It's Always the Toughest Kids

It’s kind of a universal truth in teaching that the kids who make you work the hardest are the ones you love the best.  Maybe it’s true of anything in life.  When I look back on my teaching career, it’s the Keishas, the Matts and the Ivans that stick out; the one who didn't know the alphabet in fourth grade, the brilliant bully, the one who joined MS-13.  

I have a student this year who’s been challenging me for a year and a half now.  We’ll call her Maria.  When I started working with her, she was a fourth grader reading at a first grade level.  She’s now halfway through fifth grade, and she’s reading at a third grade level.  At first that seems like good progress, but she’ll never catch up at this rate.  The problem is she hates to read.  She doesn't read in class, because the books she can read look too babyish for a fifth grader.  When her teacher insists she read, she becomes disrespectful and sometimes oppositional.  She's often mean to other kids, because she'd rather get in trouble than look dumb in front of her peers.  

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet to cure struggling readers.  The most effective way to become a better reader is read more.  However, if a student has struggled through six years of schooling, they usually start to give up around fifth grade.  Nobody likes to do things they can’t do well.  Maria is no different.  This is when teachers and reading specialists have to get tricky.  I am constantly working to make sure Maria has books she can read at her disposal.  She loves pandas, so anything with a panda in it goes in her book box.  I use a lot of non-fiction because you can’t necessarily determine the reading level by looking at the cover, good for judgmental ten-year-olds. 

  

And thank goodness for Hi-Lo books, designed for struggling readers, they feature high interest topics at a low reading level.  Some like the Mallory books by Laurie Friedman, The Magic Treehouse and A-Z Mysteries are available anywhere.  While they look like more mature texts, the reading level is about second or third grade.  Unfortunately, the characters in the books are generally also in second or third grade, not always appealing to an older student.  Dick King-Smith and Sue Bentley solve this problem by writing primarily about animals.  King-Smith is the author of Babe: The Gallant Pig, as well as a host of other engaging animal tales at an easy reading level.  Similarly, The Magic Puppy and Magic Kitten series are focused more on the animals than the age of the characters.   

The best Hi-Lo books, though, come from specialty publishers.  These companies create books specifically to be used to teach reading in schools.  Usually, they can be ordered by parents as well.  The books are expensive, but worth it for a struggling readers.  My favorite company is Sundance Publishing.  They have three great series for struggling readers.  The easiest are the Sparklers series. They are goofy books, organized in chapters, with great picture support.  They also have a character list, a map of the setting and a glossary to aid in comprehension.  Slightly harder are the Supa Doopers, and for non-fiction, they have That’s Wild.  Kids love them.  The Wright Group publishes a series called the Woodland Mysteries.  These are nice, chunky books that look respectable for a 5^th grader, but the reading level is about the end of second grade.  They have picture support and predictable plots.  HIP Books and High Noon Books are two other companies that specialize in Hi-Lo texts.  In each case, the books are designed to deal with issues faced by older kids.  They have older characters, but the text is simple enough for a struggling reader to be successful. 

 

Hi-Lo Books for Struggling Readers

Sparklers – Sundance Publishing

Woodland Mysteries – The Wright Group

Scoop Doogan Mysteries – High Noon Books

Bats Mystery Series – HIP Books

Bailey School Kids by Debbie Dadey

Babe by Dick King Smith

Mallory Series by Laurie Friedman

A-Z Mysteries by Ron Roy

Cam Jansen Mysteries by David Adler

Jigsaw Jones by James Preller

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne

Magic Puppy by Sue Bentley