This week, I have been working with the first boy I've been assigned to, Anthony, a soft-spoken 3rd grader who absolutely loves his mom. He brought up his mom almost every five minutes somehow. First, he said his mom was a "panther," too (his teacher, Mr. Kersten, calls us service learners "Mr./Ms. Panther"). He told me his mom is going to school at UWM like myself, but he was not sure what she was studying. He said she wants to open a daycare so she can take care of him and his siblings and, "some other kids."
We began reading an online chapter book about a girl who was trying to sneak into the Olympics during ancient Greece, when girls were not allowed. We began on chapter six, so I asked Anthony what the book was about. He did not give me a good summary, but he told me the definition of a horse-drawn chariot, which I thought was adorable. He was a very good reader and took on words like "philosopher" and "definitely," which most of my previous students would have stuttered over. He also read with great speed and anytime I asked if he wanted a break where I would read a paragraph or two, he always wanted to continue reading. I took a video of him reading because I was blown away! (Unfortunately, the video I took was very short and caught him stuttering, but I did not want to continue having my phone our for much longer; also, turn your volume up).
After breezing through three chapters of this book, Anthony asked me if I knew how to write in cursive, which I did, and he asked if I could teach him how to write in cursive. He said he asks his mom to teach him, but she is always too busy. He then told me he has four other siblings, all younger than him. His youngest sister just turned one-year-old. I wrote his name in his notebook and had him trace over it. Then, he kept asking me how to make an "s" or a "u" for his notes, so I made him a copy of each letter, upper and lowercase for him to practice in his free time. He was so excited and told me he wants to work with me again next week to practice more cursive!
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| Anthony learning how to write his name in cursive. |
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| Anthony looking at my cursive examples for him to try. |
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| The "guide" I gave Anthony in his notebook so he could practice cursive in his free time. |
I really liked the video you included of your student. It was really brave of him to let you film him for this!
ReplyDeletechildren are still longing to be able to write cursive even though the Wisconsin Common Core Standards does not include it. Cursive have now been considered a waste of time. Some schools are still teaching it in-spite of. Are children in your school being taught cursive? At what grade level?
ReplyDeleteI think it is a mistake, People will always need to sign their names.