Students ARE the WOW

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Students ARE the WOW

  • April 9, 2025
  • Posted by: Caitlin McCallum
  • Category: Wow Story
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~written by Laura Jezzani, LSEM teacher at St. Paul Lutheran School in Westlake, OH~

My WOW Story is about a current 4th grader. His name is G and he is an amazing young man. G has some unusual physical talents that he enjoys demonstrating for me: he can crack his knuckles, his back, his neck, and yes – much to my squeamishness and disbelief, he can even – crack his ears! My reactions to his cracking bones seem to provide him with immense pleasure and laughter all of which contribute to him wanting to pursue this course of action indefinitely. I reassure him of his amazing talents but indicate that we must pursue endeavors that are more academic.

For the past 2 years G has been struggling in general with oral reading but more specifically with phonemic awareness skills. He has been working very diligently on phonics and oral reading skills both here at school and at home. Attempting to acquire a series of books that would be of interest to a young man and also provide the particular skills he required would be a challenge but not impossible. High Noon Books specializes in decodable phonics reading books. The Magic Belt Series are action-packed, fantasy/adventure quest stories. G was hooked. He read them here at school and even asked if he could take some home to read with his dad. His father acknowledged how much better G is reading and how much more confident he is. G is still not at a 4th grade reading level but he is closing the gap. His homeroom teacher indicates that he volunteers to read in a small group and reads text from his 4th grade books and workbooks. Yes, it is still a struggle but he has the skills to sound out unfamiliar words and recognize larger words.

G IS a WOW student. He is so proud of himself because he sees what his hard work has enabled him to accomplish. He knows he has to continue learning new and unfamiliar words and he certainly has to keep reading. His “current” favorite is the Captain Underpants series. He came in for our session and he said, “Hey, can I read you a funny book, I started reading it at home and it is hilarious.” We sat and he read numerous pages to me. He could not possibly finish it during our time together but the next day he saw me in the hallway and said, “I finished reading it at home to my dad.”  — this is definitely a WOW!