"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." ~Walt Disney
Context
This will be my fourteenth year teaching at Thoreau Demonstration Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thoreau is a middle school servicing 6 th, 7 th, and 8 th grades. I teach remedial reading to all three grades. For a student to be placed in my class they had to have not passed the state assessment and have a lexile score significantly below grade level. I am not their regular language arts teacher, but I work in conjunction with the core language arts teachers. There are some general defining characteristics that are true for the majority of my students. Homework is inconsistent and often incomplete or superficial; supplies are rarely brought to class; and emotional outbursts are frequent. Sometimes to calm my students, I will read aloud to them. In my experience with children who normally have a difficult time sitting still, they will sit quietly and listen to me read to them for upwards of an hour. They love a good story. For their own work, however, they find it difficult to get past the superficial to present the deeper, fuller story that would be much more interesting. They gravitate to books with lots of pictures so the pictures can tell them parts of the story and they do not have to read as much.
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