“He started out as a first-grader reading below the expected level and finished being one of the best readers in his class.” —Tiffany Romer
Tiffany Romer, Member 2006–2007
When I first worked with this first-grader, he told me he liked dinosaurs and that he moved to Texas after the hurricane. His deep southern accent told of his first 6 years. From October to February, I learned that rhyming came easy to him, but otherwise progress was slow. We read about cows playing when the farmer is away, the importance of the traditional red and white suit to Santa, and a little pig's fear of becoming sausage. He read to me, often a book he had read many times before.
Sometime in early February, the enigmatic rules of phonics and the English language started making sense to him. He practiced his new knack for phonics code-breaking with the books he read and sentences he wrote. I saw his confidence and interests grow along with the list of books he read. He started a journal with recurring themes of the dragons he would ride and sharks that can eat people. By April, he was spelling "dragon" and "Great White Shark" completely from memory. I learned to relate new literacy concepts to these words. By his end-of-year spelling assessment, he knew when to use ar as in "shark" and when to use the magic e as in "white." His growth went beyond spelling; he also read 15 of 20 second-grade words correctly in the assessment. He started out as a first-grader reading below the expected level and finished being one of the best readers in his class. This summer, he is returning to Alabama prepared with all the skills he needs to be a second grader.