306: Help! My Readers have such Different Skill Levels

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to answer a question sent in by a member of our community. Here’s what she writes: Hi Betsy, I have classes of 10th graders who are SO divergent in skill levels. Some are reading Murakami for fun, and some are reading at a 5th grade level. I am struggling to differentiate for them and provide challenge for the strong and support for the others.” Today on the show, I’m going to offer some ideas for this listener, and I hope they can help you too, if you find yourself in the same boat.

My first thought with this class is to suggest trying hard to have a range of whole class texts, book clubs, podcast clubs, choice reading units, and choice-based projects with lots of final product options. I recently finished reading Katie Novak and her team’s Book, Universal Design for Learning in Language Arts, and so much of what she talks about in that book would apply here. 

Universal Design for Learning - which by the way I would highly recommend exploring -  suggests that when you plan bearing the needs of all your learners in mind, you better serve every learner. By providing the options and scaffolds that will help one group of students, you’ll actually be serving up a stronger learning experience.  One of my favorite quotes from the book is “UDL lives in the OR.” So let’s talk about how you might apply the choices inspired by UDL to a unit with a highly varied group of readers.

Let’s say you’re going into book clubs about identity. You want to provide options that can engage every reading level, without simplifying the content since you know your students are mature thinkers. 

Maybe you also have several students who have trouble decoding print and several emerging bilinguals who recently immigrated from Latin America.

So as you design your book clubs, keeping all these kids in mind, you choose two graphic novels that weave memoir together with stunning illustrations that help to tell the story, one verse novel that is both engaging and accessible, a longer historical fiction novel that you also have the audiobook for, and a contemporary award-winning YA novel that’s available both in audiobook and ebook on Libby, which has an option to translate into fifteen other languages including Spanish. 

You’ve now created a lot of different paths into texts that approach identity, providing options for readers and learners with different strengths and challenges.The audiobook version may benefit a student with a high reading level that’s incredibly busy caring for his siblings, as well as a student who has trouble decoding print. The graphic and verse novels may help readers who need a ladder back to books, and also open up new genres for your advanced readers. The idea in UDL is that every student benefits from all this “or,” all these choices.

Now let’s say you’re moving into a whole class text - The Odyssey. Again, if you consider the needs of every learner, you can gather different access points for the text. You can make several copies of Gareth Hinds’ Graphic Novel version available to check out as well as look at during class time. You can help connect students to electronic versions they can translate. You can look for the best audiobook version of the best translation out there. And you can practice close reading both visual and print passages with your students in class, modeling the strategies all readers need to dig deep into the meaning behind the pages.

Then there’s choice reading, and you probably know what I’m going to say here. Building a thriving choice reading program is an incredible way to support your readers on every level. When you provide a huge range of options, from picture books to graphic novels to novels-in-verse to short stories to fantasy to the classics, you’ll be able to meet your readers where they are and help them progress. I’ve got a lot of episodes out about this already, so I won’t dig in too far. But you can build whole units around choice books, letting kids read what feels right to them and still creating a class curriculum built around the development of skills you want to see improve and projects that offer many choices. 

OK, I’m going a bit long on what is supposed to be a mini episode! But if this is an issue that is always on your mind - as it is for so many educators - today I want to highly recommend you remember that one simple phrase, “UDL lives in the OR.” And maybe grab yourself a copy of Universal Design for Learning in Language Arts. It’s a quick read, and I’m giving it all the gold stars.  

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