Tuong Lam Family Interview-Narrative EDEX 568

Through a friend, I was able to connect with a parent who’s child was currently below
grade level expectation in reading. The parent whom I interviewed had asked to keep her and her
child’s name anonymous, hence the parent shall be referred to as ‘Mrs. S’ while her child will be
called ‘J’.
To preface, Mrs. S is Asian American, who grew up speaking predominantly English in
her family, while her husband was not a native English speaker; having acquire the language
after spending almost a decade in America. Mrs. S and her husband are considered a low-income
family residing in the Philadelphia area; the language that is spoken at home with both her
husband and child is a mix of English and Chinese. In addition, Mrs. S’s child, J, is currently a
7th grader but was at one point reading below grade level when beginning when they were in 4th
grade. Hence this interview consists of Mrs. S’s recollection regarding her experience when she
was informed that J was reading below expectation by J’s teacher.
My interview with Ms. S was scheduled to be on Tuesday at 5pm. So on a typical
Tuesday evening, I got into my Google Hangout to video call Mrs. S. We greeted each other,
with me expressing my appreciation for her time and for helping me with my assignment. Then I
began asking her questions I had prepared to gain an idea of her situation and experience prior to
her child’s induction into school. According to Mrs. S, she and her husband “ had just moved
into a new home with some help from her family, after J had just turned 3”; decision that was
motivated due to their accommodations being unsuitable for their growing child. She further
elaborated on the hectic and stressful experience of having to reorganize her new living
environment; while her husband was busy working a full time as a construction worker from
8am-6pm. Mrs. S also spoke of how active J was as a child, saying how “he was always very
curious about new things” and how moving to the new home had made it even more exciting for
him as he would not fall asleep at night during the first week of moving in. In addition, as J was
growing up, Mrs. S would always speak to him, in English, in hopes of creating a firm language
foundation in English; hence before J attended school he was no different than any other happy-
go-lucky child in terms of learning and growth. During that time as Mrs. S was adjusting to her
new home, she, through the help of her relatives, was able to get J enrolled into Pre-Kindergarten
classes at their local elementary school; which taught Pre-K to 8 students. Throughout the years
leading up to 4th grade, J spoke very fluently and did not display any characteristics that might
raise any concerns from Mrs. S. So as we fast forward to the year J was in 4th grade, Mrs. S
described the beginning of the year as not particularly different from any other previous school
year; in that after picking up J and bringing him home she would prepare a short snack for him to
eat as he spoke of his day and then he would go to his room to work on his homework or play
until dinner time. If J ever needed help with homework, Mrs. S would try to help as best as she
could. On days where J did not have homework, Mrs. S would try to get J to sit and read on his
own while she busied herself with chores such as cleaning or preparing for dinner. It wasn’t until
she was called in for parent-teacher conference that she learned of J’s situation from his teacher.
As J’s teacher described and indicated on J’s first report card, J’s instructional reading level was
in 3rd grade reading level based ‘an online test that the everyone took in the class; I later did some
research and learned that it was the aimswebPlus’ reading assessment that is provided district
wide to K-5th grades. According to J’s teacher, his oral reading skills were on within grade level,
or as Mrs. S said “ he can read out loud fine like he does when talking to me. But J had trouble
“figuring out the meaning of words and understanding the things he read”; in short not scoring
well in the vocabulary and comprehension portion of the reading assessment. Ms. S described
how to was surprised at that time regarding J’s reading level and that she felt guilty and
responsible for not having performed her role properly. Though she spoke of the help, described
to her by the teacher, that J would be provided during school; explaining that, J “would work
with the teacher [and other students] a few times a week to help get him back to his grade
[reading level]”. She was also encouraged by the teacher to spend some time with J to listen to
him read to her and was also provided some ideas and activities to help improve J’s vocabulary
and comprehension skills at home; such as having him read a book of his choice while asking
him questions directly from his reading or asking him to define words in the story. Having been
enlightened of her child’s situation, Mrs. S would try to “sit down with him and have him read
[to her] ” at least 1 day a week. Since then, according to Mrs. S she would frequently get updates
at least twice within a marking period of J’s improvement as well as having met his reading
goals; either through email or a letter sent home from the teacher. By the end of the school year,
Mrs. S said that J had improved up to grade level based on his final report card. By the time J
entered 5th grade, it was apparent that he did not struggle as much as he did in the previous year,
especially given that J’s reading level on his report card was on grade level. After the last
question regarding the help J received to improve his reading level, I once again thanked Mrs. S
for her time as well ended the call. As I closed my laptop, I became to consider the wide
implication from this interview not only the perspective I have as a teacher but how I should
engage myself with family members in the future.
Throughout my interview with Mrs. S, I was able to develop a better understanding of the
experiences that parents go through and by extension the child’s personal experiences compared
to what I generally observe in the virtual classroom. Having learned about J’s experience at
home with his dedicated mother, it really brings into perspective that parents care a lot about
their child’s education and improvements. Mrs. S is an exemplary example of someone who tries
to stay informed of her child’s progress as well as involving herself in the process; to improve up
her child’s comprehension and vocabulary skills, she would spend time with him after school.
But also through this experience, I was also able to see and apply knowledge that I have learned
in this course based on J’s situation. For example we see that J is able to decode words by
applying sound to read words aloud given he is on grade level in oral fluency reading, but his
ability to define vocabulary and answer questions from his reading suggest that he needed help in
language comprehension; as seen from the Simple View of Reading formula. This also further
suggests that the teachers who lead the small group learning probably geared their intervention
with J on improving his ability to understand spoken language; either having him read silently to
answer comprehensive/inferential questions or even helped build his understanding of
vocabulary. Furthermore, given this experience in which J was able improve himself from being
at risk for failure by being instructed based on specific areas of need provides a callback to our
week 1 reading “ Teaching Reading is Rocket Science” in which the author described these
ideas, as well as role of teachers in “assessing and tailoring lessons to individual or groups”.
Overall, my interview with Mrs. S was enlightening regarding the type of assessment that
is used in the School District of Philadelphia to assess students’ academic skills, but also the
effort that teachers put in to improve student’s deficits. In the future, this interview experience,
would definitely provide a guide in how I would interact with other families; being aware of how
to approach subjects of similar nature, showing and providing resources to help parents who
want to be more proactive in their child’s education, as well as the importance of keeping parents
informed and in contact.
 Resources

 Moats, L. C. (2020, September 02). Teaching reading is rocket science. Retrieved March,
2021, from https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2020/moats