What if reading difficulties manifested like behavior problems in the classroom?
What if every time a student struggles to read in a classroom, the result was the student throwing books, screaming, swearing, and disrupting everyone else in the room. What if the student screamed “I can’t read!” all day long until someone helped them to learn how to read.
My guess is that we would meet frequently, call in outside help, involve the parents, write an individualized plan and do everything we can to make sure that child learns to read. Given the number of non-proficient readers in many classrooms, I am going to speculate that we would not be able to put them all into a separate classroom:)
And, I know all too well how many times behavior is the direct result of struggling with academics. Unfortunately, we see the problem as behavior and focus on behavior instead of focusing on the true root of the problem.
(January 13, 2016)