I teach 5/6th grade ELA. I have a group of very low students. They read decently well(like phonics) but when it comes to understanding what they read, not the slightest clue. They can read the words but don’t know what they mean. It’s not just a vocabulary issue, it’s a cognitive issue. Memory and retention is near 0. I spent a whole hour in intervention going over breaking words down and finding meaning via prefix/suffix/roots. They did pretty good, engaged and completing task. (It was 2 students and myself) the next day I asked them a question about it and they had no idea what I was talking about. I pulled out a blank page from the day before and it was like it was brand new. They are confused by basic sentences. One grammar page had the directions “fix the error below” and they could not figure out what to do and eventually I figured out it was because they didn’t know what “error” meant. I’ve given them sentences and they could tell me what each word was and a kind of general loose definition for every word but when I then ask them what the whole sentence means, nothing.

I’ve tried graphic organizers(confused them), one step directions(still have difficulty), one on one explaining and reading together. I’ve tried most of the standard ELA mess “they” say is the correct way to teach this stuff. Nothing is getting through to them. I truly don’t get modern English teaching because literacy rates/test scores haven’t improved and in fact I’d argue they are getting worse but that is a completely different issue and not the hill I wanna die on today. (Let me tell you how well the idiom lesson went. Spoiler:really effin bad)

I guess the issue is with comprehension? I’m kind of at a loss as to how to help these students. How do you get them to make meaning? My fellow teachers say that I need to learn that some of these kids are just lost causes. That there’s no way to help them because they just don’t have the ability. I don’t want that to be true but maybe it is, idk.

Are there any rock star veteran ELA/reading/sped teachers out there that can help me figure out a way to help these kids? Any advice/links/resources/sites/bottles of whisky are appreciated.