ERIN MAXWELL noticing blog

One of my male students in my (3^rd grade) classroom is reading at a Pre-Kindergarten or behavioral reading level.  During reading time, this student models reading behaviors, however, when asked to read orally, he can only read three or so words.  He is meeting with a reading specialist as well as in a reading intervention group during the week.  When asked if he wanted to trade books in his book bin for other books at his level, he responded “these are all baby books”.  This student has been involved in a handful of physically violent fights on school grounds.  He is often defiant and uncooperative.  However, today during their poetry time, I noticed he was having a particularly difficult time copying the Halloween poems on the board.  Additionally, he failed his spelling test using variations or roughly eight letters to make up the spelling of the words.  Few of these created spellings were phonetically related to the target word.  Although this student receives services, I asked if I could work with him during a time in the day where he is neither being pulled out no receiving push-in support.  I practiced writing by copying with the student from the board.  We sounded out the words together while writing a sentence on the board.  However, this afternoon while looking through notes from home left in student binders, I noticed this student’s mother had left us a note.  The overall message was that she knows her son must work harder and stay on task and spend less time acting out in order to pass.  She said that she would be working with him at home.  Yet, this note was filled with spelling errors and improper use of words (ie in instead or and, lease instead of less).  This student is receiving support in school and at home, however, his mother may need additional academic supports to help her help her son with reading and writing.