The comeback kid.

The comeback kid. Dylan Morin is among several students DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION is featuring over the next few months to put a face on the federal No Child Left Behind law, and to gauge how it is working. Dylan Morin of Palm Bay, Fla., was held back in fourth grade. His greatest albatross was reading. "I could read but I could not remember it," says 12-year-old Dylan. Dylan, now a sixth grader at Jupiter Elementary School elementary school:see school. , a low socioeconomic area in Brevard County School District, suffers from ADHD Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)DefinitionAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsive behaviors, and the inability to remain focused on tasks or for which he takes medication. And he always struggled with reading comprehension Reading comprehension can be defined as the level of understanding of a passage or text. For normal reading rates (around 200-220 words per minute) an acceptable level of comprehension is above 75%. . "He had a lot of ups and downs ups and downs?pl.n.Alternating periods of good and bad fortune or spirits.ups and downsNoun, plalternating periods of good and bad luck or high and low spirits in school," says Jody Morin, Dylan's mother. "I would try pushing him to read, but he wasn't interested in it." A special reading program, Scholastic's READ 180, reversed that. The research-based, intensive reading intervention program uses adaptive and instructional software as well as direct instruction in reading skills. "He likes the part where he could hear himself [read the words out loud] in his own cubicle," Mrs. Morin explains. "He loved it." With four months in the program last year, Dylan's grades shot up to A's and he was put in fifth grade, where he should have been. Now, back on track, Dylan enjoys reading and is on grade level. "He is absolutely determined to be successful," says Kaycee Cook, his homeroom home��room?n.A school classroom to which a group of pupils of the same grade are required to report each day.Noun 1. homeroom , science and reading teacher. "He is very focused." Dylan even asked Cook to move a talkative student to another team because the child disrupted his concentration. "Someone lit a fire under this child," Cook adds with a laugh. Cook will have all her students visit a local estuary, Indian River Lagoon The Indian River Lagoon is a series of lagoons and inlets making up a portion of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in the U.S. state of Florida. Its full length extends from Ponce de Le��n Inlet in Volusia County, Florida to Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach County, Florida[1] , for lab work. There the students will help clean cages and monitor water quality. "I will depend on him because reading skills will come in handy Verb 1. come in handy - be useful for a certain purposebe - have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun); "John is rich"; "This is not a good answer" ," Cook says. And Dylan will take part in the school's specialized reading program, Success for All, which tests students' reading levels at the beginning of the school year and then groups them in appropriate reading levels. Cook says she hopes to see Dylan advance a grade level in reading by the end of the school year. His math is on target. Dylan "sticks out, and he's very eager," says Amy Miller, Dylan's math teacher. Dylan Morin 12, sixth grader, Jupiter Elementary School Favorite subjects: Math because "you need it in life for adding and bills," and science so "you know what's going on Verb 1. know what's going on - be well-informedbe on the ball, be with it, know the score, know what's whatknow - know how to do or perform something; "She knows how to knit"; "Does your husband know how to cook?" around the Earth." Favorite hobbies: Playing on the computer and playing with his two dogs.