Blog Entry #2

I would like to share my experience with Katelyn this week.

Fridays all the children are tested on their progress in reading for the week. I was able to sit with five children, individually.  Katelyn was my last student of the day. Katelyn couldn't focus on the task of reading. She was looking all over the room and told me she didn't want to read.  I knew, from information given to me by the teacher, that Katelyn's parents didn't spend much time reading with her. I got the feeling, from the way she was acting, that if she told someone she didn't want to read, she didn't have to.

I started to feel like I wasn't going to be able to help her accomplish her reading assignment because she continued to fight against it. Then I had an idea. She was so distracted by the children doing various activities, I had to bring her attention back to me. I have been reading more about auditory learners since the little test we took a week or so ago. She seemed to display some of the same characteristics as one of my children has who is an auditory learner.  We went out into the hallway where there was a lot less noise. I started to ask her questions about herself and reading. Once I was able to get her attention I took a different approach to her reading. I would ask her what sound the letters made instead of having her look at the letter on the paper and telling me the sound. Once she felt more confident with her letter sounds she was able to read the phonetic words without any problems.

By the time we were done, she had made quite a bit of progress.  More important, she could see the progress she had made. It was a neat experience for me and I hope for her.  Unfortunately, when you are one teacher among 25 children, those types of experiences are few and far between.  I don't know how you can spend time like that with one child while 24 others are needing attention as well. It seems like such a challenge. I am curious, as the weeks go on, to see how the teacher I am working with does this.