How to Help Struggling Readers Without Embarrassing Them

Vicki Davis (00:00): Do you have a 14-year-old reading on a third-grade level and you just don’t know what to get them to read without embarrassing them? Today, we’re talking about how to help struggling readers in middle and high school for Wonderful Classroom Wednesday, episode 1028.

Announcer (00:15): This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis (00:20): Today, we’re talking with Louise Baigelman, the founder and CEO of Storyshares. Louise started as a Teach for America English teacher where she watched older students get stuck because every book was either too babyish or too hard. So she built a library to fix it.

High interest stories written at the reading levels that teens and struggling readers need. Louise’s work has been honored by Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Library of Congress. Today, we want to talk about reading and literacy beyond third grade.

Why do so many students still struggle to read after third grade?

Vicki Davis (00:57): So, Louise, let’s talk about this crisis.

Louise Baigelman (01:00): Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for having me here. So, typically, we teach reading in kindergarten through third grade. That is the way the systems have been set up.

But we know, based on the numbers and on what we see in classrooms, that many, many students get beyond third grade without having developed the literacy skills they need to then continue their own learning and to be able to access new information independently. And it’s the most recent NAEP report card showed that it is basically two-thirds of fourth and eighth grade students who are not yet reading proficiently. And so while so much amazing work has been done in the K-3 literacy space, my focus is on the students who’ve already gotten past the third grade and still need to become stronger readers.

And how do we support them leveraging what works in early literacy, but also thinking about them as different types of individuals, given that they’re at really different stages of their emotional development?

What does “learn to read, then read to learn” mean for older students?

Vicki Davis (02:06): Two-thirds are not proficient. So here we are trying to teach history and science and all these things with these lovely textbooks. And we have kids who can’t read the books.

Reading is one of those doorway abilities. It opens the door for every other subject.

Louise Baigelman (02:21): What you just mentioned is that the way the system is set up is… That you learn to read by third grade, and by third grade, you then know how to read. And so from fourth to twelfth grade, you read to learn.

So many students don’t get to that level of literacy by third grade. And then they not only still need to learn how to read, they also are struggling in science and social studies and math because of literacy.

Why do older struggling readers pretend to read?

Vicki Davis (02:47): Could you describe the exact moment in your classroom that made you think somebody has to fix this?

Louise Baigelman (02:55): I was working with fifth and sixth graders who were newcomers to the country. So they had experienced a tremendous amount of life, right, in having grown up in Haiti or Dominican Republic and moved to a new country. They were brilliant and so aware and insightful, but they couldn’t read.

They couldn’t access new information independently because they had missed that. That had become a gap in their instruction. And so I will never forget.

The moment that one of my students who had just come to the United States and was still working on very basic vocabulary went to the classroom library during independent reading time and picked out a book that resembled Huckleberry Finn, something that was intended for a middle school student, but I knew she couldn’t read 90% of the words in it. And I watched her sit down at her desk and tell me she’s reading it and she loved it and it was a good book because she was so desperate to not be isolated from her peers and to not be stigmatized by having to read babyish books. And so for me, that was one of the moments, which was like, of course she wouldn’t want to.

I wouldn’t have wanted to at that age. But why can’t I offer her something that’s not embarrassing to read, but which she can actually read? Because we know that if she’s pretending to read it, she’s not developing those skills.

And then the other moment I would say is once I found a couple of books that my students loved, they wanted to read. The intersection of those two pieces that made me think, why can’t we have more choices for older students wherever they are in their literacy skill journey that connect with them, that represent them, and that make them excited about reading? Because that’s the gateway to becoming a reader.

What mistakes might teachers make with middle and high school students reading below grade level?

Vicki Davis (04:37): We all agree reading is so important, but are there any common mistakes that we well-meaning teachers inadvertently make with a middle or high schooler who’s reading below grade level?

Louise Baigelman (04:48): There may be mistakes, but I think that middle and high school teachers working with older students are often going above and beyond to try and make it work. Whether it’s like, read this to your little sister so it doesn’t feel embarrassing that you’re reading about puppies and bunnies. We are always trying to be really creative.

I was writing a little books for my students on topics of interest at accessible skill levels. I would say that the number one thing is often secondary educators, mostly secondary educators, are not trained in teaching foundational literacy skills because we’re not expecting to.

Will a first-grade reading program help a ninth grader?

