His Moment of Triumph

It has been months since I have seen a spark on this student't face. Yes, he comes to class joking with his friends, but he never seems to be present. He actually reminds me of Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet because he seems to wander in as if he were floating or living in a dream world--not the real world.

A couple of days ago he stayed to study with me during study hall time. I should use all capital letters now as this is a HUGE accomplishment! He stayed and he worked!!! Then a day later he took a quiz in my Sheltered English class in high school. After work as I was grading the quizzes I found out to my great surprise that he PASSED!! This is an accomplishment worth celebrating!

But wait, there is more: the next hour we were working on writing. I had a change to work with three students in a small group while my volunteer was working with another group. H. was on task. He had his writer's notebook ready. We were practicing the P.E.E. method (point, example/evidence & explain). Our topic "Juliet is too young to get married." I was guiding my students to think about where we could find evidence or an example that would support our point that Juliet is too young to get married. H. was thinking. Suddenly he says, "Because her father said so to Paris."

I screamed! Everyone's head turned to my directions. What happened was the question on everyone's face. What did H. do now?

And then the sweet explanation that H. had come up with a few great answers all on his own!! "Really, H. did that?"

He sure did! It was H's turn to triumph!

Photo from here.