No matter how hard I try, I can't keep my eyes on the page. My gaze keeps wandering up and over the heads of my classmates toward the door. Because, although I came into first grade excited to learn how to read, it has quickly turned sour on me. Letters, even entire words, keep getting turned around backwards. No matter how many times things are explained, I can't seem to get it right.
Nothing has any meaning.
It has been so frustrating and confusing. And so I am with the Yellow Birds, the lowest of the three reading groups, in the rear of the classroom. In more ways than one, my back is to the wall. Word is among the kids that if you can't read by the end of the year, you are flunked and have to repeat first grade. I am petrified, drowning in the sea of stuff called reading.