Pierce

My goal is to engage Pierce with higher level activities. To this end, I introduced morphology (the study of word parts, or morphemes).The study of morphology greatly increases a student's vocabulary as it improves spelling. I taught the Latin prefix un, the Latin root cept, and the suffix s. We brainstormed example words. Next, I let Pierce choose a book from a selection of different genres. He chose a book about Jackie Robinson. We watched a five minute BrainPop video to introduce the topic, and then co-read the book, pausing to discuss the challenging concept of segregation. Next, I re-taught soft c and soft g. We played a game of Phonics Dice to reinforce the concept, and I dictated example words. Pierce demonstrated mastery of the concept.

This was my first session with Pierce. I assessed his skills with a Quick Phonics Screener (QPS) and a diagnostic spelling test. To conclude we played several rounds of Crazy Moose, a card game to review all syllable types. Pierce is very bright and in my opinion does not require remediation. I will focus my time with him on enrichment and building enthusiasm for reading.

Pierce followed directives as I outlined objectives and expectations at the onset of our session. Pierce was easily distracted by objects in the room, so I established a time limit for him to examine them before asking for his full attention. I had taken out 2 copies of a book I have found engaging for students and encouraged Pierce to apply critical thinking skills and reflect on his answers to queries. As we discussed the title, Pierce made relevant inferences about the cover and predictions about content. I presented background information and shared a story related to the text to help Pierce feel comfortable to share and create his own connections between his personal experiences. Pierce was then asked to write down his answers to questions related to characters and setting, and his responses reflected good integration and synthesis of the material and higher-order thinking. Pierce was responsive to the one or two spelling corrections but applied and demonstrated a good application of syntax rules. The reader material appeared to be suitably challenging and Pierce followed along given a clear ruler to follow me as I read the first chapter. Some reminders were needed to remain on task if attention was diverted to objects in his view, but Pierce was responsive to directives and used his thinking flexibly to make inferences that went beyond the text.

Today, Pierce was accompanied to after-school tutoring by his mom, au pair and 2 other brothers. They all got a tour of the school and Pierce was given the option of picking the room in which he wanted to work. Pierce did not initiate much conversation but responded to questions succinctly. -His favorite subject is science and he wrote his name clearly with his right hand. Once in the classroom, Pierce was curious about, although distracted by some of the items in the room, reaching for a fidget spinner which he was permitted to examine while I got out materials. He was responsive to directives and proceeded to work on the materials and exercises selected. When given various passages to read, Pierce read fluently. He was was asked to read two articles and answer questions about the content; some involved inferential reasoning skills, and others, comprehension/main ideas. Pierce hesitated on some of the questions and changed one or two after reflecting on the options. I encouraged reflective thought as he answered a few of the other questions more impulsively which affected his score. I explained some of the other choices and the reason why they were better suited as answers. A few questions involved simple math, and Pierce answered those correctly and explained his answers. I would like to obtain a writing sample to better assess his ability to express himself on paper, and his ability to write a cohesive paragraph. This includes being comfortable with punctuation marks, having a solid subject/predicate sentence structure, familiarity with grammar, and the rules of syntax. I plan to address this in our next session.