First SessionMy 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. Second Session 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. Third Session
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.
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.
Third Session
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.