Struggling readers

Here is a link to an article about teaching struggling readers - about some of the unfortunate lessons they have learned from school - Are schools wounding kids? by Kathie Marshall.
http://tiny.cc/kathiemarshall

She quotes teacher-consultant Bill Page who defines at-risk students as “Children who are expected to fail because teachers cannot motivate, control, teach, or interest them using traditional methods and prescribed curriculum.”

I found this an interesting comment from "Prof", posted underneath this article :

We (and I use the inclusive pronoun advisedly) teach children early on several lesson about school.

First, we teach them that one has to be "smart" to get along in school. This really has nothing to do with working to learn something. Instead, a kid is perceived as smart if he seems to "get it" quickly and without much effort. Effort is rarely rewarded or recognized in school. Not convinced? Think about how most of us grade students. The kid who gets high marks on homework, on assignments designed to help kids "practice", get the better grades. We look at all of a kid's practice, not just the end result. We certainly do not grade drivers on how they drove the first time they got behind the wheel, but we grade "learning" that way!

Second, children get the idea that getting done is the same as learning. We focus on completing work rather than on learning the skill or concept. We keep kids in from recess, pester them about missing work, etc. We rarely look at whether or not they've actually learned the concept without completing all of the assignments. The system as it currently stands consistently demonstrates that what counts is getting "it" all done, not learning.Many of these students come to college expecting that showing up is the same as learning. A recent case in point is the student who came every day to class. He handed everything in, but none of it demonstrated that he had learned or could apply the concepts. He was asked to do the work over, to come talk to the professor, given many chances to demonstrate learning. When he failed the class, his appeal to the Dean was, "I came to class every day and I turned in something for every assignment. I deserve a passing grade." That is a person who learned this lesson well, however, it did not serve him well in trying to prepare for a career.

Third, children are taught not to take risks. Few students will take a chance to answer a question if they could be wrong. We have focused on making our schools physically safe, but we have not yet consistently created classrooms where children can risk being wrong.

Fourth, children learn that education is something done TO them, not something they participate in. We tend to decide what children will learn, when they will learn it, and how they will learn it, but never enlist their help in doing that learning. We say, "Learn the multiplication tables." We provide time for practice. We have timed tests. We play multiplication games. But we too often forget to ask the child something like, "One of our goals this year is to learn multiplication facts. How many of these do you think you can learn this week?" We ask students to set goals in athletics, but we've forgotten to include them in their academic ventures.

How do these factors play out? Our students most at risk of dropping out or of turning off to school, do so, and they do at shockingly early ages. Our "good" students learn to play the game but not to learn. Talking to students and asking them the kinds of questions the author of this article asked is exceptionally valuable. We should do it more often! As a former principal, I had the opportunity to hear students talk about their dislike of school, and why they acted out. It is a tale that needs to be told!