we don’t allow kids time to be kids. I once overheard two parents arguing about their child, who was standing right next to him. The father yelled at the mother that their son needed private lessons because he was too good at soccer to be in the league he was in. The child was 2! I mean what was he better at, running? I bring up this story, because I think it’s easy to get caught up in measuring our success and our students’ success. It’s important for us to stop and reflect what they’re getting out of our teaching. I read an article a few years ago telling parents and teachers to stop encouraging competition because when they graduate, they’ll be shocked that real life doesn’t work that way. You don’t do things in life to win or get an A, you’re typically motivated by interest, survival, or for other reasons. It's up to us to foster motivation that's preferably interest based rather than solely grade based. I, naturally, want my students to do well in my class and get good grades, but I also want them to remember the things we did in my class and not just what letter grade they got.
ReplyDeleteAustin, thank you for your vulnerability in sharing your own story. As Rachel said, hearing it makes it easier to relate to those kiddos who are also behind? Struggling? Slow? What would be a term to use for students who may need some extra time or perhaps display different strengths than the norm (as you stated with being a slow reader but being able to comprehend after reading a text one time)? I hesitate to say struggling because of the negative connotation.
ReplyDeleteMy niece could be labelled as a "struggling/slow/insert better term here" reader. She is in third grade and by my sister's and her teacher's account, she has trouble reading quickly and her comprehension is lacking. Listening to my sister's concern is always frustrating - I understand her concern, but I don't agree, and I keep telling her that SHE IS OKAY and just because she performs at a slower rate than the average doesn't mean she isn't smart or capable. It just takes her extra time.
This same idea could be applied when looking at the quicker rate that I read vs. the slower rate of my husband. When we read the same piece of text, he is always discouraged when I finish before him. How can we change this thought process? How can we show that both speeds are getting the job done and both are reading...especially when timed tests stress the opposite?? You basically asked this in another way: "In the current system, how do we reverse this toxic idea? Is it as easy as simply reframing the idea, as with the idea of disequilibrium??? How would we go about doing this?" And honestly, I think to truly create change, we would have to completely do away with the timed tests and the current system. But because this idea is unlikely to happen, I think a more reasonable way to help would be to create a classroom environment that encourages readers at whatever level they are, and looks for strengths throughout their trajectory. We could even discuss with our students and parents the disservice done to reader identities with standardized testing - telling them that although they will have to take such tests, they are not always an accurate picture of what he/she can do. I think this would be a start!
Austin, I really appreciate your personal touch to the readings. I think many can relate to your experience as a struggling reader and your experience will only help you in your teaching career. I had mentioned this under Jay’s blog post but I think for myself, I worry about reaching struggling readers by creating relevant lessons and appealing to the students’ interests and ideas but also providing academically rich texts. I was a reluctant reader growing up but have become more confident in my reading identity as I’ve grown up. I think for me the most important change was understanding that I could read about topics that I felt connected to or interested in. I hope to provide my students with ample amount of resources and texts that give them the same confidence I experienced. I really appreciate your questioning of how the system defines and views struggling readers and how we can reverse this toxic notion. I think we must begin by setting the students up for success by providing resources and texts that relate to their interests, cultures, and community in order to promote reading for personal gain. Furthermore, I think its important to create an environment that encourages reading and community rather than putting pressure from summative assessments on each reading experience. Some ways we could do that is by modeling reading during independent reading time, group reading reflections (book club), and opening up conversations between the class and teacher to allow ideas and expression of thoughts. I believe the most beneficial tool for struggling readers is a book club where the students can engage with their peers and express their thoughts and opinions of the text, connecting the reading with their personal experience, and asking questions that further promote higher thinking.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Austin! I really like how you bring in your personal experience of being a slow reader. I think this stigma of being a slow reader is really harmful to students and often gets mixed in with struggling readers. I personally am a slow reader as well. I can read fast, but I miss important details of what I'm reading. You also brought up standardized testing, which is also a problem (for so many reasons). But in particular reading. Students who are struggling readers become discouraged from standardized tests, and students who are slow readers (like me and you) are penalized for not being able to read and answer the questions fast enough, even though we understand everything and if we had a little more time we could answer the questions!
