LIGHT BULB IS ON!

Oh how great it is to see that the kids are understanding what you're teaching!!! I have my high kids that are always on top of everything and understand exactly what I teach and are able to apply it. I have my middle kids who are average and I have my low low kids who have to be taught on a different level. I guess that's usually how it is.
Now, I have this one student: Earl. He is on the low end of the average students. He is also very rambunctious and gets distracted quite easily. He doesn't get much help at home (not a great home life and his parent is illiterate). During reading time, we have our minilesson (Earl bounces up and down on the carpet- can't sit still), then they go to their reading spots with their partners and read individually, then read with their partners (Earl and his partner argue all the time and spend their time trying to get the attention of the partnerships around them rather than read). They have lost many recess times, gym, and art because of this. Lately they've gotten a little better, due to some behavior plans I've started.

So, today, we had our lesson (deviating a little from our school's reading curriculum) on word families. If you know the word, "pot" then you know the words, "lot" "not" "rot", etc. If you know the word "night" then you know the words, "fight", "light", "fright", "tight", etc.
We have also had lessons recently about chunking tricky words to figure them out.
So my Earl. I sat and had conferenced with Earl and his partner Sarah. I gave them a new book: The Forgetful Bee and had them try and read it to me using all the strategies that they knew. Earl does surprisingly well with the first page. Great job. Now it's Sarah's turn. She gets stuck on the word "forgot". Earl then jumps in and says, "Sarah, chunk the word. Watch." He then proceeds to cover up "got" and tells her to sound out the word, "for". He even tries to give her a hint and says, "If you know the word....(he thinks for a bit) "nor" then you can figure out this word. Fff....."
Sarah says, "for". Then Earl uncovers the word "got". Now read this word. Sarah still struggles.
"If you know the word "not" (which Sarah HAD read before) then you know this word." Sarah still doesn't get it and Earl can't help himself but blurt out "Got! Then you put them together. Forgot." At this point, I am in utter disbelief. This is Earl? MY EARL???? WOW!!! "Great job!!!!" I am so happy to hear him explain these strategies! He's showing me that he's internalized these strategies when he's able to teach someone else. And the way he did it. Wow. The light bulb is on! What a great feeling. He is so not the kid that I would expect this from. He made my day.