10 Essential Instructional Elements for Students With Reading Difficulties: A Brain-Friendly Approach

Brain-friendly strategies to help all students become lifelong readers

Learning to read is more than just an educational issue; it’s a social justice issue. Did you know that struggling readers are twice as likely as their peers to drop out of high school? Through time-tested, research-based neurocognitive teaching strategies, 10 Essential Instructional Elements for Students with Reading Difficulties will enable you to hone readers’ skills and help students from all grade levels develop their ability to create meaning from print.

Drawing from five key areas of neurocognitive research, Andrew Johnson provides a ten-point teaching strategy that encompasses vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing and more. A key resource for creating intervention plans for struggling readers, features include:

• Information on the often-overlooked importance of emotions in the process of overcoming reading struggles
• Strategies to promote voluntary reading, even for the most reluctant students
• Useful resources such as graphic organizers, additional reading and writing activities, and QR codes that link to videos
• Use these strategies today and you can count on more students leaving your classrooms as fluent, lifelong readers. 

"Dr. Johnson tells the story of reading in a logical and clear manner with a book that is excellently researched, immaculately referenced, and full of practical tips for the practitioner."
Terry Bernstein, Former Senior Literacy Difficulties Specialist
London Boroughs of Camden and Westminster, UK

"This is the text I wish I had when I began to teach. Dr. Johnson clearly illustrates the process our brain uses to create meaning from text."
Marty Duncan, Ed.D., Author and Former Educator

Dr. Andy Johnson was a 1976 graduate of Grantsburg High School in Grantsburg, Wisconsin.  He attended the University of Wisconsin, River Falls where he graduated with a B.S. degree in Music and Speech-Communication.  After earning elementary teaching licensure, he taught 2^nd grade in River Falls, Wisconsin from 1983-1986.   He went on to teach in elementary schools in the Twin Cities area and also spent three years working in the Grantsburg School District as A 5th grade teacher and the Gifted Education Coordinator.

He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Literacy Education in 1997.  He is currently working at Minnesota State University, Mankato as a professor of literacy in the Department of Special Education where he specializes in literacy instruction for students with reading difficulties.  He is the author of 10 books and numerous academic articles related to literacy, learning, teacher development, and the human condition. 

He lives in North Mankato with his wife, Dr. Nancy Fitzsimons and his dogs Mickey and Emmet.