Building Frustration Tolerance is Crucial for Reading Success
Learning to read can be frustrating, especially for early readers. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet but 44 sounds. There are many phonics rules plus many other things to learn. It all takes explicit instruction and lots of practice. Naturally, practice means errors and this can be extremely frustrating to students. However, students who have built up their frustration tolerance are better equipped to take on the challenge of learning to read with all the mistakes, errors and frustrations that come with that.
Building frustration tolerance for early readers is essential for their long-term success as a reader. Being able to sit with this frustration without giving up, having a meltdown or worse yet feeling defeated is crucial. This post will give you actionable ways to support building frustration tolerance to support students as they become readers.
What is frustration tolerance?
Frustration tolerance simply put is the ability to be frustrated without the need to give up or admit defeat. It is how much tolerance a student has for feeling frustrated when learning becomes challenging without having a meltdown or showing expressive signs up frustration. Being frustrated is natural and students will most likely feel this way somewhere along their reading journey. The difference is some will feel frustrated and move forward (high frustration tolerance in reading) while others will give up or avoid reading altogether (low frustration tolerance in reading).
Why frustration tolerance is essential for learning to read
Learning to read in English is complex. There are 26 letters in the English language but there are 44 sounds created by combining letters. Plus there are sight words that do follow phonics rules and sight words that simply do not. Then there is grammar, sentence structure, etc. This list is long and expansive and this can be a lot for students to learn.
With the many aspects of learning to read it can be frustrating for students along the way. It is crucial that students have a higher frustration tolerance when learning to read because then they will move forward, not avoid learning and process new learning better. When students give up or feel so overwhelmed they cannot continue then no real learning can take place.
Signs of Low Frustration Tolerance
Each student and child is different but 3 common signs of a student needing to build their frustration tolerance in reading might look like wanting to give up, avoiding reading and having a negative self-talk.
Giving Up
This may look like a student makes reading errors and rather than being open to teacher redirection, the student gives up and doesn’t try any longer. A student may verbally articulate they give up, but more subtly this could be them putting their head down, purposefully reading incorrectly, not making eye contact with the book any longer and other body language signs.
Avoidance
Students who avoid learning to read will come up with many reasons why they can’t read. Some reasons could include needing to sharpen their pencil, couldn’t find their book, lost their homework and many others. All of these are tactics to prolong the start of practicing reading. Rather than being frustrated with students, interpret this as a sign that a student really needs support and feels unable to help themselves in reading.
Negative self-talk
Students may verbally express how much they dislike reading or that they are a bad reader or they always get words wrong. Students who do this long enough start to believe their own negative words about themselves.
Ways to Support Frustration Tolerance in Reading
While the above signs show that students have low frustration tolerance, the good news in we can support them in building confidence in reading and frustration tolerance at the same time.
Giving up support
When a student wants to give up we need to help them build their frustration tolerance. We can do this by giving them a break. Another great strategy is to scaffold the reading assignment by shortening it, taking turns reading paragraphs or pages or reading in a variety of styles. Read this blog post here for more information about ways to build reading fluency.
One of my favorite tactics that I use often is to cover the whole passage except for one sentence at a time. This feels a lot less overwhelming to students and they are more likely to begin reading when they aren’t immediately intimidated by the length of the reading.
Avoidance support
When students want to avoid reading altogether it becomes our job to ensure that reading is a safe place for them. We can do this by lowering the barrier to entry by reading to the student. The student can simply follow along while you read to them. This can progress to echo reading in which you read a sentence and they read it after you and moving on to taking turns reading sentences.
It is also important to determine why the student is avoiding reading. Your guess may be accurate but it may be far off base. During a non-reading time of the day it will be important to chat with the child about why they don’t want to read. This is a conversation of curiosity rather than shame. Start by saying, “I’ve noticed ____. Tell me more about this.”. Students may tell when you are sincere and want to help.
Negative self-talk support
An important aspect of self-talk is to be sure to praise the process and not the outcome or reading of each individual word/sentence. For example tell the student what they did well in reading after small group reading rather than stating something about them being a good reader. This can sound like, “You did a great job reading words with digraphs today. I noticed you kept sounding words out even when it was challenging at first.”. This rings a lot differently than saying, “You did a great job reading today.”. Being specific with examples that truly happened is important to incorporate.
Another powerful tool is to model getting things incorrect or making mistakes and talking kindly to ourselves. I do this often. I will read a word incorrectly and say something like “Whoops I have try that again. No biggie.”. Children often model their own reactions after what they repeatedly see. Therefore, they can learn to speak kindly to themselves by us modeling this.
5 ways to build frustration tolerance
The good news is a student with low frustration tolerance can learn to build their tolerance level which can support their reading journey. Below are four ways to help a child build their tolerance in reading.
Growth mindset
Our mindset is extremely valuable and should never be overlooked. Switching “I can’t” to “I can’t yet” is important. It is also crucial to tell students that learning to read is frustrating and that is a normal feeling to be frustrated. Mostly students want to know that what they are feeling is normal and acceptable. It is also helpful if you can relate and tell them a story about how frustrating learning something specific was to you and how you kept going until you got it.
Break words/tasks into smaller parts
Breaking tasks into smaller, more attainable pieces makes students more willing to participate in reading. This helps build their sense of accomplishment too. When students feel successful they are more willing to try harder and bigger tasks. This can be done by shortening the reading passage, reading less of a book, taking turns reading or taking a break once frustrated and trying again later.
Model Calm
Children can sense when teachers are getting frustrated or overwhelmed with their reading. Therefore, we need to practice patience ourselves and model calm. If we want our students to be calm and accepting of themselves while reading then we need to model this as well. It is important to remember that learning to read is a journey and to set grade appropriate goals for this process. Let your students know those goals and when they achieve them. Celebrate the small wins because students will want to keep showing up when they feel valued and validated.
Short sessions
Since learning to read is a journey that spans several grade levels we need to remember to not rush the process. Know when it call it quits for the day. More importantly know how to map out an appropriate speed and pace that supports students. Small reading group lessons in K-2 shouldn’t be more than 15 minutes and often shorter for younger students. Small bursts of learning at that age is more beneficial than cramming a lot of information into each session. If possible, end a phonics session with a phonics game or incorporate phonics games into a weekly rhythm.
Play games
Students love to play games and when learning to read phonics games are crucial for increased engagement. To learn all about phonics activities, specifically phonics games, read this blog post here. Practicing new reading skills using phonics games makes learning more low-stakes which allows students to feel more comfortable making mistakes. I created highly engaging phonics games that cover all K-2 phonics skills with extra movement built in for better retention. Check out the games here. These are a class favorite every time. My students use these games weekly as a part of their Must Do May Do phonics time.
Are you wanting a literacy system that naturally leads itself to less pressure for students by giving students ample time to complete phonics tasks without a 10 minute timer constantly reminding them they haven’t completed their work fast enough? I wanted this for my students too. So I ditched literacy centers and those annoying rotation timers and moved to a Must Do May Do system which has been a game changer for my stress level as a teacher and my students as learners. To learn more about this system with a quick guide and student template, click here or the image below.
Related Articles: