Engaged, Not Enraged: Teaching Reading & Writing in High-Behaviour, Low-Literacy Classrooms

Students with complex needs and high behavioural profiles often enter the ELA classroom with low literacy skills, low confidence, and even lower engagement. This session offers practical, high-interest strategies that help these students actually want to read and write — without overwhelming teachers or requiring hours of prep. Participants will explore visual-driven literacy, graphic novels, film-text pairings, scaffolded reading strategies, and low-floor/high-ceiling writing tasks designed for students who struggle with attention, decoding, comprehension, or regulation. This session focuses on real classrooms, real challenges, and real solutions that work across 10-2, 20-2, 30-2, K&E, and complex needs settings. Attendees will leave with ready-to-use tasks, assessments, high-interest text suggestions, and behaviour-sensitive engagement strategies they can implement the next day.