I draw on ethnographic data from a German school to explore discursive practices of educators that rationalize the illiteracy of 10‐year‐old, multilingual Ada. I juxtapose various moments of school life that “thickened” Ada's learner identities and find that special needs labeling often rested on pragmatic considerations of resource management and that cultural stereotyping reinforced a medical diagnosis. I also show that social learning was a way to counteract and reshape Ada's identity as a reader.