I went to my elementary school again this week. I arrived and went to the front office to check in and sign the VIPs book. I went into my classroom and the kids were running around and playing games with one another while they waited to switch classrooms. One of my kids came up to me and asked me to read a book with her while we waited. This particular student is at a very low reading level and struggles to read words like at or the. The book she picked up was pretty difficult and she wanted only me to read to her, but I explained that we could take turns reading a page each. She ran off, because she did not want to read. The teacher was getting ready for the day and asked if I would go make photo copies of a few pages the kids could work on while she did testing. When I returned from making copies, another student I work with came up to me with a book about New York. He does not speak so it is difficult to get him to read to me. I read the first page to him and then the bell rang and it was time to get into our groups.
I took my first three kids first. Last week was a difficult week, because they fought the entire time and did nothing but accuse each other of cheating and yelled at one another. I explained that this week everyone was going to talk in a low voice and play by the rules. They were much more well behaved this week. The first game we played was Candy Land and they did well with reading the sentences. They are improving slightly as the weeks go on. When it came time to switch groups, the teacher was doing testing instead. Each student had to go up and read a certain book and she tested them on their skills, so she didn’t switch groups. The kids were doing an assignment, so I went and got my other three kids and switched. They played Candy Land as well. We got through several games which is a change, because usually we only get through one due to the fighting and arguing. They were a lot better with their reading this week.
Overall the kids seem to be improving. My student who never speaks and if he does he will whisper was whispering a lot to me this week. Sometimes he goes without saying a single word, but he was more talkative then usual which is a positive thing. The kids are learning to get along a lot better then they had been and there reading skills are improving week to week.
