Taming the Wild Text
A top-10 list of strategies to help the struggling reader become fierce, unafraid, and strong.
We learn to do well what we learn to love; it's as true in reading as in anything else. For 10 years, I've guided a reading program for boys at the Children's Village, a residential school in New York City for children in foster care. These boys have been through bruising school and home experiences that have made them feel extra ordinarily vulnerable as readers. Many have told me that they've never once experienced pleasure in reading. But over the years, as we've built a culture for reading, I've seen many of these strugglers make a breakthrough; they stop seeing their struggles as a barrier to success and begin to see them within the larger picture of the challenges all readers experience as they learn to find pleasure in print.
One of my students told me that the first time he ever experienced joy in reading was when I read to him from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. With his eyes full of tears, he said, "I feel a lot like Max sometimes, all alone. But he makes me feel brave again."
One of my students told me that the first time he ever experienced joy in reading was when I read to him from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. With his eyes full of tears, he said, "I feel a lot like Max sometimes, all alone. But he makes me feel brave again."
The truth is, we're all struggling readers. At some time today or tomorrow, you'll be reading something and you'll feel the print sliding away from you, your sense of power over the page slipping, your comprehension becoming murkier as you press on. It doesn't feel good. There are children who feel this every day, whether looking at a street sign or a simple picture book. When the world of print lacks deep meaning for a child, the reading experience becomes like wandering in an unfamiliar universe.
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