By Tom

Hi there! Come on in! You must be Paul’s mom.

Yes I am. Hello.

You didn’t bring Paul?

No, he wanted to stay
home. I hope that’s OK.

No problem. It’s good to see you again. We met at curriculum
night, but didn’t really get a chance to talk.

Yes, there was a lot
of people that day.

There was. So Paul tells me your family is from Romania?

I am from Romania. But
Paul was born in America.

So you must either be a vampire or a gymnast.

(laughing) I am not a
vampire! They are all from Transylvania! My family is from Bucharest, south
from Transylvania. But I was a gymnast; most of my life until college! In my
country all of the girls they do gymnastics.

Does Paul do gymnastics?

No, he likes soccer.

Not baseball?

Not baseball, only
soccer.

Well, let’s talk about his academics.

Let me give this to
you. It’s a summary of where he’s at right now in reading, writing and math. If
you look up at the top, you’ll see that he got 20 questions right out of 36 in
the beginning-of-the-year reading comprehension test. The class average was 21,
so Paul’s right there near the middle. And then the score shows how he did in
the test from our first unit. Paul got a three on that test, which is also the
class average. So far, then, it looks like Paul is doing about as well as his
classmates in terms of reading comprehension.

That is good. Paul had
trouble with reading last year, and also in second grade.

It’s good to see that he’s improving.

Yes, it is very hard
to get him to read at home. The only time he reads is for the twenty minutes
that you require on his homework every day.

That might be a good goal for then, to try to get him to
read for fun. I’ve found that it helps to let kids pick out their own books,
but to have an adult check to make sure it’s a book they can easily read.
Otherwise they get frustrated.

I will try that.

The next thing on the sheet is about reading fluency, which
is basically reading speed. You’ll see that in September Paul read 110 words
per minute, and then last week he read 118 words per minute. It’s going up –
which is good – but it’s not nearly as high as we’d like to see. 130 to 150 is
a good target for Paul, and it’s a goal I think he can reach, but we’ll both
have to help him.

How fast do the others
in the class read?

Well, like it says, the class average in September was 131,
and in October it was 137.

I see. So Paul needs
to read faster. He will need to practice more.

That’ll help. It will also help to have him read out loud
once in a while, so you can hear which words he has trouble with. That’s what
we do here in the classroom from time to time. But let’s keep in mind that he
seems to understand what he’s reading, which is very important. And if he
discovers books that he enjoys reading, he’ll read more and his speed will pick
up. Let’s talk about his writing. Here’s a story he wrote last week about a
time when he cut his finger. Why don’t you read it and then I’ll explain how I
scored it.

(Reads story,
chuckling from time to time) This happened when he was only three. He barely
remembers it! Some of the story is not true. He did not go to the hospital.

Yes, well, sometimes kids use their imaginations instead of
their memory. Let me explain the score so you can see which areas he needs to
work on in writing. On the scoring guide I checked off “has enough details” and
“story focuses on one event.” Paul has no trouble writing enough details and
staying focused on the topic. I didn’t check off “writing is well organized”
and “there is a lot of descriptive language.” Those are two areas that Paul
will need to work on this year.

Yes, the story goes
from one time to another time, back and forth. It doesn’t go from start to
finish.

Exactly. And it also needs more descriptive language. So
those are the two things we’ll be working with Paul on this year. And now for
math. The good news is that Paul is very strong in math. As you can see, he got
a four on his first test, from a unit on multiplication and division. He also
got a three on his second test, which was about geometry and measurement. Paul seems
to be doing very well in math.

He has always done
well in math.

That’s awesome. He’s a great kid. He works hard, treats
people with respect and follow the rules. At least most of the time. He
sometimes likes to visit with his friends, but when I remind him to work
quietly, he does so.

He has many friends?

Many. He gets along well with everyone in the class. He’s a
good kid; very friendly.

That is good to know.

Well, I better let you go. I’ve got another conference in a
few minutes. It looks like we need to focus on getting Paul to read more, both
here and at home, and help him better organize his writing, with more
description.

Yes, thank you so
much. Paul likes your class very much. Every night he tells me things that he
learns. I think he will have a good year.

Let’s hope so. Goodbye. You can take all this with you.

Thank you. Goodbye. And your neck looks delicious!

I knew it!