Melissa's+Page

On Wednesay Apirl 27th 2011 Dayvia and I had our last session together. It was really bittersweet. In stead of playing a game Dayvia wanted me to read to her. I read CInderella which was around a fourth or fifth grade reading level so I explained difficult words through out the story that she might of not understanded. Then I let dayvia pick out a book from Doctor Crumpler's collection to read to me. The book she choose was too difficult for her but she worked hard and finished it. I brought in a special gift for dayvia I brought her a bag that she can use when going to the library to put her books in and then a hello kitty book and some earsers. I also bought a card that I wanted t be her final copy of her letter writting process to her mom. She wrote a nice letter to her mom. I was very proud of Dayvia's effort this semester. I complied all of Dayvia's work and put it in a folder to give to her mom to see her progress. I also suggested some activites to do during the summer to help Dayvia keep up with her reading and writting. I would love to work with Dayvia again in the fall and to keep see her improving. I was very thankful for this oppurtunity to see literacy in action.

On Wednesday April 20th 2011 Dayvia was a little late but we hurried to complete our whole lesson. Dayvia brought a book that she wanted to read to me from school. The book was The Josefina Story Quilt. The book was a lot harder reading level that we have reading recently. I think she often comes and is lazy and does not want to work. We took turns reading one page and switching off. Then Dayvia read a book on starfell.com For our writting activity we looked at our sloppy copies from our previous sessions on writting letters. Dayvia completed one last sloppy by her request of what she wants to do on easter with her family and then we editied togather. I really enjoy working with dayvia on her reading and writting skills. She refueses to type so i am going to type her sloppy copies and put it in a folder with the rest of her work so she can see her progress. Next week is the last session and we will play a game.I am so glad i had the chance for this experience I really enjoy working Dayvia each week.

On Wednesday April 13th 2011 Dayvia didn't feel well. We spent half the session in the bathroom because she had a tummy ache. She said she ate dinner too quickly. Even though this was a setback because I knew we were not going to be able to get through our entire lesson I also saw something positive in this experience. As a future teacher I am going to have to have patience and be able to work with any situation that arises. Dayvia eventually felt okay to work on some reading. I didn't want to push her too hard so we had a laid back modified version of my lesson because of her tummy. Dayvia read first reading panda panda bear what do you see, I wanted her to read this text because it has unfamiliar words that in introduced in a picture walk. She did okay, having few errors but were graphically similar. After Dayvia reading, I read to her and then we edited her sloppy copy letter to her my from last week. Dayvia seemed to like being the teacher and correcting her work. I think we should start putting a dictionary together for her to put new and unfamiliar words in next week so she can use for spelling and meaning at home. We didn't have enough time for the rest of my lesson unfortunately. We still plan on making a final copy of her letter to send home. I am getting sad that there are only a few sessions left, I think the last half of the last session dayvia and I will play up words Jr to work on spelling and vocabulary.

On Wednesday April 6th 2011 Dayvia and I worked on partner reading, her reading one page and then I the next. It improved Dayvia's comprehension because she was able to tell a very detailed retell. Dayvia and I also worked on letter writing. We brainstormed several people she could write a letter too, what questions you could ask and what usually goes in the beginning, middle and end. I had a rough draft made for Dayvia that she would be able to fill in the blank. This allowed Dayvia to see how a letter is written and modeled and how she could incorporate her own ideas into this draft. Dayvia was having a bad day through out this entire lesson which is very unlike her. In order to motivate Dayvia to work hard during the letter writing lesson I promised her that she could play 5 minutes worth of Arthur games at PBSKIDS.com. She really liked this reward because she loves the Arthur books and the games were fun and had literacy elements with in them.

Next session Dayva and I are going to make a final draft of a letter to send home.

On Wednesday March 30th 2011 Dayvia and I read two books that had African American characters. Previously she expressed that no one looks like her in the books we read. So I brought in books to show her that there can be a variety of characters in the books we read. We also used the computer lab and went on tumble books a program that reads interactive books and students follow along. After listening Dayvia's retell was more much detailed and correctly answered higher level questions. We also read books on Starfall.com. This week was more of a relaxed week with Dayvia to get her motivated again after spring break. Next week we are going to read and learn the format of writing a letter. Dayvia is improving each week we meet but she often does get lazy and asks to stop reading and for me to read. I would understand if she was struggling but she will be doing awesome and just want to give up. I make sure to keep motivating and offering encouragement.

