On march 17th I met with
Mathew again for the second time. He always seems timid around his
mom when I meet with them but as soon as we are together just talking
hes like my little brother. I cant help but want him to get better at
reading.
Before we went to our usual table his
mom asked me to just have him read and talk about what we read. I had
told the parent that I thought it would be best if he chose his own
reading material so that he would be engaged in the topic and be
willing to read. He chose StarWars. I was very wrong about this. Not
only did he not want to actually read the book but he just would look
at the pictures and want to tell me about it. He avoided the words on
the page completely. It wasn't until I expressed that it was
important for him to learn how the words look and sound on the page.
He asked me what school I went to and that if there was a lot of
reading involved. I laughed and said the whole basis of life is being
able to read. He seemed concerned and opened the book and started
reading and really trying to understand the words on the page.
His focus was still distracted and so I
had him read only ¾ of the book and had him do a short quiz on the
restaurant industry. The quiz was irrelevant material but it kept him
reading and applying reading comprehension.
I hope next time will be better.
B
Was the book level-appropriate for Matthew? If it is too difficult, then it could add to his frustration. you also might want to model the reading for him, with you reading first and then have him repeat after you. This can help him understand the tone, stress, rhythm, and pronunciation of letters, words, and sentences.
ReplyDeleteLike Ramin, I think it's good to model the reading to him first. Little kids do best with modeling and in my Kindergarten class, we do the "I do, we do, and you do" when approaching reading (especially if the child does not know how to read). You'd first read the book all the way through while the child follows along pointing to the words on the page. Then, you and him will read together. And then, he would read and you listen and follow along. This will have given him the opportunity to have listened through the book at least twice before he gets a start onto the book.
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