The student that comes to mind first when I think of those that are unable to perform at the level the majority of the class is at, for Kindergarten, is a girl who cannot match sounds with letters. She has so much difficulty completing the morning worksheet every morning. Every morning our Kindergarteners receive a worksheet that involves the letter of the week. Last week was 'D', so the morning worksheet had a bunch of pictures of different items, some starting with the letter 'D'. The students had to color in those that began with the letter 'D' or the "duh" sound. By February, this task is easy and the students are finished in a matter of minutes because they have understood that when they say the word outloud, "doctor", they hear the "duh" sound and know it starts with the letter 'D'. It is so hard for me to watch and see the one student look at the paper next to her or stare blankly back at you when you help her slowly pronounce the word to you. For me, it is difficult to understand why it doesn't click.
During shared reading time when our CT reads the book and sometimes points to the words, I notice she is never looking up. She is always looking at another student, or down at her shoes, or out the window. The chances for her to pick up what familiar words look like in written text are not very high due to her lack of intrigue. She does not participate much when our CT asks questions to the class during morning carpet time. I wonder how much she absorbs throughout the day.
What I would do to help this student would be one-on-one work. I would read books with her that contained familiar words that I know the rest of the class would be able to recognize. Our CT has a word wall and he has certain books that contain high frequency words that are used constantly in everyday speech. I would read the story to her and point out the words as I read them. Tompkins talks about guided reading and how the books chosen for emergent readers contain perdictable outcomes that match the pictures. I would start out with these books so I can see if she is able to recognize letters when I point to them. I would ask questions that would let me conclude if she was able to recognize familiar words. Finally, I would ask her to tell me what certain letters sound like to see if she could sound out words in that fashion. If anything, I think she needs practice and more experience with sounds, letters, words, and books. She may not have ever been read to at home or challenged by anyone other than our CT. Since I do not know her home life situation, I would only be able to help out as much as I can during class time. Strategizing ways to help the situation in this case is always harder because there are 31 students and it is easy to overlook it and keep the rest of the class moving on schedule.
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We too have a lot of students in our class this year and I can see what you mean when you say it is easy to overlook a students difficulties. I think a one on one approach would be good with a student like that. We have a similar student in our second grade classroom that does not seem to want to pay attention or do his work. However, if we take that time to work with him one on one he usually gets the concept. I like your idea to use books with high frequency words. I think the student I wrote about would benefit to such an approach as well. The more often the student sees this word used in different contexts the more likely they will remember it and be able to use it later. I think increasing her exposure to books in general would be a big help. If she does not get read to a lot at home this may be a big part of the problem. I feel like it is hard to assume anything about our students, but I like your ideas!
ReplyDeleteWow, a month has gone by and when I read this post about the student I focused on, I can already tell you that she has changed in just a month's time. She has gotten quite better at recognizing which sounds goes with each letter. She can look at pictures and see a kangaroo and know that kangaroo starts with the "kuh" sound.
ReplyDeleteShe does, however, still have trouble paying attention in class. We caught two students dozing off during out literacy lesson today. We were reading "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle, and when I looked up, she and another student were sitting upright dozing at their spot on the carpet. I still am trying to find ways to engage her, and I did in our opening activity that introduced the book. I just sometimes wish I was in the classroom all the time just to see her progress.