Erica's+Page

April 25, 2011 Today was the last day of tutoring. Jillian came in with a bag full of books to give to me. It was so sweet and thoughtful. She was sad that it was our last day. I decided to start off the session by reading a book to her. It was full of descriptive language, which I thought would be a great, fun way to end our semester of tutoring. After we read the book, I had Jillian create an animal and use words to describe it, just like the book. She came up with "a purple, plump horse." She definitely needs to continue to work on reading fluently, using word chunking strategies to help with her graphophonic cueing system, as well as using appropriate strategies for finding words that will make sense with the text for her semantic cueing system. To end the session, I read a book of poems with Jillian. To work on her semantic cueing system and choosing appropriate words that make sense within each poem, I hid words and she would have to make them up, so that they made sense with the rest of the poem. She enjoyed this and often find a great rhyming word that worked perfectly with the poems! I gave her the dialogue journal that we had been using this semester to write back and forth to each other, and told her to continue to write in it.

April 18, 2011 This week I decided to have Jillian write a little more than usual, since we have mainly been focusing on reading strategies these past few weeks. Before we began writing, Jillian and I did a choral reading of a book. Because it was the week before Easter, I brought with me a construction paper cut out of an Easter egg. Jillian was supposed to create a story, about whatever she wanted, and write it on the egg. At first, she had a hard time deciding what to write about. I told her that she could write about spring, Easter, even an animal hatching out of an egg. She decided to write about Easter and immediately had a hard time knowing where to begin. When I noticed this, I traced my hand on a piece of paper and had her do a 5-finger planner. The palm of the hand is the topic of the paper and each finger represents an event or part of the story. She wrote Easter on the palm of her hand. On the first finger of her hand she wrote, waking up and getting an Easter basket, on the second finger she wrote, going to church, the third finger was about her grandma's house, the fourth about going on an Easter egg hunt, and the fifth was about eating Easter candy. Once she finished a phrase on each finger of her planner, I was able to guide her into making sentences based off of each finger. I told her to create 1-2 detailed, meaty sentences for each finger. Jillian was excited to finish her story on the cut out of the egg and decorate it. When she finished, she asked to take it home and said, "This is the most I have ever written! I can't wait to show my mom!"

April 11, 2011 This week we read started off again with a choral reading of the picture book, //But Who Will Bell the Cats?// I like when we do choral readings because I feel that Jillian really expresses herself while she reads. Again this week I noticed that she was switching around her b's and d's. She knows that a dog starts with a d and a bat starts with a b, but when it comes to spelling them, she switches the letters. I'm trying to find some sort of way that she can remember which way the letters go. We were able to do a running record and I thought she read really well. We played a game at the end of matching polysyllabic words, since she is always looking for a way to turn whatever we do into a game. Next week I want to focus on some fluency lessons. I am looking for games that will be fun, but also effective.

April 4, 2011 This week we started off be doing a choral reading of the picture book, //Tough Chicks.// Jillian seems to feel most comfortable when we do choral reading. She likes reading every other page or paragraph. I was able to find that she comprehended the book, with questions that I asked near the end. I always worry that she does not comprehend as she reads because of the difficulty with words sometimes getting in the way. I'm still trying to get her to focus more on word chunking. She resorts to the semantics cueing system, which sometimes strays away from comprehension of the sentence. During this session I found her reading the first few letters of a word and guessing what the word is (i.e. If the word was precarious, she might instantly notice the pre and say "pretend".). I also found something that I have never noticed before. While having her create sentences on the board, I noticed that she would mistake her b's for d's and vice versa. She did this several times as she was spelling words using b's and d's, but I have never noticed this when she reads. We did a hang man with words activity near the end of the session. I read a flashcard with a focus word that she usually has trouble with and she would write the word on the board and use it in a sentence. After this, I had her read the word off of the flashcard and do a similar hangman game with sentence writing. She seems to like the games.

March 28, 2011 This week, I started the session off by reading Jillian a picture book. I wanted to read to her so that she would hear what fluent reading sounds like. I practiced the components of fluency so that she would hear proper rate, tone, and pausing. After I read, I had her read a short chapter book. I decided to do more of a choral reading rather than having her read the book by herself. We alternated pages, with me reading a page and her reading the next. This went pretty well, but I didn't see her using word chunking to sound out unfamiliar words, so I reminded her and helped her with various words. After the chapter book, I had her give me and oral summary of what happened in the book. She was able to tell me the main points of the story and most of what was happening, only missing a few details, but for the most part she was comprehending the information. After this, I created incomplete sentences on the board, just like last session. Each sentence had one to three words missing. Jillian had to find an appropriate word that would not only fit in with the sentence, but with the story as well. She did a great job with this, getting the exact words used in the story for almost every sentence.

