Using Active Learning Strategies to Help Struggling Readers

Struggling readers will benefit from teachers using active learning strategies. With active learning, each student is involved in the lesson or project and is using his/her strengths to improve skills and learn new material. Students are often pursuing their interests, and so they are more willing to take responsibility for their learning and like what they are doing. Active learning is fun, and students are less likely to become bored and frustrated with school and learning. Students who are reading below grade level often don't like school because reading is everywhere, and they always feel behind.

Here are some active learning strategies and lessons to use with struggling readers:

• Do an interest inventory to find out what students are interested in, but don't do the typical questionnaire. (You want to find out their interests, and students reading below grade level may have trouble reading the questions). You can make a bar graph with students using poster board and post-it-notes. Along the bottom of the poster board, list several student favorites that pertain to your age group. For example, a second grade chart might list cartoons, soccer, reading, TV, swimming, friends, recess, PE, and so on. Then give students three post-it notes and ask them to write their names on them. Each student takes their three post-it notes to the chart and puts them above their three favorite interests. (Now, you will have a bar graph, so you can also use this as a lesson on reading bar graphs. Which interest is the most popular? Which is the least? What is a good title for the graph?) Now, you have a visual of what your struggling readers may be interested in reading or writing about. If one of your students is interested in bikes, then find a book on his level about biking or trick bikes or motorcycles. To use active learning strategies, allow him to read this book (by himself or with a partner depending on his learning style), respond to it in his reading journal, and make a poster or power point about what he learned while more advanced readers may be in a small group reading a middle-grade novel.
• Students reading below grade level may benefit from word-building lessons. Sometimes, they struggle with reading and spelling because they may not see relationships between words. For example, they may be able to spell and read "cat." But when it becomes "catch," they can't just put the "ch" on, even if they know what sound "ch" makes on its own. Some companies sell word-building kits, which are great for active learning activities. You can also make your own alphabet tiles by laminating paper with single letters on them and cutting the letters into tiles or squares. With word-building lessons, students are manipulating the alphabet tiles to make smaller words into larger ones, to make lists of rhyming words, or to learn letter sounds and patterns. While struggling readers are using the letter tiles, they are also discussing their ideas for spelling and writing the words--this is not a quiet instructional strategy. The students are actively involved in the lesson and the activity, which is also great for tactile learners.