Story time! This one takes you into the classroom with me. I had this student who was by all means a great kid, but he could not read. This was grade 5 by the way, so he was well behind his classmates in that regard. Whenever he worked on his chromebook, he would have to use speech to text. The problem of course, is that he couldn’t read it over for mistakes because, like I said, he was not able to read.
I had my class do black history projects this particular year. It was simple- choose your person, create a slideshow, present the slideshow to the class. I allowed the students to work with a partner, but that meant they had to research two people. My non-reading student worked with another kid, but they essentially did two separate projects and put them into one slideshow. There wasn’t a whole lot of collaboration. The non-reader chose Victor Wembanyama, while the other kid chose Kevin Durant. When it came time to present, the non-reader essentially asked if his partner could read the whole slideshow. I’m not one to humiliate a kid, so of course I said yes.
What I had hoped was that his partner had read over the slides beforehand, helped make corrections, thus allowing the presentation to go smoothly. Instead, I found myself watching the (unintentionally) funniest presentation that I’ve ever witnessed.
The non-reader stood beside his buddy, who went through the Durant slides with ease. Then it was time for Wenbamyama. Here were the sentences that followed:
- Victor rambayama was drafted first overall in the NBA draft
- Victor Victor Wendella is 7 ft 4
- Victor went Bahamas favorite food is shrimp and croissants
- Victor and yamba was born to Mrs yomba and mystery
- Victor and bayama was fairway has a little brother Oscar rainbow
- Picture movie has played 61 games in his career
- Victor rumbiyama put up 38 points in one game the cremated all Rocky team this year
As his partner read these slides word for word, the non-reader couldn’t help but say “oops” and “oh no” repeatedly as he stood beside him. I sat at the back of the class trying to cover my face as Wembamyama was miswritten and then mispronounced at every turn. The best of all was saved for last, when it turned into Victor Who’s your mama. To this day, I still call him by that name.
To be fair, my non-reading student got screwed three different ways. First, by speech to text. You’re telling me this technology couldn’t pick up the right name even once?! Second, by his partner. He chose to read it as it was written every single time. It was absurd! Third, and worst of all, by his teacher. The kids worked on these projects for a couple of weeks. This teacher couldn’t go over and help with some corrections before the presentation?! Oh wait, that was me. Well, live and learn I suppose. Don’t worry, I wasn’t too hard on him grading-wise; it’s the effort that counts! That wasn’t the end of my Black History Month failures. The next year, I let a girl do her whole project on Bruno Mars. The first question asked by a classmate: Is he even black? Anyway, here’s one of the Who’s Your Mama slides that was presented that day:
High Ceiling Sports & Entertainment 