By Morgan Pflederer, Redwood Intervention Specialist and Instructional Coach

When I learned I’d be teaching virtual Wilson Reading System® sessions to international boarding school students, I had no idea what to expect. They were teenagers, after all, with full course loads and an array of extracurricular activities. Though I was eager to meet them and begin instruction, I couldn’t help feeling a little timid. What if they thought our sessions were a waste of time? Would we connect personally? Would our different cultural contexts cause miscommunication? How would I facilitate buy-in when they already had so many other responsibilities?

But the three of us hit it off instantly. I was met by huge smiles when they logged on that first day. We spent the first several sessions dipping our toes into content, completing pre-assessments, and getting to know each other. The students told me about their upbringings, their families, and their hobbies. Over time, I learned about their unique academic preferences and trouble spots. One student struggled more with sound-symbol knowledge, while the other had trouble with comprehension and recall. One preferred to type out thoughts by hand, while the other benefited greatly from speech-to-text. Even our breaks featured opposite preferences – one student preferred to turn her camera off and step away from the screen, while the other eagerly completed that day’s Wordle puzzle. 

I was moved by the willingness of these students, their school administration team, and Redwood’s Director of Partnerships to coordinate dates, times, time zones, session locations, device access, and all the other details that needed to come together for these sessions to go smoothly. Often, the students would join on the phone while running, sometimes through rain. “My class got out late, but I’m headed over now!” they told me, out of breath. “I’ll join on my laptop when I get there.” These sessions took place after a full day of school – both students had to sacrifice their free time, and I did not take their participation lightly.

Although this partnership was magical in many ways, it didn’t come without its challenges. Ongoing commitment to reading remediation can be difficult to sustain. About halfway through the year, one of the students decided to end her Redwood sessions in order to free up capacity for other extracurriculars. I was sad to lose her and miss out on the opportunity to make further progress, but these things happen. Despite the critical importance of this work, sometimes other priorities win out. The remaining student continued to be a bright spot in my week - eager to learn, positive, hardworking, and responsible. However, attendance became spottier as her course loads ramped up and last-minute meetings or trips got added to her calendar. While the progress was evident, it was clear that we would not be getting through as much content as I would have wished. 

About halfway through the school year, I incorporated the Writing Our World™ written expression curriculum. This was a huge instructional elevation, allowing us to include a novel study, more robust vocabulary instruction, and concrete sentence-level writing skills that could immediately be transferred to the student’s schoolwork. By year’s end, she had moved from writing primarily run-on sentences to producing clear and concise writing samples. In just seven months, she moved from the 16th percentile to the 25th percentile in reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. She advanced one grade level in reading comprehension and nearly two grade levels in reading accuracy.  

As we wrapped up our last session together (at 6:30 am my time), I felt immensely proud. First and foremost, I was proud of my student. I was so impressed by her continued commitment to showing up and doing the work when she had so many other activities competing for her time. But I was also proud of Redwood for forging a path that allows students anywhere in the world to receive life-changing literacy support. The possibilities of these partnerships far outweigh the challenges that arise when teaching across continents, and I’m so excited to see what’s ahead as additional international partners join Redwood to help students unlock their fullest potential.

Are you an international family looking for intervention services in reading, writing, or math? We’d love to talk! Email us at admissions@redwoodliteracy.com to discuss or set up a Zoom call.