Here at The Learning Room we believe in celebrating the successes of our students, big and small! Whether a student has achieved a personal or academic goal, student success is at the heart of our work. In our series, Student Spotlight, we highlight what a partnership with a Learning Room academic coach can do for struggling learners.
As a rising 2nd grader, Kamili struggled with reading. Kamili’s foundational gaps in phonics skills made reading very difficult for Kamili. This was a tricky situation for her family because after homeschooling for many years, Kamili’s family wanted to transition her into public school for second grade.
At The Learning Room we support all learning journeys. One of our core beliefs is that different types of schooling work for different learners. With that, we support family goals for learners as well! In this instance, Kamili’s family wanted to ensure she was reading at a 2nd grade level so she would be enrolled with a same-age cohort of students when transitioning into public school. Our customized 1:1 approach has allowed us to have consistent success stories with our students. This is also the case with Kamili’s reading journey! Working with Kamili’s family and aligning our goals with theirs, we were able to help Kamili get up to grade level before entering public school.
Enter The Learning Room
Working with Jessica for 2-3 hours per week, Kamili made about 2 years of reading growth in just three months. The big goal Kamili’s family had was to get her up to grade level to be ready to jump into second grade. With her partnership with The Learning Room we met that goal and she was ready to tackle second grade with her same-age peers!
So…how did we do it?
Every student that comes through The Learning Room starts with an assessment. During Kamili’s initial assessment Jessica noticed that Kamili wasn’t using phonics strategies to decode unfamiliar words. This discovery is precisely why we begin with a comprehensive assessment prior to instruction. Our initial assessments allow our team of academic coaches to uncover the core issue and what is hindering academic progress in our students. In this case, Kamili was struggling with reading due to lack of exposure to phonics instruction. Reading instruction can be tricky for many reasons, the main reason being there are so many different ways we can learn to read. Some students simply need to be exposed to letters, words and text to begin picking up reading skills. Some students need targeted, isolated phonics instruction in order to access new words when reading. Some students need a mix of both…or something entirely different! In Kamili’s case, she was working with a homeschool reading curriculum that didn’t explicitly teach phonics skills. Once Jessica realized Kamili’s need for isolated phonics instruction and practice, Kamili began to soar!
What we did
After Kamili’s initial assessment, Jessica knew Kamili needed clear phonics instruction before being able to grow as a reader. Jessica worked with Kamili on a variety of phonics skills including vowel sounds, blends, vowel teams and more to help Kamili decode words. In addition to their session time, Jessica worked closely with Kamili’s mom to speed up Kamili’s progress. After each session Jessica provided Kamili’s mom with detailed notes about skills they worked on and ways to practice and reinforce phonics concepts at home. On the days that Kamili didn’t work with Jessica, Kamili worked with her mom to keep up those skills that Jessica introduced and practiced with her during sessions.
After 3 months of instruction, Kamili has grown almost 2 grade levels in reading. When Kamili came to us, she was in danger of having to enroll in 1st grade when entering public school, despite being 2nd grade-age. After her months of instruction with us Kamili passed her entrance exam into second grade! We are so proud of her hard work and amazing progress!
While Kamili’s struggles may not be your child's struggles, know that Kamili’s success at the Learning Room is a reality for many students that receive our services! Our team is dedicated to individualized, consistent and rigorous instruction to help your child reach their learning goals!
