This week is a continuation from last week’s events. Last week, I had written of the progress of two students that attend LIST. This week, the progress was furthered and recognized even more.
The second grade boy I mentioned last week, made great strides in learning all the spellings of the various sounds used in reading! This is an awesome achievement, something we have been working on since he first started coming in September. With this knowledge, he has gained a stronger foundation to further his capabilities in reading. It also means that now I can start focusing our time on other skills, such as learning “high frequency words”; words that are often used but may not follow the “rules” of the English language. Step by step, little by little, he is grasping the skill set he needs to make him a fluent reader.
The other student I wrote about, was a second grade girl. Last week, I was amazed at how far her math skills had come since she started coming in November. This week, while substitute teaching at the local school, I ran into her teacher and her teacher not only told me she had noticed an improvement in her math skills, but she also told me that she was at the top of her class in reading fluency. While I am sure LIST cannot claim full responsibility for this, I am so glad to be a part in this student’s development.
A third student I will mention this week, is a third grade boy that just stared coming (I was able to move him off of the waiting list by shuffling the schedule a bit). His mother enrolled him because he has already been retained, and is still struggling in reading. This week, was the second time he has come, and I was able to assess where he is at and make a plan to catch him up in those two visits. Like many students that struggle in reading, he has adapted certain coping skills, which may get him out of “jams”, but will not help him in the long run. One coping skill he has developed is using context clues to guess at words he does not know now to read. This is so detrimental in many ways, but the biggest way it is harmful is that he does not read to understand the passage, but to get through it. If he is asked to answer any comprehension questions, he will not know the answers. Anyhow, one way I am now attempting to combat this coping method is by having him read the passage backwards – starting with the last word and going from there. This way, he cannot use context clues and is forced to sound the word out. Since he is older (the age of a fourth grader) he has been using these coping skills for a very long time, so it will take a while to break him of the habit, but using this method along with others, I am confident he will break this habit.
Two great successes and one new challenge define this week.
