Struggling Readers

When I saw what the title of chapter 11 was, I was excited to dive into it in hopes of it shining some light on the isearch topic I have chosen. Although, the information discussed about ELL students, I’m sure will prove to be useful one day, I am particularly interested in the latter part of the chapter on struggling readers.  I do want to note that in the article, “Targeting Content Area Literacy Instruction to Meet the Needs of Adolescent English Language Learners,” the statistic that projects 40 percent of students in U.S. schools will “language minority students” by 2030. I had no idea that there were that many students with an L1 besides English. This statistic alone is something that all future educators must prepare for so they can efficiently accommodate these English Language Learners. For some time now (especially as I am in the process of writing my isearch paper) I have asked the question that is asked on page 344: “Why don’t students come to each grade level more prepared?” Even though I know this question cannot easily be answered, as the text reminded me, I do welcome any insight on the issue. I like the fact that the text did narrow down the main contributors of this issue. The first one listed, “literacy experiences,” I immediately thought to be the most contributing factor. However, after reading them again, I realized that each one was just as important and some coincided with others because of the lack thereof. After reading the chapter, I still do not know how to remedy this problem but I definitely have taken tips and strategies to begin to understand and help my future students who are struggling readers. With that being said, I can take strategies like ReQuest or LEA and apply them to my class, but will this be enough? And will I have enough time to implement these strategies? I understand the reading specialist is a vital part in helping struggling readers as well as helping the teacher so they can help the student. What are your experiences with reading specialists? What techniques are helping these students?