Using a hand-erasable marker, Samia Merzouki traces the letters of the alphabet in capital letters on the whiteboard. "For the C, you start at the top, loop and work your way down. Are you okay for everybody?" she asks her "writing group" of the day. "It's easy," say Abdelrahmane, Youssef and Selsabil. And yet: these three students may be in the sixth grade, but their French teacher has detected that they sometimes have difficulty forming their letters correctly, which then penalizes them throughout their schooling.
She therefore takes advantage of this remedial session in a small group to review the fundamentals, "from the CP-CE1 level", sighs the woman who has worked for years as a school teacher. After a few minutes, she leaves the trio under the supervision of a companion for students with disabilities (AESH) and devotes the rest of her session to the "reading group", made up of four other sixth-grade students.
At St. Mary's College, a...
This article is for subscribers only. You still have 85% to discover.
Want to read more?
Unlock all items immediately.
TEST FOR €0.99
Already a subscriber? Log