I work with a small reading group of five children. They come from Classes 2, 3 and 4, but all read at the same early beginner level. Each child has their own struggle, yet one moment from the first week has stayed with me. Lata, a quiet girl who usually avoided eye contact, came to me after class and whispered, “I want to read a story to my mother for her birthday.”
That single sentence stayed with me for days. Her mother works as a domestic helper and cannot read. Lata wanted to be the first person in her family to give her mother “a story as a gift.” That intention changed the energy of our entire reading group.
When she joined, Lata could read only simple two-letter words. The other children also hesitated, often guessing words instead of sounding them out. So we went back to the basics. Phonics. Simple sounds. Blends. Short sentences. The first week was difficult, but slowly Lata began connecting sounds to words, and then words to short sentences.
Last week she read her first full story, a tiny one about a rabbit, but she reacted as if she had climbed a mountain. She slipped the book into her bag and whispered, “I will practice secretly at home, so it’s perfect.”
Her determination changed the group too. The other children, who usually lost focus, began sitting straighter and trying harder. They started asking to read aloud even if they stumbled. Progress became a shared effort instead of something I had to push. For the next month, I have created a simple plan for all five readers
- daily phonics revision
- picture and word matching sheets
- reading one Level One story each week
- shared reading on Fridays so they learn from one another
- a confidence chart where they track small wins
If they continue at this pace, the entire group can move to Level Two readers in six to eight weeks.
Lata’s goal was personal, but it lifted the whole group.
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