Nicole

=Nicole's Page =

First Session 10-05-10
My tutoring session last week went very well. I met with my student and she was very talkative, this led me to find out things about her that I had originally not planned to ask. I then had written a little letter to her that was about me and I had her read it aloud, she enjoyed this. Then, I asked her some questions from the News About Me worksheet that we received and I asked her some questions off the Reading Interview worksheet as well. I learned many things about my student during this time and the most useful piece of information that I learned was she has a horse and loves to talk about him. After asking the questions I felt this was a good enough introduction and I decided to let her elaborate and tell me more about her horse. I had asked her if she likes to tell stories about her horse and she said “she loves to”. This gave me an idea to have her create her own story about her horse in a blank book. Since, I had not planned to do this I did not have the blank book so we brainstormed ideas and sentences that could go in the book. She was really enjoying this and it seemed to be something she could get excited about at every session. After we brainstormed for awhile, I decided to read a book for the last 5 minutes or so. We alternated pages while reading and she then told me more about the kind of stories she likes to read. Overall, it was a great session and it gave me some great ideas to use for our next meeting tonight.

Hi Nicole, I was happy to read you have a talkative student. My student was very hesitant the first day, but I, too, found out her interests, including the fact that she adores horses. She is enthusiastic about reading, especially when the book is on horses. As she is hesitant to write (she is in the third grade and struggles with spelling and legible writing), I have of recently required her to write towards the completion of the session about anything she wants. I offer her choices, but she enjoys writing about her horse. The Reading Inventory and general discussions during the first meeting are key in truly getting to know the student. I wish when I was in school a Reading Inventory/Interview was utilized. Thanks, Natalie

**Second Session 10-12-10 **
My second tutoring session went well but we did have a few bumps in the beginning. I brought multiple books for her to read to me in order to do my running record. She did the first two very well so I decided to give her something a little more challenging. She struggled a lot through it and she began to give up and asked to do something else. I decided to give her the harder book because she said she reads level J books at school and that was a level J book. It was a bit confusing but now I know that she cannot read books at that high of a level. We took a break from reading and we brainstormed ideas for her blank book title. She came up with a few ideas and even decided to add more sentences to her book. She created the title and the title page of her book and also illustrated a picture. I then had her read just one more book for a running record and she did a level I book. At the end of each session I let her pick a book out so I can read it to her, this week she selected No Zombies Allowed. She really enjoys scary books and things with monsters in it so I had a plethora of Halloween and scary books for her to choose from. I think it is important that not only she reads but she also is read to, that is why I decided to close the session each week by reading a book.

Hi Nicole, Yes, the running record, especially your first offers you experience in which you can grow. I think you understand now first hand how important it is to have a variety of books. Also, something you may want to try in the future is having the student read from a page or two from a couple of level books that you think would be a good source for a running record. A great analogy is Nordstrom's shoe department ;): when you shop at Nordstrom's they often bring out other pairs of shoes they think you may like that are comparable to the one's you select, and sometimes different sizes "just in case." Thanks,  Natalie

Third Session 10-25-10
For my third session I wanted to continue to work with Jillian with her blank book. I noticed that she has a really hard time writing down her thoughts in complete sentences. She will tell me such great ideas but when it came down to writing it she will shorten her ideas and make very simple sentences. To help her get her thoughts on paper I had her fill out a worksheet with the setting, characters, main idea, and solution to that problem. Then, once she had her layout down I had her create a detail flower pedal worksheet to fill in her details of the story. This seemed to be working well but she was a little hyper today and really did not want to sit and write. We finished writing for the day and I had her read me a story of her choice from my collection. At the very end of the session I read her two books of her choice from my collection as well. For my next lesson I am going to continue to work with Jillian on getting her thoughts onto paper. I also noticed that she confuses word endings like ed, s, and ing when reading and it seems to confuse her while she is reading, that is something else I plan on working on.

