Mallory

Mallory's Page
=Tuesday, October 5, 2010= On Tuesday, I had my first session with both Nolan and Kyree. I played Jenga with them, and I had different colors (pink, yellow, blue) on each of the Jenga pieces. Each of the colors corresponded with different questions (personal, school, reading questions). I found out that Nolan loves to read mystery books. He doesn’t read much at home, so I will have to try to motivate him to read books for pleasure at home, rather than just at school. He told me that his mom tries to make him read, but he tries to ask her a bunch of questions instead so that she will tell him that reading time is over. It will be difficult to motivate him to read, but I will try to incorporate his interests that I found out today so that he can make connections to the books that he reads. I found out that Kyree LOVES to read at home. He loves social studies books and books about famous people, mostly biographies. He also likes to read mysteries. He has a goal of reading 20 Rebecca Caudill books before the end of the school year. I don’t think I will have any trouble motivating him to read. He told me that he wants to work on comprehension, especially of poetry. I will try to incorporate historical aspects into the poetry that I choose for him so that he has a background knowledge base.

Hi Mallory, I love how you used Jenga as a way to make the getting to know each other time fun! I'm stealing this idea. :) Isn't it amazing how students will open up to you, fessing up to their strategies of "avoidance" or tricks to manipulate. I recently purchased a book, 150 Ways to Increase Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom. You are welcome to borrow it at anytime. It really is more of a one to page strategies of 150 ways to motivate. Although, some of them seem to be a bit extrinsic, not so much intrinsic. You may already have some ideas of your own. I look forward to hearing those in your future posts.

I, too, love history or historical fiction books. This is a great find, because there are so many choices for students on this genre. Wow! comprehension of poetry. Excellent move in combining a topic in which comprehension is easier in order to help scaffold his learning of poetry.

Thanks for this insight into your session. I feel like I was there and wish I could have been! I am very much looking forward to reading the progress you make with Nolan, helping develop motivation for reading. Likewise, I look forward to reading how poetry comprehension progresses with Kyree. Both students are very fortunate to have you as their tutor.

Best, Natalie =﻿Tuesday, October 12, 2010= Nolan: He started off reading me a story he is writing...it is very good and imaginative! I did notice that he spelled lots of words wrong that he should not be doing in the 6th grade, so I think I will work on writing with him during a few of our sessions. Today I printed off a "strategies" bookmark for him to use while reading. He really enjoyed it and I think he will probably use that when he reads any book outside of tutoring as well. He read __Diary of a Wimpy Kid__ aloud, and was able to use the different strategies while reading it. He made lots of his own self corrections, which I was very happy about. When writing and talking about what he read, he wasn't able to connect ideas together and did not talk about things in sequential order. We definitely need to work on comprehension in the next few weeks. He really wanted to play Jenga again, so I think I am going to connect all of my lessons to different games. This will also be more fun and interesting for him, so he will probably be more motivated to read. I am also going to make him a diary so he can record his thoughts just as the kid in __Diary of a Wimpy Kid__ does! I am thinking about sending home a sheet so that he can fill out when he reads at home. Also, would it be bad if I e-mailed his mom and told her that he should read more at home and also tell her about the tricks he plays on her? I don't want him to find out because he will not trust me anymore, but I also want him to be reading more at home....what should I do? Kyree: I also noticed that he likes to trick his mom....She claims that he does not like to read at home and his reading skills are worsening. What really happens is that he reads in secret and does not tell her about it because he is embarrassed. I don't understand why he does this, because he is a great reader! He reads with great fluency and rate. He also knows many large vocabulary words. My main goal for him is to better his expression while reading and to work on writing skills. He has great comprehension skills and was able to retell both chapters of 2 different books in his own words perfectly. I want to motivate him to think that reading is not embarrassing and will probably also send a sheet home so that he can read, record, and his mom can sign it. I want her to realize his potential and congratulate him. We will work on writing and use computer games as a reading tool.

Mallory, This is SO interesting that he "pretends" like he doesn't enjoy reading. A professor shared with me one time that she "pretended" like she couldn't read when she was in school so she could go with the reading teacher and a small group of students to have one on one time....her mother caught wind of this and I believe her "reading specialist" time came to an abrupt halt. ;) It is amazing how children are so innovative, creative, and are somewhat "manipulative" in order to play the world in their favor. They are SMART-I love it!!! I wonder what his friends perceptions of reading are. During the reading inventory, were you able to find out who he thinks is a good reader and one that is not such a good reader? I wonder if his friends struggle with reading, therefore reading is not cool...just a thought. Buy that boy extra batteries for his "reading under the covers" flashlight. :) Also, I would encourage mom to just leave some books of his interest "laying" around the house. She may be surprised how he sneaks the books to read then places them back. The trick is for her not to let him know she is doing this or questioning what happened to the books. Thanks, Natalie

