I found this assignment to be very valuable to my future career as a reading and writing teacher. I would like to say that teaching reading and writing seem to be the most in depth to me. There is so much to learn about how to effectively teach reading and writing and I know that this assignment didn’t teach me everything that I need to know but it did introduce me to issues which I have never been faced with before while working with students. I worked with a boy who is considered a low-level reader and his teacher feels that he would benefit from being retained. It was a new experience for me to work with a student at a struggling level but I consider myself lucky that I had the opportunity to do so.

When I began working with my student, I had no idea that the teacher wanted to retain him and that he was a struggling reader and writer. The first day that I worked with him, he was so excited to read to me! He didn’t seem to have any insecurity about his reading level and it made me so happy that he was eager to pick up a book and read it to me. He has a true love for reading and I believe that even if he has a low reading level now, his passion for reading will only boost his reading abilities.

He struggled with pronouncing and recognizing words at a first grade reading level. He read the sample reading (that you gave me) at a frustration level, so I bumped him down to an early emergent reading level. I talked to his teacher and she told me that he typically reads at the lowest early emergent level. He read me books at his level and he fully comprehended the stories. He had a great time reading them to me, though he did still struggle a little bit.

He had a hard time pronouncing words ending in -ed. If I had more time to work with him, I could help him pronounce -ed words by creating sliders which would allow him to manipulate root words with -ed endings. I could also choose more books for him to read which contain many words ending in -ed. I think that he would also benefit from learning more about verbs in their past and present form. He also struggled with following his place in the text. I gave him a piece of construction paper to follow the text with so that he wouldn’t lose his place. I think that maybe at this point it would be good to find books with larger print or more spacing between the lines. He would allow himself to get frustrated with trying to keep his place in the text that he became really anxious while reading. He also had a hard time with reading words which begin with -th. I think that he could also benefit with a slider exercise to help him manipulate rimes and onsets. I am not sure if he has a hard time pronouncing the th sound or if he just has a hard time reading it.

I noticed that when he reads, he always examines the pictures first. He was struggling with the word elephant and the book had a picture of an elephant. I explained to him the importance of using pictures to figure out vocabulary words or story lines. I would make sure that I provided books with a lot of colorful pictures which help tell the story. It was neat to see him predict what was going to happen in the story by using the pictures. I also noticed that he said “ummm,ummm…” and took a lot of deep breaths while reading. He even did this after he began reading lower level books. Numerous times throughout the story, I would have to remind him to take a deep breath and relax. Though he was so willing to read me stories, he was still very anxious. I also think that he would benefit more from one-on-one reading instruction as opposed to having to read in front of other students.

I don’t know what to think about the possibility of him being retained. I have not been exposed to this issue so I am not sure if he will benefit from it or not. I do know that the fact that he loves to read is on his side and that if he is given the opportunity to do so, his reading level will advance. He is a smart student and I think that he will eventually develop into a great reader!