Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Reading progress of one of my students.

Allison was one of four students I tutored in 2018. She came to me in the middle of primary 2 unable to read even a sentence or spell even one Dolch word.
You may read the letter given to me by Allison’s mother when Allison commenced tuition and one that she gave me at the end of the 24th lesson here.

After her 24th lesson with me, the mother was happy with her progress and decided to stop her lessons.

You may listen to a video of the mother after Allison's 7th lesson here.


Now, Allison is in primary 4. We here in Malaysia start our school year in the first week of January. We have been in Lockdown since 18th March 2020. I telephoned Allison’s mother and asked her to record Allison reading a page from her storybook which she gladly read.


Had Allison not come to me for tuition she would still be struggling with her reading and would probably be classified as a dyslexic.


Why was she not able to read when she came to me? It is because she had shut down from learning to read as she could not reconcile the sounds of the phonemes of the consonants she was taught to the words she was read to.


I have not seen Allison or her mother since the last time I taught her. I presented her the story book and did not read even a single story to Allison.

Here is the video of Allison reading a story from a storybook I had presented her. The recording was done by her mother on 17.5.2020.


1 comment:

Luqman Michel said...

This is a girl who had gone to kindergarten for 2 years and primary school for one and a half years and unable to read.

The important thing is that she is not a shut-down kid anymore and will continue to improve her reading.

If kids like Allison are not taught to unlearn the wrong things they have been taught they will lose their self-esteem and end up becoming illiterate.