I have been substitute ongoing since late October. I wasn't going to do a long term position this spring, but I was asked if I could Do a week in 3rd grade until the new teacher was hired. I agreed. I'm glad I did. At first I was nervous because the 3rd graders at the other school were difficult. But, these 3rd graders are manageable. Anyway, while teaching at the other school I realized that one of the students who was misbehaving could not read. I had Netflix opened and the movie, Meet the Robinsons was on the screen. The boy was trying to read the title to the movie and he said "Met the..." and he couldn't read the word "Robinsons." Met, not Meet. How are you in the third grade and you don't know the word "meet?"
This bothered me, but at that moment I understood his behavior.
So, fast forward to now and I was teaching a reading lesson and I asked one student to read. He could not read the words. He was also a student who had behavior problems and he would throw a tantrum when he was disciplined. Again, on today I asked another student to read and he had a difficult time reading the word, "The." How does that happen? There are about 5 boys in the class who have difficulty reading.
All of this made me remember Kasey (not his real name) who was a senior in my class when I taught at the high school. I took him along with his classmates to read to students in the 5th grade. He was reading an 8th grade level book and I was so embarrassed for him when he was at the front of the classroom stumbling over the words. He could barely read the book. I had to take over.
How does this happen?
I googled, "third grader can't...." and immediately it autofilled, "read." This is a big issue. I mean as a former teacher I knew it and I've always heard the statistic about prisons being built because of third grade reading scores, but to see this in real life is overwhelming.
As I sat and worked with the student I just prayed for him. How was he going to succeed? What was his life going to be like in 10 years?
My heart ached and I began to think about what it was I could do? I mean teachers have 20+ students to stop and teach one kid how to read, let alone 5.
I thought about all of the grants I've written for after school programs and how I tried and tried and failed at them. Then God began to remind me how I've always wanted to be apart of some type of supplemental education program to help students. After all, it was because of these programs that I was able to attend college. I began to remember the Illinois College Tour that I planned, but never made happen.
My heart ached more because these are things that I failed at and I know that failures are just lessons learned, but what do I do with all of these memories? Do I try again?
I mean I was able to redeem myself by being the music teacher and running the Christmas program.
God, what are you saying to me?
What do I do?
I don't want this to frustrate me....
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/my-third-grader-still-cant-read-what-do-i-do/article1345417/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/my-third-grader-still-cant-read-what-do-i-do/article1345417/
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