Usually, situations aren’t as they appear on the surface. If half or more of students in a classroom aren’t paying attention, it isn’t necessarily that the teacher is lacking in skill. It is also not necessarily that the kids are naughty. There is probably something else going on.
Now, over a decade later, I wouldn’t dream of teaching young kids to read without, from the beginning, involving all the strategies I have found to work for the very young and for struggling readers. You can tell which strategies each particular child needs based on what they rely on as they are reading.
When a child has given up, it is because he has failed frequently enough that he will fight doing anything that might produce another failure. The resulting behaviors should not be our focus. We must zero in on the underlying sense of discouragement and helplessness and purpose to do anything in our power to help.
If we can get a child who has failed repeatedly to try one more time, it is supremely important that he achieve success with the new approaches to learning you are using. What follows are some suggestions for ensuring success for your discouraged child.
However, the idea has been so ingrained that the ONLY way to teach is the approved way that it is nearly impossible, feels dangerous and risky, and is scary to venture out and teach using pictures, etc.
