The fifth grader and I

Today I saw how boring standardized tests are. I worked with Edwin, a fifth grader who had trouble reading words like “attraction” and “budget” and “colony.” I don’t know how well a fifth grader is supposed to be reading, but my guess is — better.

So, first off, I felt like I didn’t even know where to begin. If you can’t even read the words, how can you grasp their meaning? And how can you then figure out what the sentence means? Because that’s what we were supposed to be doing: taking a sample test that measures reading comprehension. And really, the material is so dry, how can I expect him to even care what it means?

We worked together for 30 minutes, and I think we made it through seven questions in that time. I caught him checking the clock every 5 minutes or so.

Because I need to tell myself that it made a difference, I’ll mention what went well: We talked about comparing. He was able to look for (and find) word clues such as “like” or “similar. Also, he felt good about answering one question where he had to deduce something from the text. The answer wasn’t supplied word for word, so he had to make an assumption. I don’t know if he lucked into that one or what. But he got it right, and it made him smile.