Don't let the image fool you... an athlete I am not!
But I have always had high expectations for my students, so that makes them (and ME!) winners!
I taught for a few years at a program for students who were at risk for dropping out of school.
One of my favorite groups that I worked with was a group of 5 eighth graders who were each reading a couple of grade levels below.
At our group on Monday, I gave them a high-interest article to read that was on grade level.
Marcus took one look at it and exclaimed, "I can't read this! You trippin'!"
"No, not trippin'... I promise, we can do this!" was my response to a doubtful Marcus and the rest of my crew.
How did we "do this"?
With text to speech so they could listen to the article as they read it
By pre-teaching vocabulary so there was familiarity when they came across those words in text
By supporting conversation about the content
By supporting partner work, if needed
In a nutshell, we "did this" by providing them with the supports that they needed in order to engage in content. Pretty smart, huh?
How frustrating would it have been to give them an article that was not accessible???
On Wednesday, when Marcus was leaving group, he turned to me from the office door. "Thanks, Miss."
"You're welcome! What are you thanking me for?"
"For holding us to high expectations. No one really does that." And with that, he was out...
Totally made me feel like a winner...
For every child to be successful, we have to provide supports to make learning accessible. Find out how we can help at:
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