This article examines the significance of the "struggling reader" identity on students' classroom experiences. Drawing upon sociocultural theories of literacy, performance theories of education, and psychosocial qualities of identity, I argue that such an identity is felt, lived, and embodied throughout students' daily interactions. Once identified as struggling readers, students internalized a sense of loss and exclusion while reading in the classroom and attempted to reposition themselves as readers through various embodied performances with print.