Why I Love My Job :)

I always start the first class with my older elementary schoolers - rising second through fifth graders - by explaining two things: my expectations and my goals. Here's the gist of what I tell them...

"I need you to know that in this class, you are going to have fun, but I also expect each one of you to work very hard. I've got two goals for you in this class: to help you be a better reader and to help you like reading more. That means, that if you already like reading and think you're a good reader, you're going to be an even better reader by the time you finish this class! And, if you don't like reading that much or think you're not very good at it, you're going to be good at reading and like it more by the time we finish this class."

And then we dive in. To reading and tellbacks and main events and discussions of characters, story and meaning. To phonics and long word decoding and strategies for dealing with unrecognizable words. To memorable characters and absorption and light bulb moments.

Week 3 started today. I'm tired. (Don't let the late hour of this post fool you - I just got home from an hour long commute and it takes a bit to wind down after working so hard to stay awake on an empty highway.) I've reached that point where I know most of my students' names (and quirks), and I'm starting to shift my energy away from laying out my expectations to providing individual feedback and making sure that everyone is making progress toward his or her individual goals. With more than 200 students this term, that takes some doing. I spend chunks of time on the phone with parents or meeting with them after classes, answering questions and encouraging their efforts. Sometimes I come away from such encounters tired, particularly if there has been some confrontation involved or I've had to reiterate repeatedly my expectations for what they or their child will do at home and in the class.

But sometimes, as was the case this afternoon, a phone call turns out to be more of a gem than I ever expected - and by the time I hang up the phone, I've been reminded repeatedly why I like my job so much.

I was calling to check in with the Mom of a third grader who'd struggled with the in-class work during week 1 and then with the home practice during the first week. Mom had written me a letter detailing some of their struggle, and I wanted to respond to some questions she had asked me. I left a voicemail first, and she called me back a short time later.

I did far more listening than talking in that fifteen minute phone call. "Miss Lewis," she started, "[my son] is doing so great this week! He's actually enjoying reading!" This is a boy who'd struggled with reading in the past, whose teachers had repeatedly labeled him as below grade level, who had worked with an individual reading tutor for months before starting this class.

"You can't understand how much it means to me. He comes home from your class telling us what I great time he had. This week, he's been coming downstairs in the morning and asking if we can read now. He sees me reading and goes to get his book so we can both have our reading time." For a Mom who has spent the last few years worrying that her son might never enjoy reading, hearing him get excited about reading class and want to read is music in her ears.

He's just starting to transition to silent reading, so Mom was also worried that he might not be reading everything or understanding what he was reading, especially as he starts to jump into short chapter books. "I asked him to tell me about what he had just read, and he just went on and on. I couldn't keep track of all the different details he was telling me: it was like he was telling me the whole story again, making sure I knew that he had understood everything!"

She went on, telling me how he's started to use the decoding skills I'm teaching him in class when he comes across long words he doesn't recognize, covering up prefixes/suffixes and sounding out the base word. Voila! As is so often the case at this stage of reading, he discovers he does know that word - he'd just never seen it in print before. Confidence boosted, he keeps reading, becoming more and more absorbed in the story as he goes.

This isn't the first time a parent has shared a story like this with me, but I don't always get to hear about all the difference this program is making for my students. Really, it's why I do what I do: because I love to read, and even more than that, I love helping my students fall in love with reading!