One year with kim: From nonreader to reader

Abstract

Abstract Poor or disabled readers are typically treated differently from good or more skillful readers. Curricula for disabled readers involve more of a decoding emphasis than a meaning emphasis, and poor readers receive fewer opportunities to read connected text than do good readers. In addition, teacher behavior toward poor readers differs significantly from their behavior toward good readers: poor readers are afforded less wait time when attempting to pronounce difficult words; and poor readers are directed more often to graphophonic cues as opposed to meaning cues. Because of the different type of instruction poor readers receive, several authors have suggested that poor readers are poor readers because we treat them so, not because there is something peculiar about them. This article presents a case study of an eighth grade girl who received one year of nontradi‐tional remedial reading instruction in which she was treated more like a good reader than a disabled reader. The good reader, meaning‐focuse...