Elisa on Monday



Elisa loved going to school.  She loved talking and laughing with her friends on the bus ride to school and chatting about how their days had been, during their bus ride home.  She liked walking into homeroom and saying hello to everyone as she took her seat.

Elisa liked all her teachers and usually paid close attention during class.  She had a great memory, and she could usually remember most of the stuff they discussed in the classroom.  Whenever a teacher asked for a volunteer, whether to go to the office for something or to show a new student around the school, Elisa always raised her hand.  If any of her friends or classmates were having a bad day, Elisa tried to make them feel better.  If they were having a great day, she was happy for them.  Because she was so kind and caring, and just generally nice, Elisa had a lot of friends.

multiple: Letter Name

listen: Letter Name
	L i k e d

 

listen: Letter Name
	P a i d

 

listen: Letter Name
	C l o s e

 

listen: Letter Name
	M o s t

 

listen: Letter Name
	A n y

 

listen: Letter Name
	M a k e

 

listen: Letter Name
	G r e a t

 

listen: Letter Name
	S o

 

listen: Letter Name
	K i n d

 

look: Letter Name
	L i k e d

 

look: Letter Name
	P a i d

 

look: Letter Name
	C l o s e

 

look: Letter Name
	M o s t

 

look: Letter Name
	A n y

 

look: Letter Name
	M a k e

 

look: Letter Name
	G r e a t

 

look: Letter Name
	S o

 

look: Letter Name
	K i n d

 

Today though, Elisa was not her usual smiling and chatty self.  Her mom noticed it when Elisa was getting ready for school, and she asked her if anything was wrong.  Elisa told her that everything was fine and that she just had a lot on her mind.  Mom wisely decided to wait to continue the conversation until after Elisa got home from school.

multiple: Silent

listen: Silent
	W h e n

 
 

listen: Silent
	F i n e

 

listen: Silent
	W a i t

 

listen: Silent
	H o m e

 

look: Silent
	W h e n

 
 

look: Silent
	F i n e

 

look: Silent
	W a i t

 

look: Silent
	H o m e

 

Elisa was telling her mother the truth.  She really did have a lot on her mind.  She was an average student, not great, not terrible; and she never seemed to worry about her grades.  She got a lot of C grades, with an occasional D.  It helped that sometimes her teachers gave her a little extra credit on her report cards, for all the volunteer work she did in the classroom, but it made her sad that they always told her that she could do so much better, if she would try a little harder.  She wanted to tell them that she was already trying her hardest, but she just couldn’t say the words.

multiple: Common

listen: Common
	M i n d

 

listen: Common
	S e e m e d

 

listen: Common
	G a v e

 

listen: Common
	M a d e

 

listen: Common
	S a y

 

look: Common
	M i n d

 

look: Common
	S e e m e d

 

look: Common
	G a v e

 

look: Common
	M a d e

 

look: Common
	S a y

 

What nobody knew was that Elisa was always just a tiny bit anxious and worried.  Underneath her happy smile and her friendliness, Elisa had a secret.  Elisa was a terrible reader.  Oh, she could figure out really easy books. If she wasn’t sure of the words, she could figure out from the pictures what the story was about.  Since she often read to her little cousins, who couldn’t read at all, everyone who heard her, including all the grownups in her family, thought that she was a good reader.  They didn’t know that she was telling a story to the little ones by looking at the pictures and guessing at the words she could not read.  Many of her relatives, who were from Cuba spoke only Spanish.  They didn’t know whether or not Elisa was reading correctly in English.  Reading at school was another thing entirely.  She couldn’t fool anyone there by pretending that she was a good reader.  So instead, she became an expert at finding ways to avoid reading out loud during class.

Sometimes Elisa wanted to talk to her mother about the reading problem, but her mother worked long hours at a restaurant, and she was tired when she came home.  Mom had been doing this for several years, ever since she and Elisa’s, dad had gotten divorced. Mom wanted to be sure that there was enough money for food and clothes for her and Elisa, and that there was even a little extra money for occasional treats for Elisa. Elisa did not want to worry her with more problems.