March 14, 2011 This week we started as we usually do, by reading a book. We read the book //Baron Von Baddie//, which Jillian was very interested in. She had just seen the movie //Megamind//, which was about an evil character and his nemesis. Jillian enjoyed relating the movie with the book.She was able to compare plots of the similar stories. This is great that she was able to make this intertextual relationship, linking the text to a movie. When the researcher/professor Larry Sipe conducted a study on children's responses, approximately 10% of students make these kinds of responses. These are great because she is synthesizing two different texts or "products." He found most students, 73%, analyze the text itself, including everything that the book encompasses. After reading the book, I had Jillian finish //The Perfect Monster,// a book we started reading last session. This time around, she did a much better job in sounding out the words while she read. It helped to use word chunking when she came across an unfamiliar, difficult word. After finishing the book, I had Jillian fill in the blank with several sentences that I created, that had to do with the story. Because Jillian sometimes replaces a word that she has difficulty reading, with a word that does not make sense in the context of the story, I pulled eight sentences from the book. I took out 1 to 3 words from the sentence, depending on its length, and had Jillian add in a word that would be appropriate in the context of the book. For the most part, she did a great job with this. For one or two sentences she had a little trouble, but I was able to guide her into finding an appropriate word. Once we filled in all of the sentences with word possibilities, I had Jillian think of words that would not work in the context of the story. Great job! Keep up the great work. Also, I would encourage her intertextual relationships. As she is able to draw outside experiences and relate them to the text, it becomes apparent she is comprehending what she is reading.

February 28, 2011 To start off our session, I read Jillian a book. This is the second time I started our session out by reading to Jillian, and I think I am going to try and do this every session so that she can listen to me read with with all of the components of fluency. I also like this because we sit next to each other while I read, so that she is able to view the pictures and read the words along with me. I agree, this is great. You may want to also choral read and echo read with her. After reading, I had Jillian read a few chapters of a beginners chapter book. She seemed to struggle with this. I can see her privileging the semantics cueing system and looking at the pictures to help her with unfamiliar words. Sometimes this works out, but often times it does not, so I want to focus on using more of the graphophonics cueing system, with Jillian. I can tell that she does not like to sound words out, but I really want to get Jillian to use word chunking, which might be a little bit easier and less frustrating, rather than sounding each letter out. YEP! I agree. Dependent on her reading level, you may also want to work on word families. Being in the second grade, she may already be proficient-but age is not always indicative, I thought I would suggest this. At the end of our session, with the little time we had left, we worked out the flashcards I had made for our previous session. I'm planning on making a game or something that would be a little more exciting for Jillian. I want to research games that I can use to get Jillian to use word chunking strategies with unfamiliar words.

February 21, 2011 This week we started off the session with a read aloud. It was pretty much a choral reading. I read a page and then Jillian read a page. Since I have have been assessing Jillian's strengths and weaknesses in the previous sessions, I had a good idea of what to look for. When she made a repetitive miscue that I have seen in the past, I stopped her and had her reread the sentence or word and fix her mistake. After we read, I had Jillian draw pictures of what she would put in her "dream jar," since the story had to do with dreams. After she drew the pictures, she wrote a few sentences describing what each of them were. From the previous sessions, I have found that Jillian tends to mix up her suffixes. To help Jillian with this, I made flashcards. I created three piles of suffixes (i.e. -ed, -es, -ing). First, I mixed up the words into one big pile and we went through each word. After having Jillian read each word, I had Jillian stand by the dry erase board. I held up a word and she would have to make a sentence that made sense with the given word and its suffix. (i.e. The cat hissed at the girl. The cat hisses at the girl when she plays with it. The cat is hissing at the girl.) Jillian was able to read the words correctly when I told her to really focus on the suffixes. She also did a great job with making sentences, and enjoyed writing on the dry erase board.

February 14, 2011 My second tutoring session went well. I was able to do an oral reading record on Jillian. As I noticed in the first session, she kept switching the words "then" and "when." I had her write down sentences that started with "then" and sentences that started with "when." I also had her read a few pages of a text and whenever she came across the word "then" or "when" she had to point it out. Being aware of the words helped her say them correctly. I also noticed that she had trouble reading the correct suffixes (-ed). She guesses on the words and predetermines what they are supposed to be sometime because of the context clues, before sounding them out. This would happen on a word, such as, uproar. Instead of saying uproar, she would say uproad. To help her sound words like these out and get the correct endings, I broke them down for her. I am thinking about creating flashcards for our next session with words with certain suffixes that Jillian had difficulty with. For the last few minutes of the session, I read a book to Jillian and I was going to have her draw a picture and write a few sentences of what she thought of the story. Because we ran out of time and she was unable to draw and write, I might start with that next session.

February 7, 2011 On Monday, the 7th, I had my first tutoring session with Jillian. I couldn't believe how fast the hour went! I got to hear her read and learn more about what she needs some help with, as she reads. The brief review about Jillian, that I read prior to meeting her, pretty much exactly explained the areas in reading that she has difficulty with. She was very excited and energetic. I was able to learn about her likes, dislikes, and hobbies during the Interest Inventory and as we talked together throughout the session. She has a ton of stories to tell! I can tell that she is easily distracted and likes to get off topic, which may be a slight issue during our tutoring sessions, but we'll see how the next session goes.