"The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid near and nearer the sill of the world." —Lord of the Flies, William Golding William Golding's use of metaphor for the reader who understands the figurative references is beautiful. But someone like me who saw words like "burning gold" or "nearer the sill of the world" became easily confused. Images of "flaming gold" and "a window sill" do not bring great meaning or enjoyment from Golding's choice of expression. As someone who did not get this sort of thing, my strategy was to read without gathering meaning ..read more

Jill is finishing fifth grade and will be transitioning to middle school next year with her classmates, and students from fifth grades in other schools. Jill is very aware of this change coming up, as are her friends. They have conversations about all the, “What if’s?” and the constant rumors about middle school. They wonder about how they will manage all the differences from their current school ..read more

“I can’t read, that’s why!” screamed Jasmine. She buried her face into her pillows and cried heavily as her mother just rubbed her back. Shelly was equally upset inside, and asking herself many questions about their move and why she’d missed Jasmine’s reading issues. Jasmine quieted and fell asleep. Shelly covered her and left the room ..read more

I was quietly considering the darkness and the light in my mind’s eye, as I reflected on my life. It seemed only yesterday, that a much younger me, saw only darkness, failure, and uncertainty. The perceived dawning of light seemed to come only moments ago, so beautiful and heartwarming. My name is Theresa, this is my testimonial of a transformation journey with only the brightest illumination that a soul could ever experience ..read more

Lauren quietly sat in the back of the classroom, not engaging with students around her and never offering to raise her hand to respond in class. She felt so inadequate in the responses she thought of, or her answers were already shared by the time she worked up the confidence to raise her hand. Lauren’s slow processing speed along with her dyslexia constantly interfered in her engagement in learning like other students. She was certainly at disadvantage on the average, but with the advent of immediacy in our culture she was distinctly but unintentionally left out ..read more

As the years passed Darcy benefitted from her special education and made gains. By the time she entered high school her need for help was reduced but still needed. As would be expected, the conversations about Darcy’s plans for the future seemingly needed to be guarded so as to not set her up for failure. Her parents had not been told of Darcy’s dream years ago about her path in life. As they were talking about Darcy’s options for the future, Darcy shared her dream, which was still vivid in her mind ..read more

Caleb seemed to learn well when he was at home and in the orchard because there was always time to practice and get it right. But at school, it was a different thing, Caleb never felt like he had mastery of anything. He was so convicted by his learning between home and school. He did not let his parents know; as they thought he learned just fine. But with the school year winding down and the orchard needing attention, Caleb's frustration grew. He finally had had enough. One evening he asked his parents if he could be homeschooled ..read more

Lynn found help for her children, but that was not enough as the progress was just too slow. She couldn’t afford financially to do any more, so decided her best option was to offer her children the help they needed. She got the training to tutor her own children. Lynn worked with them for several years building those underlying skills they were missing making it hard for them to learn to read and spell ..read more

After they'd arrived back home, and had put Spencer to bed, Sandy sat with Ben who was preparing for Monday's lessons at work. She broached his experiences in school first to learn more about how he struggled. Ben shared his difficulty with language. He said I thought you knew since I still have some weaknesses. Sandy honestly hadn't put much thought to it; she'd just been helpful to her love. When Ben had shared without emotion about his own problems, she felt much more comfortable with sharing what she'd learned about Spencer. Sandy told Ben about her conversation with Spencer’s teacher. She ..read more

Hannah shared the story of helping her mother with the plants and tried to draw an analogy to bound roots in language. She said the bound root in language cannot grow like the bound roots of a potted plant because it needs a prefix or a suffix. Potted plants roots need space and soil. Her tutor encouraged her to keep making such connections to learning from other parts of her life, as it helps her hang on to the meaning of new learning as well. Hannah was kind of inspired by this connection she had come up with ..read more