In the time between our last conversation about my entrance into TFA-land, I've completed induction and moved on to institute. Logistically, this means I'm in the same apartment as before. However, an additional 450 corpsmembers from across the United States have joined us here on the G-Tech campus. On Monday morning I was schlepped on a bus (mine leaves at 6:35am, every morning) to Inman Middle School, my summer school placement. I'll be teaching 8th grade reading. Beginning Monday the 15th, I'll spend 110 minutes as the lead teacher every other day. Which means there's no time to waste! But I'm still not exactly sure how to lesson plan, and our resource room hasn't opened, therefore I'm gracing the world wide web (did you know it's a series of tubes?) with my words.
I now have a face for the achievement gap. The first interaction the 09 CMs (that corpsmembers, to you) have with students comes by way of a reading diagnostic exam. You may be thinking, "I didn't know that Mike was familiar with reading assessment procedures?" And you would have been right yesterday evening before 7pm, but since that time, I've become a fully qualified sophist. I am still somewhat in shock after administering this exam to my first student. Not all students were at this level, in fact, I'm not sure any other teacher had a student 6 years below grade level. But can you imagine being an eighth grader and reading on a second grade level? What kind of system passes a student for six years without making any significant gains in his/her academic progress!!!
I'm almost positive that I was always at least one or two years above average grade level reading. And sometimes I felt insecure that I wasn't advanced enough. I remember thinking that being "on grade level" was actually a nice way of saying that someone was a bit slow. Not gonna lie. Now, I know that the designation "on grade level" is, for many, an audacious goal which would require time and hard work. My young friend and I have a lot of work ahead of us.
In other news, there's a ridiculous amount of work to do, and we haven't yet been taught how to do it all. So, I'm going to sleep so that I can be refreshed, energized, and ready for whatever tomorrow brings!
But just to let any of you who may be reading this know, I'm probably going to need reading mentors during the regular school year to help read with students one on one. So, please spare both of us the phone call where I try to guilt-trip you into volunteering some time at my placement school (still don't know where I'll be placed). Instead, just go ahead and leave your name and I'll keep that info in my mental cash-box.
Peace,
-Mike
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