Austin was interactive and engaged well with me this afternoon after making his room selection quickly. I showed Austin the 2 copies of the book I had selected which is appropriate for children of various grades from 3 - 7 due to the different layers of plot and character dynamics a reader can examine and analyze. Austin asked appropriate questions about the author and we did a bit of research about Louis Sachar before we began reading. I periodically queried Austin to assess his comprehension and he was able to recall details well and made appropriate inferences. I also had Austin act out some of the parts and dialogue, which he did enthusiastically and without reservation. He anticipated my expectations accurately and delivered many of the lines with correct emphasis and inflection. I encourage critical thinking and personal connection to the literature and Austin was able to explain his rationale logically. After reading the first two chapters, Austin was asked to compose a summary of the story. He organized his thoughts coherently and wrote down a succinct summary in legible handwriting. We reviewed his paragraph, which was well formatted, and I pointed out minor corrections regarding capitalization of proper nouns, title, and use of commas. Austin follows the rules of syntax and communicates his thoughts effectively. Word order, tense, subject-verb agreement, and sentence length were well demonstrated and positively affected the tone and purpose of his writing selection. Austin has a very good vocabulary and he articulates his thoughts well. I asked about his knowledge of figurative language and explained one or two examples with which he was as yet unfamiliar. Austin understood my explanation and the examples I offered in efforts to facilitate comprehension, and he was able to correctly identify the correct example of figurative language used in 11 out of 12 sentences. This encompassed a review of similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia and personification. Austin stated he is prepared to finish the remaining questions on the exercise next time we meet.