Chapter Two

Chapter Two focused on what makes a struggled reader; I could not agree with what Kylene Beers wrote more. I think that it is important to allow students to realize that mistakes are not failure and they are not something to throw in the towel for. In order to succeed, one must make mistakes so that he/she may learn from them and learn the correct way to accomplish a task. It is important to instill this in students, especially since the main reason why their confidence usually gets shattered is because they make the association that mistakes are failure. Lack of confidence in a dependent reader not only causes the reader to not enjoy reading, but causes him/her to have issues when it comes to “comprehension, vocabulary, word recognition or fluency and automaticity.” (17) These issues can carry over later on in life and may create concerns in other aspects of the student’s life; hence why creating independent readers who can use tools and strategies to cope with struggles is key.

When Beers discussed how she, herself, was a struggled reader when reading Beloved and her VCR programming manual, I thought about how important it is to show your students that you struggle too. I know that in my internship, students constantly complain to me that they think that teachers hold themselves on pedestals, so I think it is definitely a necessity to acknowledge to your students that you have struggles in reading as well. I once covered a class with students whose reading levels were at sixth grade, instead of being able to read like the sophomores they were. I had them read aloud, and allowed them to sound out the words; which seemed to work. I myself began the reading, and stumbled on some of the words (as most do when reading aloud). I really believe that this helped create a safe environment for the students and that once seeing my struggle; they realized mistakes are natural and that sometimes reading slow and right is better than reading fast and incorrect.