Developing strategies for struggling readers during reading workshop

The research question addressed in this project was, how can I develop strategies to increase students\u27 time on task during reading workshop? The motivating factor for this capstone was the struggle to keep reluctant or below grade leveled readers engaged during independent reading. This capstone explores a variety of researched based strategies to engage and motivate readers. Key influence for this capstone comes from the text, Reader to Reader: Building Independence through Peer Partnerships, by Mary Lee Prescott-Griffin (2005). The author explains specific reading strategies, such as, repeated readings, graphing student performance for words per minute and the use of partnerships to aide struggling readers during reading workshop. She describes both successes and struggles in implementing the supportive reading strategies and concludes that: 1) Struggling readers all increased time on task with partnerships 2) repeated readings and documentation of student growth were motivators in student progress and self esteem