Louise Baigelman (05:25): I think the number one thing would be just to be really aware of where students are, diagnostic and screener data can assess relative to where they should be, and then, instead of just using what you have, pause and zoom out and think about if I were to use a first grade reading intervention program with this ninth grader, will that move the needle for them becoming a reader? Probably not because just the act of having to engage on first grade texts and activities for a ninth grader is enough to shut them down. I think my number one thing is like teachers know and are paying so much attention, but it is like pause and give yourself permission to say this.

I don’t have the tools or resources to support this student respectfully and then seek them out.

What are the signs an older student is struggling to read?

Vicki Davis (06:12): What are some of the signs to look for in your older readers to go, OK, they’re really striving to get better, but maybe they’re just not there yet.

Louise Baigelman (06:20): So my first piece would be wherever there’s an opportunity to just sit one-on-one with that student and engage with them as they’re reading and just use it as an informal sort of check for understanding, you start to get a sense, not just from a skill perspective, but also from an effective perspective of how they feel about it. Are they embarrassed? Are they frustrated?

Are they, you know, resistant to diving in? That’s one piece. The other piece is looking at it, how they’re doing.

In various subjects, if a student is struggling with reading, it will manifest, not just in ELA class, but also science, social studies, math, everywhere.

Can student behavior be a sign of a reading problem?

Louise Baigelman (06:59): And honestly, behavior. So when you asked about cues, to me, behavior is a big one. If it’s time to read and you have kids that are like acting out, they might not be acting out because they want to be disruptive.

They might be acting out because they’re scared and frustrated.

How can I help a 14-year-old reading at a fourth-grade level without singling them out?

Vicki Davis (07:18): So let’s talk about the teacher who has a 14-year-old reading on a fourth-grade level, and there’s 30 other kids in the room. What could that teacher do tomorrow morning to reach that one student without singling them out? Because it is a struggle when you have those disparate capabilities.

Louise Baigelman (07:36): It is such a struggle, and my ultimate hope is for the structures and systems to shift there. But in the meantime, absolutely, teachers can be so powerful in their own classrooms, just like with humans more broadly. That one-on-one, real to real, and this is something that I think is an asset for adolescents rather than little kids.

My own children are in first and third grade, and so they’re in that little kid phase. The students I taught and the students we serve at Storyshares are third through twelfth grade. While they’re angstier than an elementary school kid, they’re also very self-aware and reflective and able to sort of articulate some of their own thinking and connect.

How can a quick check-in help a struggling reader?

Louise Baigelman (08:19): And so, A, they feel so seen and heard when you do the one-on-one thing, even if it’s 20 seconds of, hey, I know this is not your favorite kind of book. This isn’t your favorite topic. What’s the next thing you’d really like me to find you a book about?

Just those personal pieces, I think, are really crucial and they can be done in moments. Also, recognize you’re not alone in every other middle and high school classroom across the country, these same challenges are being faced.

Should literacy instruction stop after third grade?

Vicki Davis (08:51): If you could wave your magic wand and education could look any way that you wanted to help this two-thirds of fourth graders and eighth graders, what would you do?

Louise Baigelman (09:01): For me, the ideal, if I could wave a magic wand, would be A, for everyone to understand that literacy, ideally, you get very strong by third grade. However, it’s not a finish line.

Literacy is a continuum and we’re all becoming more literate at every stage of our lives. And so A would be expanding the concept of literacy as a component of all K-12 learning. B would be like freeing ourselves of the shackles of some of these structures we have that are not serving today’s students.

So if the core curriculum, the Tier 1 curriculum is the main curriculum, but only 30% of students can access that rigorous science or math knowledge. Is that really a core curriculum? And do they need to learn about the complexities of erosion if they can’t read, given what we want them to do for life?

If I could wave my magic wand, we make literacy something that we support, strengthen, and leverage at every juncture along that education journey.

Vicki Davis (10:11): So we’ve been talking today with Louise Baigelman, the founder and CEO of Storyshares. And Louise, thanks for talking about this topic because I know that there are the quote reading wars going on, but while we’re working out all of the theories and the research, you would hate to have kids that are the casualties of that war graduate and not be able to read.

Louise Baigelman (10:34): Thank you so much for shedding light on this issue.

Announcer (10:38): Thank you for tuning in to the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Join us here every weekday and subscribe to the Classroom Matters newsletter. See you later, educator.