Reading Intervention

Crap!  Just when I was thinking it wouldn't happened it did.  We have a new scholar so here is an updated listing of the scholars and the adults that support the scholars.  I just realized that I haven't updated this list in a while so hopefully I'll get all the names right.

The Scholars
Grr!
Tourette
Huey
Whale
Cue
Hiss
Fruit

The Adults
TheBigB
LittleBigB
Knewer*
Low*
FBG
Me*
Gnu**
HillsGirl
MJ - sadly departed, as again, we loose another very good behavior therapist.  Open position.

A note on the asterisk.  The three names with the single asterisk are in the classroom with the scholars full time.  The one name with the double asterisk was, at one time, in the classroom with most of the scholars full time.

An introduction to our new scholar, Fruit.  Prior to arriving in our classroom this young scholar was in a homebound status.  When I was informed about the homebound status I thought it seemed a bit unusual so I sent Gnu a text message asking her for an opinion.  The response came back, "very unusual due to the scholars age."  So you are familiar with the term homebound here is a definition I found doing a Google search, unstable, aggressive behavior, throws objects, threatening others with objects, verbal aggression, and physical aggression.  

On Fruit's first day he arrived a little late.  Knewer met him at the door and the transition from Fruit's parental unit to our classroom went quite quickly.  Sadly, like so many others, Fruit's parental unit didn't even bother to enter the classroom.  As soon as the introduction took place the parental unit left the school.  Knewer made a couple attempts to get Fruit to enter the classroom but failed as he just stood outside the classroom door with the hood on his jacket pulled up over his head and stared down at the floor.  Eventually Knewer, after a couple attempts to get Fruit to enter the classroom, walked into the classroom and said to me, "I can't wait for him," so I told her I'd keep an eye on him.  As Knewer was walking over to her desk Tourette decided to try and get Fruit to come into the classroom.  In case you don't recall, Tourette is the one scholar that I know can put forth one of the longest strings of obscenities as any one in the school but I was please to see that he was going to try to get Fruit in the classroom.  While Tourette can get as angry and as foul mouthed as anyone in our classroom, he can also be the nicest, most cordial scholars in the classroom, and he is always the first one to greet a new scholar.

Despite Tourette's best effort, Fruit was not walking into the classroom so it was decided to just let him stand there in the hallway.  We caught a break right away as one of the kindergarten teachers was walking her class to the restroom that is immediately across from our classroom.  All these scholars walking in his direction must have made Fruit nervous enough that he thought his safest place would be to walk into our classroom.  As he entered, Low saw him and convinced him to sit by her at her desk at the front of the classroom.  Fruit sat next to Low for nearly an hour and not once did he raise his head, say a word, he didn't remove his gloves, he didn't take off his backpack, or lower the hood of his jacket from being over his head.  He was in his little shell and he was not going to leave it.

One final comment on Fruit's arrival from his homebound situation to our classroom and then I'm going to move on.  Ready?  Fruit does not live with his original parental units but stays with a legal guardian, he was also a homebound scholar, and he is only six years old.    

I was invited to a meeting with TheBigB and LittleBigB a few weeks ago and I was assigned to a reading intervention group for third grade scholars.  Actually, there are two reading groups.  The first group reads at an E, F, and G level and the second group reads at an H level.  The first reading group is the lowest level readers in the third grade.  The second reading group is one level up from the lowest reading level group.  My instructions were to read daily with each reading group.  When I asked The BigB how long should these groups read I was told fifteen minutes each.  When I asked about my starting date I was told it was today at 1:25pm which was about three hours after being assigned this task.

After the meeting ended I returned to the classroom to inform Knewer that I was assigned these reading groups and that I would be out of her classroom each day from 1:25pm to 1:55pm give or take a couple minutes.  Knewer didn't seem too concerned about my thirty minute absence so I took a seat where I have a view from the back of the classroom.  As I sat there it popped into my head that I only had a couple hours to select reading books for my two groups and I had no idea what they should be reading.  I got Knewer's attention and told her that I had to go to the front office for a minute and left the classroom.  I was looking for TheBigB and when I found her I asked her where I was supposed to get the reading books for these scholars.  She informed me that the LittleBigB was responsible for the third grade and I was to ask her.  I tracked down the LittleBigB about the reading books and I was told to go to the school's reading resource room that was on the second floor for my books.

