I started a little project today...one of my students is not reading on grade level yet.
Background: She's new to our school this year. Her family moved three times during Kindergarten. At Open House, she scribbled on a painting a former student had made for me. Her grandmother made no attempt to stop her, so I took the marker out of her hand myself. During playtime, she hit, grabbed, pulled hair, had a hard time making friends. She knew a few consonant sounds and one vowel sound- short a.
During the year: She's settled in except for some transition times. She very happy, loving and giving. Needs attention all day. If I speak to her in the morning, she thinks it's free rein to hop up every few minutes. She is in RtI individual Reading and group Math.
On Mondays, each child reads a grade-level passage for me. I time them for one minute, marking where they stop and their errors. To keep it consistent, I count five letters as one word. Our end of year goal is 60 words per minute. Students that don't fluently finish the passage reread it for me Tuesday and Wednesday.
This little girl is averaging six wpm. She successfully uses consonant sounds now and can usually sound out cvc words. During Self-Selected reading, she retells stories in a sing-song voice by looking at the pictures.
I've decided to let her begin our second reader (again) in an attempt to help her catch up. We'll use the same routine as our on-level guided reading lessons. The story three days in a row, test, using a reading passage from that story for her one-minute timing.
Today, we read Big Fish for Max. It uses digraphs th, ch and sh, al, and the sight words eat, said, good. She attempted to sound out said two times, read it correctly once then called it sat. Her strategy of choice is to sound out the first letter and guess something/anything. I redirected her many times back to the word at hand. She will successfully sound-out a word then say a totally unrelated word.
I'm excited to see if this added individual attention helps. My goal is to complete the second reader by March 27. Wish us luck!
4 comments:
Good luck! It is great that you are willing to spend extra time with her to get her where she needs to be. She needs you, and it is wonderful that you have taken the time to make a plan and set a goal to help her. That is a sign of a very caring professional!
Good luck with your project. Reading is such an important skill. I have a daughter who is very bright, but can not sound out words, period. We tried everything. Spelling tests were a nightmare. She would have to memorize each word. Spelling is still her weakest area. Amazingly, she reads really well and scores well on comprehension tests.
I love how you have a concrete goal for her. A goal that will show growth for her. Thank you for sharing about your challenging one. We all have at least one who challenges us in so many ways. Good luck!
wow, it sounds like you have made really great progress with her so far. keep up the good work!
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