Me, A Middle Schooler, 10 Books

The first email he sent me started with this line, 'Who tooted on who?' and the subject of the email was 'My sister peed her pants in Florida'. It made me wonder about my decision to suggest that I do remote teaching with one of my favorite former student's little brother. I hadn't even met the kid, and I already was pondering discipline issues in the online ecosystem. (I had to call it that because of this sad coursera course I paid $50 for, and I want to feel like I got something for my money). After I called him on it and he apologized, we got down to business. I needed to find out what he knew and how I could help him better prepare for 8th grade.

It was clear that he (let's now start calling him J) struggled with writing and language arts. The only member of the family born in the United States, J speaks two languages other than English in his home. His family is dedicated to supporting his studies and is relying on the school system to do its part. J made the honor roll each term, and yet I quickly realized he is reading at about a 5th grade level. His writing skills are weak, and he lacks control of grammar. I'm not assigning blame. Why this happens is a topic I'll save for another post.

I don't know how the teachers did it. One day, they were teaching in a classroom and the next day they were teaching remotely. My former colleagues reported steep learning curves for themselves as well as their charges. One friend told me she spent the first three weeks ironing out tech issues and tracking kids down. The next weeks and months involved dismal attendance rates, less than engaged students, and more connectivity issues.

But now I had J for one hour every week. And we connected. We talked, we smiled, we played games, we did grammar. We are examining the Constitution connecting the 1st Amendment to current events. Last week, we corrected an essay he wrote about the Avi book, The Fighting Ground. He's already finished reading his fifth book and has committed to reading ten books this summer.

I've heard lots of educators and researchers talk about shifting the paradigm. Could the shift be as simple as giving a student one on one remote learning time with an adult?