Unity 4th Grade: 5 hours
I think I am always going to remember this week!! Mrs. S was having a hard time getting a student to read so she thought I could help him out. He had this book for over two month and always had excuses why he didn't read it. She hand picked this particular book for this student because she thought he could relate to it. It was about a fourth grade boy who had a three year old brother. The brother would always get into his stuff and he didn't like him one bit. Well this student was also a boy in fourth grade with a three year old brother who he didn't like one bit. She thought once he started reading it would suck him in and he would actually read a whole book cover to cover in her class....well it didn't happen like that. He said he read about three quarters of the book but she really didn't know if he had. She thought maybe he was just moving his bookmark ahead. So she thought, maybe if he read this book to me. She would (1) know he was reading it, and (2) would hope that he enjoyed the book that he would see how much fun reading could be and all the fun stuff that goes with being a reader.
The student and I left the noisy classroom and went to the library and found a quiet corner to read. He read to me for almost 45 minutes. He read very well, he wasn't a slow reader and was able to pronounce most of the words. This surprised me, I guess I was assuming that he didn't like to read because he wasn't any good at it, but he was. It was nice listening to him read. And at the end of the class period he seemed to enjoy the book.
Thursday when I came back to school I asked him about the book. I was surprised to hear that he had read more since I last saw him. Mrs. S had us find our quiet spot in the library again and we read for almost an hour. And he FINISHED the book! He was so excited!!! I don't know for sure but I think it was one of the first "real" books he had ever read! You could tell he was proud and she was right about the choice of book, he LOVED it! He said that reading this book was a blast! Mrs. S was sooo proud of him, that she thought we needed to do something to make a big deal about this accomplishment so we made a poster together. He said what he wanted on his poster, and I drew it. Then he colored it in. He was so proud of it, and wanted her to hang it on the wall in the classroom. I like to think that I made a difference in the student's life, but even if I didn't I will always remember him.
Our poster :)