This week, subtraction became both a mathematics lesson and an unexpected moment of generosity.
Qais practiced removing objects from a group of ten and extended his counting to twenty. One small gesture revealed the warmth he was increasingly comfortable expressing.
“Even in a lesson about taking away, Qais found a way to give.”
We placed ten blocks in a row and practiced taking away different quantities. When I asked Qais to remove three, he counted them carefully.
Instead of placing the three blocks aside, he moved them to my side of the table and said, “For you.” The action turned a subtraction problem into a moment of connection.
We continued counting to twenty by organizing blocks into two groups of ten. This structure helped him see how the sequence continued beyond the numbers he already knew.
I was moved by his instinct to share, but I also wanted to recognize him as more than a story of hardship. Qais was showing humor, generosity, preference, and agency—qualities that had always been part of him and were now becoming easier to express in our sessions.le.possible.ood.ning is not an extra activity. For some learners, it is the most accessible route to the same academic objective.
- Organization: City Hope Community, Clarkston, Georgia
- Student: Qais, an eight-year-old Afghan refugee
- Starting point: No prior English literacy, limited verbal communication, heightened alertness, and significant distress around sudden loud sounds