Michelle's+Page

The first two sessions were difficult for me. Xavier is in kindergarten and my expectation was that all the kids enrolled in this program could read and were here to work on their reading skills. The first two sessions I tried to go through some simple texts with Xavier and see what words he could pronounce, sound out, etc. I realized that he could not read yet and that he was having troubles differentiating between a letter and a word. So, we had a lot of work ahead of us! I spoke with Dr. Crumpler about the problems I was having and he encouraged me to not worry about getting him to read, but rather to work on letter and word recognition, sounds, and so forth. This brought up my spirits and took a lot of stress away for me! Even though the first two sessions were a little tedious, it showed me a lot of his struggles and strengths to help me for the next weeks.
 * 2/9 & 2/16: (first and second session) **

The third session was so much more fun than the first two for Xavier and I! We worked in a room, which was helpful in keeping his focus. I brought a white board down which he enjoyed writing on. I also had a book that had all the letters of the alphabet in upper and lower case, and then a picture of something that started with that letter. I asked Xavier to say the letter, the sound, and the picture with that sound. This went really well. The only letter he did not know at all was U. There were times when he had to think for awhile, but he did so much better than the first two weeks in producing the corresponding sounds. His confidence was much higher as well! We also went over the difference between a letter and a sound, though he was still getting confused sometimes. SO this is something I will continue to work on with Xavier.
 * 2/23: (third session) **

The fourth session went pretty well. I read a book to him, which he enjoyed, and focused on seeing what his comprehension was like. He did really well with this! Even better then I was expecting. At times it didn't seem like he was paying attention to the story, but Xavier was always able to answer the questions I asked about the story. We then looked through the book and looked for uppercase letters, which was a bit of a struggle. I know he knows what uppercase letters are, I think the problem was that there were too many words on the page for him to find them. So next I said a word in the story, and he told me what letter he thought it started with. Again, Xavier did exceedingly well with this; I was really encouraged! He was mixing up w and y, but this is understandable for someone his age. Xavier is definitely making progress, and there are things for us to work on in the coming weeks.
 * 3/2: (fourth session) **

The fifth session went really well. We had a long break from tutoring because of spring break, and then Xavier couldn't make the two weeks following that. So to refresh some, we read another book with all of the letters in the alphabet in them and pictures of things that start with a particular letter. We worked on the first half and Xavier did a really good job recognizing the sounds for each letter. I then read 3 stories to Xavier to work on demonstrating reading and to work on comprehension with him. After each story I asked him questions about the story, which he was almost always able to answer, he was really attentive during every story. I also read words in the stories and asked him what letter he thought that word started with and he struggled with some, but overall he did very well. Xavier is very talkative so that is the major obstacle we have, getting him to focus and keeping the storytelling to a minimum.
 * 3/30: (fifth session) **

**4/13: (sixth session)** This was our sixth session, as the previous week they needed to cancel. It went okay, Xavier had a hard time focusing and was not really wanting to do much. I read a book to him that we had read last time. And then I read a book with sentences that included each letter of the alphabet (//M is For Monster//) and I had him repeat each line as I read, although this died out as the book went on. Xavier would not sit still and was up and down and walking around, so with the remaining time I had us walk around Degarmo and had him point out things he saw and then say what letter that word starts with. He did this for awhile and then again, he said he didn't want to do anything anymore. I think the warm weather played a part in his not wanting to do much, but it was a semi-productive session.

**4/20: (seventh session)** ** Our seventh session went okay. Xavier was again, really restless and distracted so getting his attention was somewhat difficult. Because Easter is this coming weekend, we worked with //Arthur's Jelly Beans//. At first I had written down some of the words from the story to look at and try to sound out; this was hard for Xavier so we only did 3 or 4. But Xavier's letter-sound knowledge is definitely improving and it is clear he will be able to start reading soon. Next, I read the story to Xavier out loud. We then spent some time coloring some pictures of some of the Arthur characters. I cut them out and then had Xavier come up with a story and I wrote it down. It was great to see that Xavier is able to come up with a story and generate ideas so quickly. His story paralleled //Arthur's Jelly Beans// which was actually encouraging because it didn't seem as though he was listening/comprehending the story I read to him. From here, I choose one of his sentences to put on a sentence strip and read it aloud as I cut into pieces by word. Xavier then put the sentence back in order, which he was able to do very well! It was great to see! Lastly, I read //Clifford's Happy Easter// to end our time. **