It's March, and March is for slicing. Anyone is welcome to join us through Two Writing Teachers, slicing, sharing, and commenting on other slices!
V. walked into the room, and, as I’ve seen so many students do, he tried to orient himself to what the class was doing and what he’d been missing since he was out of the room during science to remediate math. (Does anyone else see a problem here?)
“Want me to fill you in on what the class is doing?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Actually, let’s head into the hallway,” I suggested. There was far too much chaos in the classroom since students were setting up science experiments and models.
In the hallway, we decided to do a short sentence combining activity because–long story…just because….
As he wrote, I watched him stop and hesitate when he formed letters. He also stopped and hesitated when he came to a word that was tricky for him. And punctuation? Lots of stops and hesitations.
After he wrote one of the sentences, I stopped him, and we talked about writing. As a fifth-grader, he had a lot of insights. He knew what was hard for him, and he knew ways to make things a little easier. We started talking about other things he does, and he shared that he is good at putting things together, as well as fishing and driving farm vehicles. We talked about all the fine motor skills he’s good at including painting, drilling, and using a screwdriver. So why is letter formation so hard?
V. has inspired me to think about ways to make writing feel easier, and I think he knows this. He had a paragraph to write, and he opted to finish it with me instead of going to lunch. “Will you be here tomorrow?” he asked me as he packed up to leave.
“Yes,” I said.
Yesterday I listened to a teacher reading Thank You, Mr Falker to her class. They were eating it up. This reminds me of that. V. is lucky to have someone who is helping him see his strengths.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I am so glad you are there for that young man. He feels safe and understood with you. Otherwise, he would not have spent his lunch with you and checked to see if you were going to be there the next day. I attended an ACES training yesterday, and was reminded of the importance and power of one trusted adult in a child's life. We never know if we may be that person, but that question about whether you will be there makes me think a lot about the needs he has other than forming his letters.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. Peter read my mind. This is so Patricia Polacco! Everyone's good at something and everyone feels good when that thing is acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, what a precious story about V. and his success with writing that he experienced this day. It is so powerful to have an advocate to figure out what is too hard for one to understand.
ReplyDeleteIt all starts with relationships. I’m glad he has you!
ReplyDelete