Dayvia's mom text messaged me later on the 23rd to apologize for missing our session.

On Wednesday 3/23/11, Dayvia did not show up for our schedule tutoring session, I just figured her family was thrown off of the days because she is on spring break. I did wait till 5:15 to make sure they were just not running late. I will follow up tomorrow to email to her mom.

On Wednesday 3/17/11 Dayvia and I focused on story maps. we read a beautiful feast for a big king cat together. Dayvia has no confidence when reading by herself. She likes to read together. After we discussed what we read we read, I introduced story maps to dayvia. She said that shes never done one before but when I mentioned a story web, she knew what that was. Our story map included:

-Characters -Setting -Beginning -Middle -End

Dayvia enjoyed writing her answers on the chalk board and did fairly well explaining her answers. I did not spelling count during this activity.

Next, Dayvia read Suzy Goose. She did well during this story and even acted out well reading as some of the characters.

We also did a story map for this book and Dayvia did excellent.

For the last few minutes of our session we played a game. We focused one word and wrote down as many words that we knew could rhyme with our original word. I did this because I wanted Dayvia to practice writing in a fun setting. She really enjoyed that activity and I think we will continue these short exercises at the end of every session time permitting.

We plan to finish the book were making next session.

On Wednesday 3/2?11 I met again with Dayvia. After last weeks session when she had trouble with simple words I brought in //The Very Hungry Caterpillar// By Eric Carle. I brought this in for two reasons. One reason is that Dayvia's favortie thing in the whole wide world is butterflies and the second was i wanted to bring in a lower level book to see if she complete it with few or no errors. Davia had some errors, she often paused for a long period of time and would ask when it was my turn to read. I think she is more actively engaged in reading when we read togather taking turns. Since we were not in the micro teching rooms Dayvia was amazed by all the books in the borg center. I agreed to let her pick one out after we read the hungry caterpillar and did our writing activity.

Our writing activity for this week was to brainstorm animals and what we know about them. Dayvia and I are going to make a book, complete with illustrations. Besides reading, Dayvia needs confidence with writing. We thought of five animals and Dayvia explained facts and ideas she knew about each animal. I wrote down everything she told me. Then I asked her to copy down the information she wanted to be apart of her book. By modeling the sentences, Dayvia was able to stay on task and benefited practicing her writing.

Lastly, we picked out a book from the borg center and read it together. This weeks session went very well. i am going to bring books that are at a first grade reading level from now on.

-Melissa Janda

On Wednesday 2/23 I tutored Dayvia. Last week Dayvia read a second grade level book, with a few errors but only at unfamilar words. This week Davia read another second grade book and struggled. I did a word test on Dayvia last week to see if she knew common words that i use in my C&I 209 class. She knew all the words from list A except for 2. Dayvia struggled with words like were, is, of and have this week. I am very unsure of what to do. Should I start with more basic reading and recovery books and 1st grade reading level books?

Each week I am trying to come up with a theme with Dayvia. This weeks theme was dogs because she expressed that she loves her Grandma's dog Tippy. She read a book to me and struggled so we read it together switching off reading every other page. I also read a book to her about a dogs. Dayvia gave a good unaided retell of the book i read to her, unlike the retell of us reading together.

I also had dayvia color a picture of everything she likes so I can create a new theme. I tried working with her on labeling all the ohjects but after a few attempts she didnt want to do it anymore.

I also was wondering if I use the time card even if I am not a paid tutor? I am also a student signed up for three hours and only have one student. If I help you with your technology project would I be able to use that time to count towards my hours?

-Melissa Janda

On Wednesday 2/16 I tutored Davia, a second grader. First I did an interest inventory to learn more about her. Davia really likes butterflies. I plan on getting books that pertain to her interest. Davia is right around her second grade reading level. We read Buz. Buzz has about 2 sentences on each page. There were some unfamiliar words like molars, capsules and surrender. Davia sounded out words to pronounce them correctly. Davia also studied the illustrations before reading on each page. After reading buz she gave a great unaided retell being able to answer higher level questions and brought her own background knowledge into the retell. After reading Buz, I read Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs. Davia really likes being read too. After we read, I also did a word list test and a test to see how words Davia could write.

I had a great experience with Davia and look forward to see her in the upcoming weeks, Davia's mother said that Davia is lazy when it comes to reading so I plan to work hard to motivate her and show her how fun reading can be!

-For the running record, do i drop it off at Dr. Crumpler's office, and is this a long enough blog entry?

-Melissa Janda