Get to Know Your Student
Kids who've struggled walk in defensive and nervous. Ten minutes of talking about their world puts them at ease before the first word gets decoded. You also walk out with the thing that makes every session easier: a page of topics they care about. There’s a full first-session interview, and a three-minute check-in for students you already know.
How to use it: Ask out loud and jot their answers. Don’t hand it over (a worksheet on day one is exactly the wrong first impression for a kid who struggles with print). Choose the topics and questions that work best, and go on a tangent with them. That is the goal.
Get to Know Your Student
Warm-up (low stakes, no wrong answers)
What made you laugh this week?
Best thing that happened lately? Worst thing?
Their world
What games, shows, or videos are on repeat right now?
Favorite animal, and why that one?
Any sports, activities, or things you make?
Pets? (Get their pets’ names; real interest feels more genuine.)
What do you collect, or think about all the time?
The expert
What could you teach ME about? I’ll take notes.
What do your friends come to you for?
Big ideas
If you wrote a book, what would it be about?
You get one superpower: which one, and what’s the first thing you do?
We can go anywhere for one day. Where?
This sheet also helps you identify good topics for your practice materials
Everything they just told you (the game, the dog’s name, the expert subject) is a decodable passage waiting to happen. ReadingTools.ai turns any topic on this page into practice text built only from the phonics patterns your student has learned, so their next session is about their world, at their exact level.
See how it works →