Literacy Poem: Student Teaching: Lessons from a ChildAuthor(s): Carla R. FujiiSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 45, No. 6 (Feb., 1992), p. 436Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20200886 .

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Literacy poem: Student teaching:

Lessons from a child Carla R. Fujii

Small, fierce, alone:

Darren.

We do not make a connection? Not immediately. Each day you sit, Distracted.

And I do not make a true attempt.

"Doesn't grasp the concept of a word,"

Says your teacher.

(Not yet, anyway. )

Daily you endure reading group: Inattentive, slow,

Waiting for time to pass. And I watch you as an afterthought.

Red Group meets in the hallway ?

Three small boys. And me.

"We...can...swim,

The...fish.. .can swim."

There is no plot. You and your partners Struggle against the words.

And I wait for time to pass.

"Goodjob, Darren..."

I rise to return to the class.

Secretly, you smile. The other two boys Have already escaped, but: "Can I read it to you again ?"

And I accept your offer instantly.

Now, in the day's last moments, I pass out notes to each child.

(What a great story you told!... Keep reading!) A tug; a hug; I look down at you: Darren.

Tve read mine three times! Thank you" And I begin to wish I'd tried harder.

Fujii is a graduate student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her poem is based on her experiences as a pre service teacher observing and working with beginning readers. "I wrote the poem," she told us, "to serve as a telling reminder to myself that every child can learn to read?at his or her own pace, and in his or her own time."

436 The Reading Teacher Vol. 45, No. 6 February 1992

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