Elisa could usually ignore the little nagging feeling, that one day this would become a big problem for her.  She kept telling herself that she didn’t have to worry too much for another few years.  But yesterday, after an afternoon of sledding with her friends Andy and Connor, they had gone over to Andy’s house for some hot chocolate.  When the conversation had turned to books that the boys were reading, Elisa felt very uncomfortable.  Worse than that, she felt ashamed, because reading was so difficult for her.  So she just got up and left, leaving the boys staring at her.  Elisa realized that the tough time she had with reading was already a big problem that would only get worse.  What was she going to do about this?  How could she ever become a better reader?  She had been through several different reading programs with different teachers, but nothing seemed to help.  She wondered what was wrong with her. 

Even though Elisa was very embarrassed, she decided to talk to Andy.  She knew him because she saw him in music class, and then she got moved to his homeroom, and she got to see what a nice guy he was.  As their friendship had grown, she knew that he could be trusted.  One time when they were talking, Andy had said that he used to have trouble reading, but now he was doing much better.  Maybe Andy would have a suggestion, and maybe whatever had helped him, would help her as well.   

As Elisa walked into homeroom, she took a deep breath.  She looked over at Andy, who was smiling a greeting.  She gave him a small, quick smile in return, and turned away for a moment.  When she turned back, she saw that he was looking at her with a curious expression on his face.  She decided that if she was going to talk to him about reading, now was the time.  Since homeroom was short, she just asked Andy if they could talk during lunch.  Now he was really curious about what was going on with her, but he knew he would get to the bottom of it at lunchtime.

Elisa had trouble concentrating during her morning classes.  She was in a hurry for lunch time to come, and at the same time, she wished it would never come.  She had never shared, with anyone, the reading problems that made her so ashamed, and that embarrassed her so much.

In spite of her wishing it away, lunchtime came as usual.  Elisa walked into the cafeteria.  She quickly spotted Andy sitting at the end of one of the big tables in the back of the room.  Good, not too many of the kids sat back there, so less chance that anyone would overhear their conversation.  He spotted her at the same moment and waved.  Elisa had brought her lunch with her today, so she did not have to waste time standing in the cafeteria line for food.  She took another deep breath, as she sat down across from Andy at the table.  She didn’t even take her lunch out of the bag.  She wasn’t feeling too hungry right now.  In fact, she felt a little sick to her stomach.  Andy said hi, and then waited to hear what Elisa wanted to talk with him about.

Elisa hesitated for a moment, and then the words started pouring out, tumbling over one another in their hurry to get out.  She realized suddenly, that it was very important to her to tell Andy what was troubling her so much.  Andy listened quietly, without interrupting.  By the time Elisa finished talking, she was almost in tears.  Andy’s face was filled with understanding, and through her tears, she was able to give him a small smile.  Andy smiled back, and he began to talk.  He told her about the man he had met last week, who taught him how to use the PQs site for helping him read.  He told her about the great stories he had read.  He told her how it helped him understand how to read the words better, in a way that made sense.  Most importantly, he told her about what a mess the English language was, and that it was not her fault that reading was difficult for her.  It was really hard for a whole lot of people.

By the time he finished telling her everything he had discovered over the last few days, Elisa’s eyes were wide with amazement, and no longer filled with tears.  In fact, she was almost laughing, because she was so excited about what she was hearing from Andy.  Andy asked Elisa if she would like to come over after school so that he could show her the PQs website on his computer, and explain it to her.  He told her that he was reading every night, sometimes with PQs on the computer, if he ran into words he didn’t know.  As his confidence grew, Andy explained, he was understanding more and more when he read his school textbooks.  Elisa told him that she needed to call to get the ok from her mom and that she would very much like to come over and learn more about reading.

1) Elisa:  
  a) hated going to school
  b) skipped a lot of days at school

2) Elisa was very good at:  
  a) reading

3) Elisa was worried because:  

4) The first person Elisa talked to about her problem was:  
  a) her mom

5) Andy offered to:  
  a) teach her how to use PQs on the computer
  b) read to her
  c) tell her teacher she was having problems. 

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