Geography Rock

Thanks so much for the wonderful suggestions! I have already contacted a couple of local universities and I am waiting to hear back. I also asked for an IEP meeting to get him more services (haven't heard back yet) and emailed the special ed teacher two days ago (haven't heard back yet) and called my vice principal down to make sure she's clued in...SO! We'll see.

The thing with this kid is that he really, really does want to learn. Who wants to be picked on like that? He's motivated enough that he's willing to read The Monkey Bridge in front of his peers who are reading Harry Potter, it's just that he's not retaining any word recognition because he has no phonemic awareness. W? N? O? All the same to him. I am going to look around on the internet and see if I can at least find him a computer phonic game he could go in the hall and work on privately while the other kids are working. For now, at least.

And by the way, I'm pretty sure the mom is illiterate too. Someone else was supposedly doing the alleged homeschooling for five years....umkay. Absolute neglect, if you ask me, but I really don't think the mom knows any better. [See Rocky entry from last week to meet mom] But, anyway - thanks! I'll keep you posted.

In other news, I taught the rest of my 39 kids the genres of literature today. We talked about fiction vs. non-fiction and listed the various components of each. Were you aware that "funny", "sad", and "Captain Underpants" are considered literary genres by my students? We steered away from those and established that a biography was a form of non-fiction. I was trying to pry out of them what you call a biography about yourself when one child was suddenly struck with the answer. She threw her arm enthusiastically into the air and yelled, "OOOH! I know! Geography!" Yeah....

That's about all I have. I hope the 100 degree weather decides to take a break soon. I'm ruining all my good clothes sweating in them at recess every day. Ta ta!

-Pigs