How Can I Help This Student?

For two weeks I had the opportunity to work with a second grader for thirty minutes on Tuesdays. The work included an assessment of reading fluency and getting to know the student around the use and practice of reading. I found the experience to be a great way to apply the readings and learning from our literacy class. All college classes should have such real life applications. The student I worked with showed incredible fluency during our times together. He already reads children’s novels. I was wondering if I would be able to help him and how I would uncover his strategies of decoding. Then in our second meeting, he had a Guinness Book of World Records picture book. While he was reading one of the descriptions he fumbled over the numbers. At first I wasn’t sure about this fumble. The number was rather large and he was deliberate about reading fast. Then I had him read another description with many numbers. He fumbled over most of them. It struck me that a child who reads so fluently could be stymied by numbers. It also illuminated to me that as teachers we can always find something our students can improve on. Schooling is all about learning and building. “Advanced” students have as much to learn as “struggling” students and the way to teach all students is by getting to know the individual.