This afternoon we began with a reading level inventory on RAZ Kids. This tool allows the program to select targeted books at Piero’s English reading level. We then began a new novel study with The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. We performed a shared reading of the text and I provided modeling of fluency and expression. As we read, we made predictions about what might happen, inferred why Evan was mad at Jessie, and analyzed the characters actions and feelings. We discussed vocabulary such as slump and break-up. Additionally, we went through figurative language phrases and words such as “bats in his chest” and “straight shooter”. To ensure comprehension, we paused our reading and discussed the content of the text frequently. Finally, we looked at pictures of lemonade stands to help visualize this concept. Vocabulary: We worked through our Latin root of “ped”. Piero recalled many of the words and used his notes for support as well. Oral language: We first focused on funny pictures (including a dog wearing glasses sitting at a computer) to help promote conversation. Piero worked to describe two pictures with increasing details and we captioned each one. Next, we worked through some “Would you Rather” questions. I modeled asking Piero a question and then he asked me the next question. We discussed our answers to questions such as “Would you rather be a pilot or a detective?” Finally, we examined some -ed words from our reading. Piero often produces past tense -ed words with the -ed audibly produced as a segment of the word (for example: call-ed and jump-ed). We are working to achieve the English pronunciation, which is just a /d/ or /t/ sound at the end of the word. After practicing at the single word level, Piero then made a sentence using the target word. Throughout these oral exercises, after he responded, we discussed ways to stretch his response with modeling provided.