Podcast Transcript Ep 60: Principles for Working with Struggling Readers and Writers

About this teaching resource

In this podcast transcript, Episode 60: Principles for Working with Struggling Readers and Writers, literacy expert Sharon Callen talks about how teachers and leaders can support struggling readers and writers.

We call them 'striving' readers and writers, rather than struggling. But every teacher and leader wants to find better ways to support these students in their journeys. Teachers need a reliable, trusted source for research that works in the classroom.

To help with this, Sharon talks about an article from Foundation For Learning And Literacy: Principles for working with struggling readers and writers - advice for teachers across primary and secondary schools (August 2020).

Principles from this article will help teachers adjust their literacy teaching for individual students who are experiencing some difficulty with reading and writing. The principles are based on what research tells us about struggling readers and writers. All teachers are teachers of literacy. Teachers in the secondary sector are discipline experts and bring their knowledge of disciplinary literacy to support all students to gain expertise in that discipline and transfer this learning to other areas.

This discussion covers:

• What students can do and build on their strengths
• How to promote high levels of student engagement
• How to provide predictability and routine
• Inviting students to make choices
• How to provide opportunity to talk with peers about reading and writing
• Increasing the number of high-quality texts which are exemplary for their genre that students encounter
• Read alouds
• How to ensure the students engage in successful reading practice
• Teaching students to use effective strategies in their reading and writing
• Scaffolding learners into texts beyond their independent reading ability
• Increasing the time students spend writing about things that are personally meaningful
• Providing extra support to help students perform well in front of the class