RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

This chapter really bothered me. I wanted to jump into the book, find Laurie and help her. I am worried about how a child goes from doing well in kindergarten to falling behind in first grade to being placed in second grade. True, kindergarten was a half day, and not as "demanding" but what made first grade so much difficult? Laurie loved the writing center in kindergarten but ending up writing "I like..." sentences later. Were teaching styles different? Why didn't Laurie get help when she first began to fall behind in first grade? I have a new principal, and he this year he implemented a strong push with Aims Web with kindergarten through second grade. I teach third grade and many of my colleagues and those in grades above have been complaining about the manpower and hours that this has been taking, saying we are the tested grades we need the help. I remind them that if children have a strong foundation then we will be able to teach them what we are supposed to and won't have to spend time on remediation. To me building this strong foundation makes perfect sense. Perhaps if Laurie had been tagged when she was first starting to struggle, inverventions could have been made and she might have had a different story to tell.

SuSu Watson