Letting Go of Labels and Trusting Reading Identity by Dr. Jennifer Scoggin and Hannah Schneewind

My son pours over illustrations and devours graphic novels, especially those with sophisticated potty humor. Dav Pilkey has mythical status in our house. Garfield comics abound. Chris Van Dusen’s illustrations merit hours of close study.

Yet despite his love of reading at home, my son did not see himself as a successful reader at school. During independent reading, he studied the illustrations and rarely focused on the words. By October of first grade, he was labeled as “disengaged” and a “struggling reader.” And although those words were never said directly to him, he felt their weight.

My son watched his friends read increasingly difficult texts and was aware that he could not read the words with similar success. His teacher tried to support him. However, she inevertantly made the all-too-common, label-led decision to focus on what my son was not doing as a reader. She focused on word solving strategies…