Cling to Hope

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Cling to Hope

  • June 5, 2024
  • Posted by: Caitlin McCallum
  • Category: Wow Story
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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~Romans 15:13

LSEM teachers nationwide collaborate with classroom teachers and parents to help students find hope as they build toolboxes for life.  Axl came to kindergarten at St. John’s in Norwood Young America, Minnesota with a big hill to climb.  On the fall Acadience Reading Screening he knew 2 letter names. His Reading Composite Score was 13.  The road ahead would take hard work to fill in the gaps. We put our hope and trust in the Lord that we would find interventions and methods that would help Axl learn these important building blocks on the road to reading.

Enter the amazing TEAM made up of Axl’s parents, classroom teacher, special help teacher, and LSEM Resource Room teacher. Together this TEAM helped Axl continue to review his letters and sounds.  Through interventions, repetition, hands-on activities, and Axl’s sheer determination, perseverance, and persistence, slow progress was made in mastering his letters and sounds. Axl battled each day to remember and retain the information. We held on to hope.

During this time Axl’s mom, Nikki, was fighting a different battle.  Her battle was with breast cancer.  As she battled for healing and a return to health, he battled to learn his letters and sounds on the road to learning to read.  She demonstrated determination in her fight against cancer.  He demonstrated determination to stick with learning until he got the right answer and gained knowledge. Axl was a problem solver at heart and never gave up. His mom never gave up either. We clung to hope.

Axl painstakingly built his foundational skills in letter recognition and phonemic awareness.

His mom showed that same fighting spirit in her battle against cancer.  She persevered through numerous surgeries throughout the school year and persisted in helping Axl at home to review letters and sounds.  Both needs were lifted in prayer by the community who supported each of them in their different battles. We were persistent in hope.

Both roads were a difficult journey.  By the winter Axl’s Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) had only grown to 10.  Axl used every tool at his disposal to think through things and find answers at school.  His TEAM continued to support, encourage, review, and celebrate his victories.  This persistence led to amazing growth by the end of the school year!  As his mom faced her third surgery of the school year we continued to hope.

Our hope did not disappoint as we fast forward to spring. Axl’s latest LNF score was 59!  His Reading Composite Score ended with a 135 for the school year.  Perseverance and persistence lead to amazing growth!  His mother’s perseverance and persistence throughout her medical treatments, along with answered prayers, allowed her to ring the bell on her cancer treatments. We rejoice over her wonderful prognosis!   We also rejoice that Axl has “rung the bell” on his reading ability. Not everyone always gets these kinds of results as they battle cancer or battle to learn to read. It is with special joy that we share about the journey of Axl and his mom. There is joy in hope!  To God be the Glory!

~written by Terri Bentz, LSEM Teacher at St. John’s Lutheran School in Norwood Young America, Minnesota