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March 10, 2005
Day in the Elementary School
As I do nearly every Thursday, I spent the day at an inner-city elementary school. I always laugh at some of the things the kids say. Just a few:
--Skylar is a little girl who speaks only Spanish at home. In kindergarten, she is struggling to learn how to read (and speak) English. She gets a little extra help from me, but she's starting to read and wants to read her book on her own.
The actual book text: Max smelled Cam's bag. It smelled like gum. Yum, gum!
What Skylar read: Max sniffled Cam's butt. It smelled like gum. Yum, gum!
The actual book text: Cam played in the kiddie pool. He had fun in the pool!
What Skylar read: Cam played in the kitty's poop. He had fun in the poop.
--Later, I moved on to a second grade classroom to work with Lexi, a girl who is behind in most subjects. Sometimes I help her with her math, but today was a reading day. We went to the library and she chose a book.
The actual book text: Look at that man!
What Lexi read: Look at that, man!
I reread the sentence so she could understand the emphasis was on the word "man" instead of "that." She never got it right.
The actual book text: He grabbed the balloons so they wouldn't fly away.
What Lexi read: He grabbed his balls so they wouldn't fall away.
--Then there's autistic Joseph in the preschool class. He likes to repeat words. Sometimes it's helpful like,"Use your indoor voice," (except he says it repeatedly), but today it was another word. Today it was "weenie." It was the only word he said, but he said it with different voice inflections. My conversation with him went something like this--
Me: Hi, Joseph! What are you making with your Play-Doh?
Joseph: Weenie! Weenie, weenie, weenie. Weenie?
Me: It looks like you're using the yellow knife to cut your Play-Doh into a triange.
Joseph: Weenie, weenie. Weenie, weenie, weenie? WEENIE!
But my favorite (and rather heartwarming) experience of the day was with Kenny in the third grade. He is a very reluctant reader and even more reluctant in writing. The teacher opened up a picture dictionary and selected random words that the students wrote about in a story. Today's objects were "mirror" and "feet." The teacher asked them to write a story about a mirror that smelled like feet. Kenny scowled and crossed his arms the whole time. His teacher asked if he wanted to work with me in the hall on the story (he gets very distracted in the classroom). He glared at me, then picked up his notebook and pencil and stomped out into the hall with me. I think he thought I was going to force him to actually do the handwriting part, but when I agreed to alternate writing sentences with him, he brightened up and created this elaborate story about how a king in a castle noticed that his mirror smelled like feet, so he brought in the joker. The joker cleaned the glass, but it still smelled like feet. It ended up that the king was smelling his own feet, so once he washed them, all was well. He was soooo proud of himself. He proudly showed it to the teacher, and she let him take it to the assistant principal to read it. It was definitely the highlight of his day (more likely his week), and certainly mine as well.
Kids are just great.
Posted by Anna at March 10, 2005 03:30 PM
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Comments
Aren't you a trooper to get out there! I wish more people would! Want to come help out my class? :o)
Posted by: Ginny at March 10, 2005 05:09 PM
The alternating-sentences thing was a brilliant tactic. That's so awesome that you were able to engage him like that. Bravo!
Posted by: Mags at March 10, 2005 10:50 PM
Like writing isn't hard enough without teachers coming up with subjects like "mirrors that smell like feet" 
These are great stories, y'know. One doesn't get stories like this when one is working in a lab [says she slightly jealously] 
Posted by: Flip at March 11, 2005 02:27 AM
It's really so sad that the kids have such a hard time reading -- so why am I laughing?
You do good work . . . at the school and in your blog!
Posted by: Whymrhymer at March 11, 2005 12:38 PM
lovely kids. think i may already be a little in love. wish i could meet them.
Posted by: sunbather at March 12, 2005 09:26 PM