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"But as many as half of my students didn't like to read, and half of those couldn't read. These were most certainly not the students I had in mind while studying literature, composition, and grammar in the English department..." --Kylene Beers, //When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do// (3).

Most of us, as English teachers, entered the profession because somewhere down the way we decided we loved the subject. We love to read, we enjoy writing, we even like writing about what we read. So, in our ideal world, we would love a classroom of young people who are waiting to soak up every piece of literature we present them. In reality, our classrooms will have some students like this. But, we will also have some who find reading challenging, unenjoyable, and a waste of time. It is up to us as English teachers to help those who struggle in hopes they begin to love literature.

On this wiki page, I will explore what it means to be a struggling reader and how we can help struggling readers in our classroom.

According to Leila Tovani in //I Read It, but I Don't Get It// proficient readers:
 * Use existing knowledge to make sense of new information
 * Ask questions about the text
 * Draw inferences from the text
 * Monitor their comprehension
 * Use "fix-up" strategies when meaning breaks down
 * Determine what is important
 * Synthesize information to create new thinking