Ryynanen+-+Progress+Report

I have been reading with an 8th grade student named Anthony. He is 14 years old, gets mostly A’s and B’s in school, and doesn’t read too often for pleasure. We started out reading short stories by Neil Gaiman. They were only a page or two long, did not use very complex language, and were interesting because they often ended with and “Twilight Zone”-esque twist at the end. He typically understood these stories very well. The last time we met, we read “Two Friends,” by Guy de Maupassant. Because of its length, elevated language, and use of French names, he had much more difficulty reading the story aloud. He understood what happened in the story, but struggled with its deeper meaning. I am looking forward to looking deeper into this contrast. I can see that although Anthony does not have any overt reading disabilities, he certainly has limitations, which I chalk up to low word recognition. Overall, he is enjoying meeting with me, often asking me in the morning if we will be reading in the afternoon. I am enjoying this more than I thought I would. I think that Anthony is really starting to think more about his reading habits since we’ve been meeting. I have done one sound recording and one reading-thinking inventory, but otherwise our meetings have consisted of his reading aloud, followed by a discussion period in which I ask him questions about any difficulties he had, about the meaning of the story, about whether he liked the story or not, etc. I was surprised to hear that he liked the Maupassant story the most! He revealed to me that he really liked stories that involved historical events and war. I asked him if he were assigned to read a novel about the Vietnam War, if he’d enjoy reading it. He said that he would. He will be reading //The Things They Carried// in 10th grade.
 * Progress Report – Case Study**