Kaniyah, Tyjia and I co-read a short story by Jason Reynolds entitled "First-Day Fly." Told from the point of view of a middle school boy, the story details his preparation for the first day of school, specifically his outfit. I modeled a different note-taking strategy, underlining the text as we read and writing important details in the margins. We paused as we read to answer comprehension questions. I taught the concepts of figurative language, specifically metaphor and simile. The girls were engaged with the story and did good work.

I worked with Kaniyah and Tyjai together for one hour. My goal is to practice reading, reading comprehension strategies, and paragraph writing. I chose Bessie Smith, iconic jazz and blues singer, as a topic for exploration. We watched a brief YouTube video on Bessie Smith, followed by co-reading a passage about her from a book entitled "100 African Americans Who Shaped American History." As we read, I modeled taking notes as well as reading comprehension strategies (pausing to summarize, ask questions, and make predictions). Finally, we worked together to write a paragraph to summarize the life of Bessie Smith. Both girls were polite, engaged and worked hard.

I tested Tyjai using the Gray Oral Reading Test V (GORT) which evaluates a student's reading rate, accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Tyjai reading rate is at a 4.0 grade level and her reading accuracy is at a 4.7 grade level. Reading rate plus reading accuracy is reading fluency; Tyjai's reading fluency is at a 4.2 grade level. Surprisingly, her comprehension score was quite a big lower at a 2.2 grade level. Tyjai will benefit from a lot of reading practice, pausing to learn comprehension strategies such as asking questions, making predictions and summarizing as she reads.