Ideas for Supporting S in Literacy

1.   What have I learned about my buddy’s needs, abilities and interests?

When I first met S, her open face and ready smile put me immediately at ease.  She is excitable, talkative and eager to please.  When I first asked her about herself she told me that she liked penguins and pandas, M and Ms, painting with watercolors, reading and science.  She also told me that she likes to be clean and organized.  When she went on to share some of her writing with me, I noticed that she likes to move fairly quickly over the text (familiar because it is hers), reading with some expression in her voice.  A few times I heard her use a past tense verb where present tense was appropriate, and I thought there was a slight mispronunciation of a “d” or “t” as a “b,” but I could not confirm it as it was not consistent. 

Then she read from a text they were reading in class.  I have a sense that she is rushing her reading a bit, adding endings to words and naming similar sight words that don’t make sense, but moving on anyway.  When I stopped her and asked her what was going on in the story, she could not quite figure it out either through words or in the pictures.

I asked her about what she likes to read.  Immediately she said, “Ramona.”  When I asked her to tell me about the story she described details with interest and characters with insight.  There is a bit of a conundrum for me: she clearly understands some things, but completely misses others.  She gets the overall gist of passages, but not the details.

In subsequent reading time together I discovered that she loves to read and is proud of it: “I read 130 words per minute!”  As we began to do our own assessment I found that she can read some passages fairly quickly (just over 100 wpm) with fluidity and expression, but others are quite slower, sometimes even in the same passage.  This overall inconsistency seems to be related to decoding unfamiliar words, especially names and words over 3 syllables long.

In both the spelling and reading inventories I found that she likes to do them as long as she feels successful and wants to stop the moment it gets hard for her. When asked if she would like to go back to the text and look for the answers she didn’t remember, she politely says “No.”

Most intriguing to me over these past two meetings with her is her choice of reading materials.  She chose to read one of several “Hannah West” novels written by a local librarian and set here in the Seattle area.  The author writes with suspense that is difficult for S to understand, yet she reads on.  It surprised me that she continues to read when she seems to be missing big chunks of the plot.  (Then I just read Tovani and she tells the story of her friend that likes to read Anna Karenina every year and see what new insights he finds.)  I like puzzles, especially real-life ones like this one!

2.   As a result of this knowledge, what learning objectives and materials are you considering using for your next lesson?

If given the opportunity I would work with S on several fronts.  The first is the strategy of asking questions as I read.  This is a valuable skill to start growing for all readers and could be especially helpful to S right now.  I would model how I do it right from the start by looking at the title and through the pages of the text.  As I go on to read the text, I would stop to ask questions aloud.  Ideally, we would then move to guided reading groups so that students can give each other insight from their perspectives as well.  For the text, I would ask Maggie, her teacher, for guidance on a grade-level text and a group of students at similar reading levels. As they stop and voice their questions, I would write them down.  As they find answers I will ask for their evidence (informal assessment that will guide further instruction).  I want to make explicit the many clues we find in what we read. I would like to do this with both fiction and non-fiction.

Second, I would like to do a reading inventory of words that begin with “b,” “d,” and “t,” as well as a list of verbs, to see if I can pinpoint the problem in what I hear.  It may not show up in her reading a list of words, but I would like to see if it does.

Third, I would like to help her find a just-right book for her independent reading and check in regularly to see if she is understanding the text. She is very excited about reading and likes to think of herself as a good one.  I want to do what I can to support her where she is and promote her growth and development.  Any suggestions?