Fourth Session 10-26-10
For my third session I wanted to work on suffixes with Jillian. I have noticed that she confuses words like peels for peeled or pulls for pulling. To start off the lesson I had her read a book aloud to me like I do at the beginning of every lesson. Then, I had another book for her to read but during this book she had sticky wix that she used to underline words with the word endings s, ed, and ing. When she was done reading a page I had her go back and tell me about the words that were underlined. I had her tell me what the word was, the word with different endings, and the root word. Overall, this went very well and she seemed to really enjoy the sticky wix. Then, we had used the dry erase board to practice more with word endings. I put a word up on the board and then I had her write the word out with different endings. She really liked this because she was able to use the dry erase board. At the end of the lesson I had her practice what we had been working on by filing out a worksheet with 10 sentences with a list of words with ing, ed, and s at the top. She had to fill in the blank with the correct word; she really enjoyed doing this activity as well. At the end of the lesson I had Jillian pick a book off the shelf at the Literacy Center and I read that before we parted ways.

For my fifth tutoring session I wanted to expand on what we had done in the previous fourth lesson. I started off the lesson by having Jillian read a story aloud to me. Then, I had her stand by the whiteboard and as I read a story aloud she had to listen closely to words in the story that ended in ed, s, or ing. When she heard a word with an ending I stopped reading and she wrote the word on the board. I gave her the correct spelling if needed because she needs to work on that as well. Then, after I was done reading to her she sat back down and with the words on the board she was to create sentences using those words. After that I played hangman with her using the unused words that were on the board. She really enjoyed playing this game and after she guessed the word I had her tell me a sentence aloud using a different ending. At the end of the lesson I had her choose from a group of books and I read one aloud to her.
 * Fifth Session 11-02-10 **

For this tutoring session I wanted to hear Jillian read a whole story and for her to realize that she can get through one as well. When I have her read aloud she will give up after awhile even if she is not struggling. I usually have other things planned so I either finish it for her or we partner read together. Also, I bring books for her to choose from every session so I thought that if she actually picked a book on her own she would read through it. I had Jillian pick a book from the selection in DeGarmo and read it aloud to me. She read one book in about 10 minutes and she picked another that was longer and took about 35 minutes for her to finish reading. She made errors but they were lazy errors that she was making only because she was reading quickly and recklessly. We got through book and she had asked me to read her one aloud. I did this because she did such a good job reading and I usually close out each session with me reading to her. She was so proud of herself for reading though a whole book that was long (about 45 pages, level 2) and actually finishing it, I am glad I decided to do that.
 * Sixth Session 11-09-2010 **

**Seventh Session 11-16-2010 **
For this tutoring session I played a few games online with Jillian. First, she played a game where she had to “fish” for words with ed, ing, or s. Then, we played a game together that was very similar to tic-tac-toe. You had to choose a word and match the word endings, the point was to try and get them in a row so that you can win the game. After that I had Jillian read two stories to me aloud. She did a really good job reading out loud, I feel that the games we played online really excited her for the rest of the lesson. Then, I closed the lesson by reading two books aloud to her. We had a few minutes left and I gave her a little gift for her birthday, which was the day before. I had given her some horse stickers as well and she decided to put the stickers on the front of her blank book that we have been working on.

Eighth Session 12-6-2010
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">For this session I tried something a little different with Jillian. I first had her read me a book aloud and then I had her pick a book that she wanted me to read in the beginning, I usually do this at the end of the sessions. Then, I took a book and covered up certain words within the sentence with a post it. I had Jillian read the book and try to figure out the covered up words using what she knows and the pictures. She did a really good job with this and actually had a lot of fun trying to guess the word. She still has a hard time with word endings and would say crashing instead of crashed. Then, I had Jillian finish her blank book so it would be ready to take home in a few days. She finished the story and wrote all of her sentences in the book, it looks great!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Ninth Session 12-7-2010
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I started off this session by having Jillian read a book aloud to me so I could take a running record of it. I had Jillian read the original book that I gave her for the first running record. I did this because as we had more and more sessions together I began to notice that a lot of the reason why Jillian had errors during reading was due to her reading so quickly. Before she did the final running record I had clearly stated to her not to read quickly and to make sure she reads EVERY word on the page (she sometimes skips words because she read so fast). She did a lot better during the second running record. Then, I had Jillian read a few more books aloud to take a more accurate record of her reading. To finish up the session I had Jillian complete her blank book and then I read her two books aloud before it was time to go.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For this session, since it was the last one, I has Jillian play a few reading and vocabulary games online. She played a game were she needed to match sight words, spell out vocabulary words and one were she needed to put the correct word in the sentence. Then, I had Jillian read a book aloud to me and then I read her one as well.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Tenth (Final) Session 12-14-2010 **