Introduction
According to researchers, struggling reader’s environment is defined by poor motivation, low self-efficacy or limited rational abilities (Brozo, 1991; Guthrie and Davis, 2003). A struggling reader may refuse to accept his new identity and instead focuses on maintaining a different identity among his neighbors, teachers, family members and peers. This may influence negatively on the positive progress of reforming the reader. (Alvermann, 2001)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Gerald is a sixth grade male student at king’s international school. He lives with his father after the parents formally divorced. His father has a persistent problem of alcoholism that has drastically affected the family’s economic life. According to Gerald, he rarely comes home, prompting him to seek food from his neighbors for him and his two year old sister. This consumes most of Gerald’s social life and eventually makes him an antisocial and introvert. He spends most of the weekends at his grandmother’s house since the father is rarely present. His performance in class has deteriorated and led to reduced engagement in school activities.Acccumulated stress has reduced his sharp grasp of content and eventually reduced reading ability due to insufficient reading practice.
Gerald’s main problem is writing a comprehensive statement and poor reading of comprehension. From my assessment as his English teacher, he frequently inserts out of content words in his writing that are attributed to his living family condition. For instance, words such as shut up! , stupid fool! And punctuation marks such as question marks and interjections frequently interrupt his reading. Use of capital letters in his writing is consistent, describing the harsh tone of command and criticism from his father. Due to his inconsistent attendance of classes, he lags behind in the content covered in his absence. He therefore suffers demotivation as his peers laugh at his poor pronunciation of words learnt while he was out of school.
His volatile family life has made him an antisocial. He isolates himself from other students and rarely utters a word .This has led to his poor expression skills and eventually poor reading and writing. He hides his new identity from his peers, relatives, teachers to impress them (Alvermann, 2001).
His emotional stress hinders his participation in class activities including asking, answering questions and reading comprehension. This due to fear of ridicule from his peers just as his father does. Lack of motherly love has emotionally affected his social life. This deters the student from exhaling his feelings to his teacher and therefore the problem remains unsolved. The frequent mention of mothers by his fellow students confines him to a world of grief and solitude.
However, Gerald’s survival in his challenged life is attributed to several positive traits that he uses as self-defence to his heart countering his demoralization. Despite his changed attitude, he is a social person. He can easily coordinate the students in his class and make them agree to a positive issue. During sports, he cheerfully participates I the cheering squad, making the game lively. However this doesn’t last for long as the suffering in his family continue to haunt him
Gerald’s behaviour in school and beyond is commendable. He always relates with teachers respectfully. Notably, is his frequent use of “yes, sir/madam” whenever he approaches/is approached by a senior person. This earns him respect among the members of staff and peers.
Educationally, his performance is notable in Mathematics due to his quick calculations and reasoning. he is also conversant with the current affairs in the country especially political developments. This strengthens his correlation skills among peers.
His emotional intelligence has earned him a place in the hearts of fellow students. His sympathetic way of listening to people’s challenges is admirable .despite being emotionally affected; he always maintains a strong command of language while handling any issue. These attributes counter the negatives ones thus enabling his command in the society.
As a teacher, having realized Gerald’s challenges and continued deterioration in his performance, I have designed a comprehensive plan to ensure this trend is reversed to the positive. I will engage with several stakeholders to ensure full coordination on approaches to achieve the desired goal. Among the parties to engage include:
- Other teachers and members of staff.
They will give their observation of the student in other subjects and his engagement in other activities
The relatives will provide with information on the child’s association with his peers at home and also the family situation. The father will give detailed information on the family background including that of his son
- Psychology specialist
He will provide with details on the character traits of a struggling reader and measures to take to handle a victim of psychological torture. He will also assist the father to desist from taking alcohol and sustain sanity in the
He will extract information from the student and also counsel him. This will facilitate the openness of the student and change his attitude towards life
- Sports activities among classmates.
Urge them to stop laughing and mocking him and instead applaud him and motivate him. Engaging in sports activities will enable students realize their different talents, including Gerald’s and appreciate them.
MODEL
Where: sf -social factors (mockery, isolation)
Ef-economic factors (finance)
Emf-emotional factors (e.g. stress, abuse)
The above model will assess the variables to find a solution.
Steps that will strengthen the student’s learning and literacy skills include:
- Introduce private reading and writing lessons
It will enable me to identify his weaknesses in pronunciation and writing of vocabularies
- Encourage students’ participation and interaction in class.
It will instill courage to Gerald and learn to appreciate himself. The student will also learn to appreciate other than laughing at their peers. Also students will to appreciate each other
- Encourage parents involvement in child’s activities
Parents will be able to monitor their children behaviors and performance in academics. This will enable Gerald’s father and relatives to be part of his academic progress
Applauding excelling student in both academic and sports activities will enable Gerald realize his potential.
- Introduce guidance session for students. This will enable Gerald and others to express their feelings
These strategies will play crucial role in revamping Gerald’s attitude towards life. Introducing private sessions will shield the student from mockery among students .he will have the freedom to express his weaknesses in a fearless manner. In addition, I shall b abler to closely monitor his response towards private coaching by granting him absolute attention. This would be different if the other students were involved.
Encouraging active participation in class among all students discourages biased attention. Students’ capabilities is realized by students and therefore appreciated. For instance, Gerald’s sympathetic attention to issues will portray him as a good arbitrator. This positive trait will change the student’s attitude towards him. Gerald’s self-esteem and confidence will be revived and strengthened and can use it to counter the demotivating issues.
Involvement of parents in the students life is critical in enhancing performance in both academic and social activites.The student will feel appreciated by the parents through their encouraging words and their curiosity to observe what he is doing .This motivates him to be innovative to impress his parents and the constant word “congratulations!!!” Appraisal of students when they exemplary perform in academic and social activities is necessitated by the need to retain the positive trend by students and enable them to appreciate each other in different aspects. Use of guiding sessions for all students will cultivate the talent of students and instill a sense of critically assessing issues other than taking them too personal. The rationale behind this strategy is that it will create an open-session for students to freely express and feel for each other. This will change their approach from a personal undertaking to an all-person involvement. It’s my belief that by applying these strategies Gerald’s life will change positively. Moreover, it will be easier to realize students who could be facing the same challenges and counter before they negatively impact on their academic and social life.
References
Beaver, J. Developmental Reading Assessment (2nd ed.) Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Strickland, D. S., Ganske, K., & Monroe, J. K. (2002). Supporting struggling readers and writers: Strategies for classroom intervention, 3-6. Portland, Me: Stenhouse Publishers.
