past Regie Routman

This past June I received an urgent phone asking from an extended family member: Would I be willing to tutor him in reading and writing so he could improve as a reader and writer and as well have a more interesting life? Ted, as I volition call him hither, is a 53-twelvemonth onetime, unmarried male, who had—due to the pandemic– recently lost his full-time chore as a custodian. Home alone in his flat all day, he sounded desperately sad and solitary. I was more than than happy to help him any manner I could. So began our twice-weekly, remote learning sessions with the barest engineering. Ted had never touched a computer, used email, or texted. We had only our phones, newspaper and pencil, the U.S. Mail, and any interesting texts to listen to and read that we both thought—but especially Ted–might exist engaging and hands obtainable. I was optimistic. From family gatherings over the years, I knew Ted to be "street smart" (his words), intelligent and endowed with an ironic sense of sense of humour.

I knew zero near Ted's educational groundwork other than that he has always had learning disabilities. Each year when I sent him a birthday card with a handwritten message, I kept it elementary. I had no idea if he could read it or not. And so where and how to begin with him. My many years every bit a reading specialist and Reading Recovery teacher prompted me to brainstorm with an adapted version of 'Roaming Around the known.' I sought to build upon Ted'due south strengths and interests and to develop a trusting and warm human relationship. Through our conversations, I found out he loved music and that he had a CD player, so that's where we began—at his comfort level. I also learned he was highly broken-hearted and easily overwhelmed. We kept our sessions to 30 minutes, maximum.

As in working with a new pupil in Reading Recovery, nosotros initially spent the majority of our time reading and talking about what we'd read, although at first, that reading involved Ted listening to a volume on record while I was reading the same book in print. Our conversations went beyond basic comprehension to how parts of the text connected to our own lives. I learned how strong his oral language and vocabulary were; I institute his insights about a text to exist deep and thoughtful.

Reviewing what Marie Clay has taught us, I attempted to create an environment of "conviction, ease, flexibility, and with luck, discovery… The instruction should non start where the teacher is but where the child is!… Share the tasks of reading and writing by doing for the child what he cannot practice for himself." (Clay, 2016, Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals: Second Ed., Auckland, NZ: The Marie Clay Literacy Trust, p. 29.) Dirt believed that past creating a firm foundation for the learner to build upon, the learner becomes willing and eager to begin education. This belief holds truthful for learners of all ages and is specially relevant and necessary for remote learning in a pandemic.

Nosotros began each session with a "check in" where I asked Ted how he was doing. As he was speaking, I wrote his words down on my computer—as a record only mainly to document and validate his life—for him. Gradually, as his reading began to improve, I sent these dated pieces to him via mail, and he told me how happy he was to see his words "written on paper," – that seeing his spoken words written down made him "feel similar a writer." At get-go, we read those texts together, but he speedily took over reading them on his own. Those personal texts later became the core of our word work, using his language in a context that was meaningful to him to brainstorm to teach onsets, rimes, and important irregular words, what nosotros called "words-to-know-by-middle," such every bit "though" and "there".

Working with Ted reinforced how, first and foremost, we must find ways to constitute close and caring relationships with our students.  Every bit Ted saw some success, his conclusion, self-confidence, and stamina grew. In September he asked if nosotros could increase the length of our sessions to one hr. As I am writing this weblog mid-October 2020, Ted is determined to consummate the reading of his first, full-length, adult volume.

Mindsets and Actions That Support Upwards-and-Coming Readers of All Ages
One time we have signed on, contractually or otherwise, to teach students to read we are obligated to do everything we can to ensure the student(s) becomes an engaged, successful, and joyful reader. Even when technology is severely limited—as information technology is for Ted and many underserved students and their families—equity issues and the correct to an excellent teaching need we do all nosotros tin to ensure every child and developed becomes a reader.

  • It's never too late to become a reader. (Krashen and McMillan, October 2007. "Belatedly Intervention." Educational Leadership, Vo. 65 (2).
  • Reading texts that are of high interest to the learner is more of import than reading levels for engaging and sustaining the reader'due south efforts.
  • Education must be responsive and respectful to the learner—in the moment, in the process, in the plans, in evaluation—and requite the learner pick, dignity, and agency.
  • Include text offerings beyond books in print and online—such every bit short mag articles, phone texts, editorials, news articles, comics, photo-journalism articles, lyrics to songs and raps, poems, sound texts.
  • Expand "reading a text" to also hateful hearing texts read aloud while post-obit along visually, listening to audiobooks and books on tape, and co-creating texts we then read together.


Regie Routman is a longtime educator, author, and equity champion who promotes and demonstrates engaging, excellent, and joyful literacy practices. Contact her at world wide web.regieroutman.org and follow her on Twitter: @regieroutman.