Meet Johnny. Although... you probably already know him. In fact, you probably have a Johnny in your class right now. It may also be possible that you also have a few Johnnys that you don't know about yet. Johnny has reading problems.

Johnny didn't quite catch on to reading in kindergarten and first grade. His second and third grade teachers did spend a few minutes each day with Johnny, along with a few other students, and he did make some progress. However, by the time Johnny was handed his fourth grade social studies and science textbooks, he was not at all prepared for the multi-syllabic decoding, academic vocabulary, and expository text structure of these books. Apparently, other students had reading problems, because the teacher rarely used the textbooks. Instead, she taught the "power standards" to prepare her students for the standardized tests in both subject areas.

His upper elementary and middle school teachers focused on the short stories in the literature anthology and on the assigned "core novels." The teacher read the stories out loud or had the students take turns reading in "popcorn" style. Sometimes the teachers played the CD recordings. Of course, Johnny's teachers wisely learned to avoid calling on him to read to protect his self-esteem. Clearly, Johnny's reading deficits continued to compound.

In middle school, Johnny was placed in an intervention class for language arts. The focus of the class was to teach grade-level language arts standards at a slower pace. Addressing individual reading problems was not the primary focus of class, although the composition of the class was loosely based upon the reading scores of last year's standards-based test. Johnny scored "Far Below Basic" because he was able to read only parts of the passages. Undoubtedly, a few students were placed in the class because they randomly marked answers on the test. Most of the students in this intervention class did have significant reading problems. However, they did not all have the same reading problems. Some students, such as Johnny, lacked phonemic awareness and could not decode. Other students had poor comprehension or low fluency scores. Still others were English language-learners. A few students were simply placed in the class due to behavioral problems.

Visit most public schools today and you will be able to spot more than a few Johnnys. Unfortunately, the Matthew Effect (Stanovich) is alive and well in our schools today. The rich do, indeed, get richer and the Johnnys get poorer. Students who learn to read well in their primary school years tend to continue this success because they use their reading skills to learn content and vocabulary in their intermediate elementary and middle school years. Students who do not learn to read well in their primary school years fall even further behind in school and the gap between good and poor readers widens. While the statistics indicate that only one in six remedial readers ever close this gap, Johnny can be that one. With the right diagnostic tools and instructional materials, caring teachers can better the odds for their students with reading problems.

Mark Pennington is an educational author, presenter, reading specialist, and middle school teacher. He encourages teachers to "work smarter, not harder" to improve their craft and increase student learning. Mark is committed to standards-based staff development in differentiated instruction for the diverse needs of today's students.

You can visit Mark's website to view and purchase books he has written to help educators. Click here to visit Mark's website http://penningtonpublishing.com/