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The Struggling Readers Program
A Professional Learning Program to Help Teachers Understand and Support Struggling Readers in Grades 2–6
Our practical training program helps teachers understand why students struggle with reading and what effective instruction looks like, building confidence through clear explanations and evidence-based strategies teachers can apply in everyday classroom settings.
When Students Are Still Struggling to Read, It Raises Hard Questions.
You may be seeing students who:
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Guess at words rather than decode
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Read slowly and without confidence
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Struggle to comprehend what they read
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Have received years of instruction with little progress
This is frustrating, especially when you are doing everything you have been trained to do.
If you feel unsure about what to change or why certain strategies are not working, you are not alone. Many teachers were never taught how reading develops or what struggling readers actually need beyond the early grades. This is not a lack of effort. It is a lack of clear, consistent instruction grounded in how reading works.
Why Older Students Still Struggle With Reading
Learning to read is not a natural process. It must be taught explicitly and systematically.
When students do not fully develop foundational reading skills in the early years, those gaps continue to follow them. As texts become more complex, the demands increase, and struggles become more visible.
The science of reading provides clear evidence about how students learn to read and why some continue to struggle. Understanding this research helps teachers identify what is missing and how to respond effectively.
Before strategies can work, the underlying problem must be understood.
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What Struggling Readers Actually Need
Young readers often need instruction that strengthens core reading components that may never have fully developed or were inconsistently taught in earlier years.
These students frequently present with gaps across multiple areas of reading, not just one isolated weakness. Effective instruction recognizes that reading is a system of interdependent skills, and that addressing only one component in isolation rarely leads to lasting progress.
Meaningful improvement comes from intentionally strengthening the full set of foundational and language-based skills that support skilled reading.
Phonemic Awareness
Build awareness of sounds in spoken language, a skill many older struggling readers still need.
Phonics
Teach sound-spelling relationships explicitly and systematically, even in upper elementary grades.
Fluency
Develop accuracy, automaticity, and appropriate phrasing so students can focus on meaning.
Vocabulary
Build word knowledge and background understanding to support access to grade-level texts.
Comprehension
Teach comprehension explicitly through structured practice, not assumptions.
The Struggling Readers Program
Designed specifically for teachers working with students in grades 2–6, The Struggling Readers Program helps teachers understand why students struggle with reading, recognizes what effective instruction looks like for older struggling readers, builds confidence in their literacy decision making, and applies that learning in real classroom contexts.
Many literacy programs focus on early reading or provide disconnected strategies without explaining why they work.
This program:
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Is grounded in the science of reading.
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Addresses the unique needs of grades 2–6.
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Respects teacher experience and professionalism.
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Focuses on the science, not popular trends.
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Connects research directly to classroom practice.
There are no quick fixes here. There is clear, structured learning that supports long-term change.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Strengthen foundational skills that many older readers still need. This module focuses on the oral language skills that support decoding and spelling.
Teachers learn how phonemic awareness gaps can persist beyond the early grades and how to address them efficiently within grade appropriate instruction.
PHONICS
Teach sound spelling relationships systematically, even in upper elementary. Teachers learn how to deliver structured, explicit phonics instruction for older students who struggle with decoding.
The focus is on clear routines that respect students’ age while directly targeting the skills they need to read accurately.
FLUENCY
Help students read with accuracy, automaticity, and phrasing to support comprehension. This module explains how fluency connects decoding to meaning.
Teachers learn how to identify fluency breakdowns and use purposeful practice to help students read more smoothly and with greater understanding.
VOCABULARY
Build knowledge in ways that make texts more accessible for diverse learners. Teachers explore practical strategies for developing word knowledge and background knowledge.
The focus is on instruction that reduces cognitive load and helps students engage more confidently with increasingly complex texts.
COMPREHENSION
Guide students toward deeper understanding through explicit, structured practice. Teachers learn how to model thinking, guide discussion, and teach comprehension as an active process.
The focus is on helping students make meaning, find understanding, and connect comprehension to decoding, fluency, and vocabulary.
Professional learning built by a teacher, for teachers.
The Stuggling Readers Program was created by Joanne Heckbert M.Ed, a literacy specialist whose work has supported schools across Alberta. Her experience spans classroom teaching, the Right to Read Program, school based coaching, and province wide professional development and beyond.
Every strategy in this course has been tested with real students and refined to work in busy classrooms. Teachers leave with knowledge that sticks and tools they can use immediately.
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What Teachers Have to Say
Barbara Madsen,
BEd, Med
“I attended the Struggling Readers workshop the summer of 2019. This five-day workshop was the most authentic and practical professional development I have ever experienced. Through a series of intensive instructional sessions combined with hands-on experience administering the Diagnostic Reading Tool, I learned how to assess students and program interventions based on their individual needs. Joanne Heckbert’s wealth of knowledge around the science of reading is second to none. I highly recommend this workshop for all teachers in grades 2-6, and even up to junior high. All teachers are teachers of reading, and the more we understand the reading process the better equipped we are to support our students on their reading journeys.”
Christina Jones,
MEd, Principal
"I have known Joanne for almost a decade. In that time, she has supported teachers, parents and students in my school communities. What makes Joanne's work so pivotal to the development of literacy for severely delayed readers, is her undaunted passion and belief that all children can learn to read.
Joanne's research proven literacy development strategies for struggling readers are built solidly on the 5 Pillars of Literacy. This lens has created a critical foundation for teaching and learning that begins with teacher capacity building in areas of development that pre-service teacher training does not necessarily emphasize in relation to severely delayed readers."
Rhonda Van Lent, Teacher, EPSB
“I consider myself fortunate to have been able to benefit from the expertise of Joanne Heckbert. A consummate professional, Joanne is highly skilled in coaching teachers on how to use effective lessons, methods, techniques and resources that support struggling readers. I have been teaching for over 15 years but spending one week with Joanne revolutionized my program and made my lessons more intentional and far more effective. Her expertise will equip the seasoned teacher and the beginning teacher alike.”
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