ReplyDeleteThis leads me to your ideas about competition. When I was younger I was crazy competitive. I believe in competition and not everyone gets a trophy. I think games and competition in classrooms can be beneficial, but when it comes to reading and getting students to become readers and love reading, competition can be detrimental if not done correctly. As teachers our goal is to make students readers. It doesn't matter who is the best reader as long as all of our students are succeeding when it comes to reading. Competition can be beneficial but we have to be conscious of how we implement it in our classroom!
Great post Austin, It's hard for me not to echo what most of our peers are saying. Thank you for speaking of your personal experience. It was very powerful. When I think of a struggling reader, I think of any young kid who is not as good as his friends at whatever sport it may be. I can relate to sports because that was much of my educational career. I know personally growing up that anytime you weren't as good as someone else you didn't want to be found out, or be seen to your class or teammates that you weren't as good. Young kids are so impressionable and these moments can have a lingering effect on ones self confidence and self worth. If it were only as easy as telling all our students that they will learn and don't worry about what other kids were doing. This is not the case, so we have to make our classrooms welcome students no matter where their reading level is. I believe if we start with an environment that promotes learning and most of all asking for help, students won't be so afraid to participate in class instead of shutting down and staying quiet. If this happens, the struggler will keep struggling. We must learn from our classes and incorporate our cultural relevant material into practice.
ReplyDeleteI love all of your Adam Sandler memes! Thank you for inserting so much of your personal experience into your post. I think when we can relate these readings to our peers specific stories and struggles it has a much greater impact on our understanding of how our expectations as teachers affect our students. I completely resonate with what you said about not being able to reading in class, and I am pretty sure we've talked about this before. I can sit down and read a novel anywhere without any issue and get engrossed in it almost instantly. However, when a teacher wants us to sit there and read an in-depth article with content that is unfamiliar or I'm supposed to be thinking about critically I can't focus in a classroom. They same goes for writing essays or papers that have to deal with complex or informative context. I can't focus, I get extremely distracted, and will read and reread a page 20 times never comprehending what I just read or stare at a blank page for 30 minutes without a clear thought. However, once I'm home and sitting in my room not concerned about what everyone else is doing or not being interrupted by continued instruction I begin to be able to understand what I'm reading and I have the time to write out ideas and drafts and scratch out and rewrite as my thoughts and analyses change. I think reflecting on our struggles and experiences can be incredibly beneficial to how we as teachers should see our struggling students. Is it that they don't understand the content or that there are too many distractions? Are there things we can do to create a better environment for them to focus? Is this format of reading not resonating with them? I think this goes back to getting to really know your students and having discourse about their experiences, so that we can reach them where they are whatever that looks like.
ReplyDeleteAustin, did you happen to watch the same Adam Sandler marathon I also just watched on TV recently or something?! Because those Happy Gilmore memes are GOLD. I agree with everyone else, I really enjoyed your post and how you inserted a lot of personal connections to our readings and everything we have learned so far. You asked at the end how we will "redefine our definition of struggling in order to reach the most students possible?" I think the more I work with the students in our field sessions, I enjoy each of their personalities more and more and I try to pinpoint small ways they contribute to the group even when I feel like we have a student who has "checked out." Because I think that as long as we don't just give up on these students but give them space and allow them to approach the discussion the group is having in their own way, they will be encouraged to speak up about the topic when they are ready. In our group sessions, we have a couple students who don't always participate and will walk away from the table if the lesson isn't stimulating enough for them, but that part is on us as the teachers. We have to reevaluate and adjust the lessons based on the students reactions, and try our best to be prepared to do so. Thinking about the differentiation and modifications of a lesson might take a little bit more effort. However, if we can try to come to class prepared to switch things up to adjust to students who are either not understanding, or the students who are done with the assignment after 5 mins (with correct answers!), I think we will find ourselves in a better position to help every students.
ReplyDelete