Saturday, October 20, 2012

Questioning Leads to More Questions


This week was a kind of “free week,” where we could choose to do another type of assessment on our target child, or do something else. I chose to spend this time building my rapport with Leo, as it’s starting to seem like all our one-on-one time is spent assessing. This Saturday, I attended a teaching conference, and something one of the teachers said stuck with me. She said that above all else, it was important to have a relationship with your students. This seems obvious, but it had never really occurred to me before as a first priority. Now I realize that it makes perfect sense that student trust is critical – to learn from someone who they have a relationship with instead of someone they don’t know is a no-brainer for kids. So, this Tuesday, I attempted to get to know Leo a bit better.
            However, after I talked with him, I had more questions. He never talks about his Dad – is he in the picture? Do his parent(s) read to him? I remember having asked him that, but he answered very vaguely. His concept of reading and mine could be different – I realize that not all parents sit in bed with their children to read books every night like mine did. However, I was again saddened by the fact that Leo does not demonstrate a great interest in reading. This is what leads me to believe that he does not read at home. I will conference with his teacher next week, as she could give me some valuable information regarding Leo’s home life.
            

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