If anyone happens to stumble across my little used blog (totally my fault), I hope you might be able to help me.
You see, my boss at my current job (not in a library, but a retail setting) has the most precocious little 7 year old, who is struggling to read at her grade level right now. From the details my boss gave me, her daughter was reading on a 2nd grade level in kindergarten, but now that she is in the 2nd grade, she has stepped back and is reading at a kindergarten level now…she has totally regressed! This is after she changed elementary schools: she went from one that is under state administrative control to one that is not (the rural area I live in had some trouble a few years back…school admins and board members were embezzling funds meant for the schools…awful situation, and the kids and School Media centers suffered the most as a result of these adults crimes and incompetence). That’s what I have so far, and as all librarians know, literacy and all the reading skills it encompasses are the most important tool in our human toolbox, and I want to help this girl get back not just to her reading level but to a love a reading that she used to have (according to her mother, my boss).
So these are the facts as I have them from her mother:
- She used to read at a 2nd grade level, now she struggles to read at the kindergarten level
- The school she attends uses the AR reading system (something I am not really familiar with)
- She gets frustrated very easily when trying to read, although she wants to read above her level (YA fiction like Vampire Diaries and Twilight)
- I quizzed her mom to see if she was being bullied or put down by someone before and currently about her reading skills and her mom (my boss) said she thought so, but couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone at the school
- The daughter loves Ever After High®, Monster High ®, Shopkins®, rocks and minerals, math, and science
Okay, with all this in mind, can anyone out there in the library world (or any field/profession/experience) give me some tips, tricks, or just plain good advice that I can pass along? Even if we only help this one little girl, it will be a worthwhile and worthy goal of putting a person back on track for a lifelong love of reading and all the worlds it will open up for her!
Thanks a million in advance, everyone…I look forward to seeing what we come up with! 🙂
M.A.Pulliam- (Now A) Librarian 