Teaching a student go read can be the most rewarding and the most frustrating process. Of course, the rewards are obvious, and maybe the frustrations are too. In the past, when teaching first grade, I would work with a student for six months seemingly not getting anywhere – the student wouldn’t be able to read a two letter work, or sometimes even recognize their name. Then, almost overnight, a student would come to school one day and just “get it”. They soon become fluent and catch up to the rest of the class. Other students take six months of stubble and t “getting it” is that they begin to blend, or sound out three letter words. Each success is gratifying; the first because you know your work has paid off. The second because you know your work will one day pay off.
This week, I had a success of the latter variety, but I am fortunate because my work with this student does not need to end at the end of the school year. Hopefully, he will continue coming to LIST so that I can see the hard work to fruition. A first grade boy, whom I have mentioned before, has been coming to LIST since our summer program last summer. He has been struggling from the get-go, but this week, he has made some progress. He is blending three letter words together, and even better, when I blend a longer word for him, he can often identify that word! Sometimes learning to read takes baby steps, and this student took his first baby step this week. He’s also been working at home to learn/memorize different sight words, which also makes catching up that much easier. He has a long ways to go, but we’ve taken that first step!
