Rethinking How We Label Our Students

As secondary teacher, I am constantly confronted with issues facing my emerging readers. At the beginning of the 2018 school year, my students were called either "non-readers" or "reluctant readers"...with a single handful of "avid readers" in the mix. While the argument for choice in reading for obligated texts in the classroom resounds in my head and heart, I had to face the fact that ALL TEXTS were simply obligated texts, even if choice was involved, due to my students' relationships with the act of reading. Such a challenge forced me to think about how we, as teachers (and sometimes parents), label our students and the impacts those labels have on them as learners and people. Such labels also impact how we, as teachers and parents, both interact with and set expectations for our students.

Mentally and emotionally, how does "reluctant reader," "challenged reader," "non-reader," and "struggling reader" influence the choices we make regarding our students? For educators, there are two reactions that happen almost simultaneously when we have students who are introduced to us with any of the above labels. The first reaction centers on understanding the sheer workload and energy that will be required to help that student. For a good, strong educator, a second reaction also takes place; there is a warrior-level challenge that demands victory. That educator has a toolbox full of skills and a willingness to work outside the box. The educator who is able to experience the second response more than likely sees the student as an "emerging reader."

What, exactly, is an "emerging reader?" "Emerging readers" are students who may not have experienced success with reading and have not discovered their "niche" in the vast ocean of pleasure reading. I have had students who, when introduced to graphic novels or creative non-fiction, discovered that they actually love to read. Students would say, with great surprise, "I didn't know there were books like these!" After discovering that they could succeed and find joy within one genre, they were often willing to take the risk of trying "traditional" texts. I had one such student ask me, "Mrs McVay, am I a struggling reader?" With great honesty and compassion, I remember responding, "No, you are an emerging reader." "What is that?" the student asked. "It is simple. You are emerging like a butterfly out of a chrysalis. You are discovering your "thing" as a reader and growing stronger. An emerging reader is someone who will succeed." He did, indeed, succeed that year.

Students who are faced with learning difficulties contend with their own feelings of inadequacy, their parents' feelings of relentlessness/concern/frustration, and their teachers' feelings of pressures to succeed. While parents and teachers strive to keep labels like "reluctant reader," "challenged reader," "non-reader," and "struggling reader" away from their students,  students inevitably latch on to the labels and allow them to define them as both people and learners. Unless we redefine and reform our views of students' relationships and identities with reading, success will be difficult to obtain.

We need to stop seeing our students through the eyes of deficiency. When we see and think of them with "successful" language, we are more apt to take the time to help them achieve because we know that we, too, will achieve. "Emerging" allows our students to grow, become, and discover. That is what we all desire. Not just for them, but for ourselves as well.