=Tuesday, October 19, 2010=

I completed running records with both of my students today. They are about right on track with the books they have picked out for themselves, so I will allow them to continue picking their own books to read. With Nolan, we worked a lot on comprehension. I made a sheet with First...Next...Then...Finally... written on it so that he would be able to follow the order of the story better when he retold it. This still did not work well because he did not write in complete sentences and rather just gave an idea. I think we will need to work on writing skills and elaboration before using this sheet again. Then, I had him read The Giving Tree and draw pictures retelling the book. This was easier for him to do. We finished with talking about the diary I made for him and talking about when/what he would write in it during the week. When he brings it back, I will respond to his thoughts and write so that he can learn a better way to write. I also gave him a reading log where he has to record the amount of time he reads at home and a summary of what he read. When he completes 3 hours, he will earn a prize.

Hi Mallory, I enjoy reading when students are able to select books for themselves. I think too often with students we inadvertently create teacher dependency on selecting books. As my student is in the third grade and developing better as a reader than that of a writer, I enjoyed reading about your incorporation of a diary. Though, I journal, I had forgotten how exciting keeping a journal was...and it was right around the third grade when I received my first "locked" journal. As my student is shy and somewhat introverted, I am going to suggest journal writing to mom. We are starting a new book next week, but Diary of a Wimpy Kid may replace what I had selected. My student really needs practice with her writing skills and I think this is a great intrinsic motivator. :) Thanks,  Natalie

After Kyrees running record was done, I had him choose from some online games that worked on inferences and sentence structure. Then, we worked together on a "storybird" after reading one of them I chose for him online. They are pretty cool ([|www.storybird.com]) because you can create stories from pictures they have to choose from. This was a great inspiration for him. I also had him take home a reading log and will be giving him a prize when he completes 3 hours. (He laughed because he said he can do 3 hours in just one day.....still don't really understand why his mom thinks he needs tutoring, but he loves it and it will probably make him get ahead, so whatever!)

Thanks for sharing the storybird website!!!

=﻿Tuesday, November 9, 2010=

Kyree: We started a new book today. It's called "Charlie Bone & The Beast." He really enjoyed it and I allowed him to bring it home to read....maybe his mom will see it! He was really good at thinking about what we read about and making possible predictions about what will happen. (It's a mystery). Then, we continued on our movie that we started the week before at [|www.xtranormal.com], it is a text-to-movie website. This will help him to see what his writing sounds like. He also loves to manipulate the characters and see the acting. It's a lot of fun and a great motivator for well-written scripts and fluency.

Nolan: He was VERY dis-interested in reading today. He asked if we could just not read at all, so it was good that I had some online games planned. This broke our reading up into chunks. He brought a book that he got from the library and I read a few pages aloud to him. After the reading and games, we got some little kid books to practice his fluency. He seemed to enjoy this very much.

=November 30, 2010=

Nolan was sick today, so he did not come to tutoring. With Kyree, I ran his final running record and he went over sight words for his grade level (I did 4th-8th grade). He did really well on both his running record and sight word list. I tested his comprehension of what he read for his running record and he was able to tell me what happened, what he thought about it, and his predictions for the rest of the text. Then, we worked on his text-to-movie. Next week, we will be finishing up his movie, editing it, and publishing it so that his family can view it.

=Tuesday, December 7, 2010=

I realized that the two boys I am tutoring have completely switched around since the beginning, or what I thought about them in the beginning at least. Nolan is not motivated to read whatsoever. He loves reading "little kid books" probably because they are easy for him. So, we start every tutoring session out like that. He likes it, plus is helps his fluency and expression in later readings we do during our time together. After working on that, I did his running record. He did not want to read out of any of the books I asked him to read out of that were at/around his level, so I basically had to force him to read two pages out of a book we were already reading previously to do the running record. Then, we worked on summarizing and asking him questions about comprehension. I then allowed him to play a computer game where he had to read a small passage, 1-2 sentences, and answer a question. Instead of reading, he just guessed the answers. I asked him to read aloud, but he said no. I was extremely frustrated with him last night!

Kyree did not come to tutoring because he was sick. Next time, we will finish up his xtranormal story so that he can show it to his parents.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Today was our final tutoring session. With Nolan, we played Jenga as a closing activity (like we did the first day). I made up 12 questions to ask him (all mostly about what he learned, what he will continue doing, etc.) and had him make up 12 questions to ask me. I also had four bonus activities that had him reading, looking at pictures, and doing different reading activities. It was a lot of fun and I think he really enjoyed doing something light on the last day.

With Kyree, we finished his xtranormal production and published it to the internet. Then, I allowed him to pick out a book and we read it together.