We began the session reviewing Reid's school folder. He wrote his spelling words three times while I made his flashcards. We discussed the meaning and pronunciation of each word as he worked. As the words get more complicated, closer attention to syllabication is important. Reid was eager to begin his next book for AR points, "ReStart" by Gordon Korman. We co-read the book for the remainder of session, pausing to define unfamiliar vocabulary, summarize the plot, and make predications. I am thrilled with Reid's growing enthusiasm for reading.
Assignment
none
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Reid was particularly chatty today and it took a long time to get through the spelling words. I did not want to squelch his enthusiasm, but the book that he has chosen is a bit beyond his reading level. I believe that he is listening to the audio version with his older brother. As this is a choice for spring break reading, I am not overly concerned.
Richard used change-color markers and chalk markers to practice his spelling words and words ending in se with a z sound. He read books with words he can read.
I began the session with alphabetic knowledge: identifying the number of letters, initial, final, medial letters, sequence, vowels, consonants. Caden showed significant improvement in these skills. Next, I conducted visual, auditory and blending drills (all letters and digraphs, including wh and ph). I reviewed two concepts from last session: silent E and syllabication of VCCV words (Wilson 4, p 12-13). For spelling, I dictated silent E and irregular words (Wilson 4, p 17 and UFLI list of irregular words). Caden demonstrated mastery of spelling all silent E words and the the irregular words: his, you, was, want. The word "said" is not yet mastered. After spelling, I dictated several sentences for Cade to write and edit with the acronym CAPS. I see improvement in his spelling and editing, including word spacing. To conclude, Cade read two oral reading fluency passages with silent E and VCCV words (opensourcephonics.org). He read with improved confidence.
Assignment
none
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
I gave Cade's mother examples of his work to take home, specifically the syllabication of VCCV. She seemed dismayed that Cade is not able to do the work in class (the examples she showed me included higher level skills). I told her, "he is just not there yet" and explained that we need to shore up foundational skills first.
Ben told me he was going to leave class early today due to feeling nauseous. We waited for a bit and then I said, "Well lets do some work while we wait." He was ready and willing to work. I wrote the problems on the board and he said, "This is the worst day to be doing this but ok." And he answered the questions Correctly!!! He knows what he's doing. He only made one silly mistake and when I made the correction he knew immediately his error. I was proud of Ben for working despite not feeling well and knowing he was going to be leaving soon. As we were working his mom came in. I had never met his Mom before and it was nice to chat with her. She said Ben will be online for class the next 2 days.
Today Andrew and I continued working with the Pythagorean Theorem. First Andrew worked to solve for the length of the hypotenuse, given the side lengths. Then given the length of a side and a hypotenuse, Andrew was asked to find the length of the third side. Andrew did a good job setting up the equations and remember that the hypotenuse is always the "c".
Today Aiden and I completed the Solving Two-step Equations Riddle. Aiden worked by using inverse operations to solve for the variable. Aiden is displaying proficiency in this content and is ready to move on. There were times when he made what I call "silly" mistakes. I told him even the best math students make these type of mistakes. As a strategy to help eliminate those silly mistakes, we can go back and grade our work to give ourselves the opportunity to hopefully catch a mistake. (I realize this can be an unnecessary repetitive behavior, so I will be mindful if this becomes something that would impede an efficient workflow). I realized as we were working that we may not have time to complete this activity today, but regardless I want us to move on after today. He asked why. I told him because he is showing mastery and we are ready to build on it. He did a great job of accepting this. We ended up doing all but 2 problems, and we were able to infer the answer to the question, "Why did the muffler quit his car business?" Answer: "He was exhausted." Hee hee :)