I'm now standing in the school's reading resource room and their are hundreds of book stored in plastic red containers on shelving units.  Fortunately, the person responsible for the room was present and she helped my select my first two books and I was ready to go.

1:25pm rolls along and I'm sitting in my assigned empty classroom waiting for my first reading group.  As I looked around the room I didn't like what I saw.  All the chairs had wheels on them and that has the potential to be a disaster.  One by one the scholars started to arrive and as expected they sat in the chairs and started either spinning in circles or rolling them around the classroom.  When I finally got everyone to sit quietly at the table and I looked up at the clock and realized that I just lost ten minutes of the fifteen minutes I had to read with the first group.

Immediately after the second reading group left at 1:55pm I was heading to the LittleBigB's office.  When I found her I told her that the chairs that are in my reading room had to go.  I told her I lost over half of my reading time trying to get the scholars to stop spinning and rolling around in those chairs.  The LittleBigB told me the chairs would be removed that evening.

It's now 1:25pm the next day and I walked into my reading room and the chairs on wheels are still sitting that the table as I had left them the previous day.  That was not supposed to be the case.  I did find replacement chairs stacked up in a corner of the room so I replaced the chairs on wheels with the standard classroom chairs.  When the scholars arrived they immediately went to the chairs on wheels and starting rolling them around and spinning them in circles.  Once again, reading time is lost.

Frustrated with the chairs on wheels I decided to solve the problem myself.  I collected all the chairs on wheels, rolled them into a corner of the classroom, stacked some on top of the others, and then took a classroom desk that was in the room and rammed it into the chairs so that they would be wedged into that corner.  Problem solved.

It's now the third day meeting with my reading group and when they arrive they can't get to the chairs on wheels.  They tried but were not successful.  Unfortunately, I still can't get the reading task started on time.  Multiple times I had to tell the scholars to stay seated and stop talking.  As my frustration level increased two of the scholars stepped over the line and I kicked them out of the classroom.  Did I have the authority or right to kick them out of this reading group.  I don't know but I didn't care.  I figured if they didn't want to behave and read then get out.  If school leadership didn't like my decision, so be it, go find someone else to lead this reading group.

I'm now twelve days into my reading intervention assignment and reality is setting in.  There is not sufficient time to do the job correctly.  The reading group has five scholars in the group.  I only have fifteen minutes to read and daily I'm loosing five minutes trying to get the scholars settled down to read.  That means five scholars only have two minutes each to read out loud.  This process is not working.  In addition to the time issue, at no time during the twelve days did anyone from the either the school leadership or any of the third grade classroom teachers step into the room to see what I was doing.  With each passing day I found that troubling.  I've been assigned the two lowest reading groups, I don't have a teaching degree, I don't have a teaching license, I'm probably the least qualified person to do what I'm doing and no one was showing any interest in what I was doing.

A one final comment on my reading intervention group and I'm going to call it a day.  At one point I mentioned to the LittleBigB that the amount of time allocated for the reading group was not sufficient and little progress would be made with each scholar only reading about two minutes a day.  I was informed that my concern would be taken to a committee for consideration.  I never received a response from either the LittleBigB or the committee about my concern.  Frustrating but you know what, I'm doing the best that I can do.  If these scholars don't show any improvement in their reading ability during the state mandated IRead3 testing process that's not my problem.  You want to know why?  I'm not the teacher of record.

Before I call it a day, this popped into my head so I thought I'd bring it up.  For the past five years, when I had my lunch break, I always sat in a room by myself as I enjoyed the quiet.  This year, for some unknown reason, I decided to eat my lunch in the staff lounge.  The table that I sit at is off to the side of the staff lounge and rarely does anyone use it so that is the spot I picked to eat my lunch.  I'll tell you this, I like my corner spot and the stories I hear while occupying this out of the way place makes me wish I had chosen this spot years ago.  Okay, one story from a room where I have a listening angle from off to the side of the room.  Teacher #6.0 is speaking to Teacher #2.0 and SW #1.0.  Teacher #6.0 makes the following comment.  Paraphrasing, "when a puppy poops in the right place the puppy gets a treat.  When a child poops in the right place the child gets a treat.  Starting tomorrow, every time I poop in the right place I want someone to give me a treat."  As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.  See you next week.  Thanks again for following the musings of an old fart that has a view from the back of two rooms.