Today’s diverse students enter school eager to become successful in classrooms originally designed for culturally homogeneous populations. Students are expected to learn from teachers who are often not from the same cultural, ethnic/race or social-class. Unsurprisingly, student performance in reading and other subjects is often low while student dropout and teacher burnout rates are high. This program guides participants to explore and document their experiences in motivating at-risk students to become effective readers. In addition to sharing successful strategies for improving reading skills, participants will examine barriers children encounter along the pathway and how these barriers affect them. Additionally, participants will learn strategies for supporting higher order thinking skills while encouraging self-motivation, personal responsibility, and perseverance.