The reader continued to decode wall, ball, thing, shock with accuracy and confidence that I had not seen before. "Do more," the reader begged so I continued to build words song, long, bath, wish, shop, chip, shall, mall, lung...and the reader continued to read them!
"I didn't get any wrong. I really really read them, I did not guess," the reader smiled in that moment of understanding the power of really reading rather than guessing and hoping the task will end.
"Kiss your brain," I smiled as the reader was already offering that reading brain a kiss! I've experienced that moment of lift almost as many times as I have said, "Kiss your brain," but it never gets old. This time, I had to wipe a few tears from my eyes.
"Good job brain," the reader offered without my prompt a few minutes later as we wrapped up a short story about an ant. "I am going to read like this in school," the reader said with a confidence I had not seen before.
I know the journey is not over as reading is the most complex processes we ask students to consider; however, I know the reader's brain has been kissed by a positive reading experience. You only need a few hundred of those kiss your brain moments to develop the confidence to try complex reading tasks with confidence.
3 comments:
Kiss your brain is a totally new phrase for me. As I'm watching grandson tackle the reading process, I'm understanding more and more its complexity and awed by people like you who provide positive reading experiences and set our youngest on the path to success. This joyful post was a wonderful start to my morning.
Kiss your brain is also a phrase that I have never heard before either. It is kind of fun though! I agree with Ramona, what a joyful post!
Thanks, I heard it during a walk through visitation and fell in love with the idea of self congratulations. I have to admit that all of the teachers doing this walk through on a random October day have adopted this phrase. Kids understand it as congratulate yourself It's a keeper for me.
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