I read some of The Wild Robot to Jason, and we discussed what was happening. He worked on a card for Patti. He played with Play Doh and made his name with the letter cookie cutters.

Chris took his spelling test. He wrote about the three main characters in the story. He continued writing his story.

Kaitlin did not come online today.

I began by discussing expectations for tutoring with Reid's father. It is my understanding that his new teacher is much stricter than last year, and that many students in the class are adjusting to the higher expectations. I will support Reid with his language arts work. The class is reading the book "Al Capone Does My Shirts" and are about 75% finished with the book. I reviewed chapters 27 and 28 with Reid and helped him complete reading comprehension worksheets, comprised of both short and long writing answers. I notice that Reid understands the text well, but sometimes struggles to recall the very specific details that the questions asked. Reid will benefit from practicing reading comprehension strategies (pausing to summarize, ask questions, and make predictions) while reading. I look forward to working with Reid this year.

Cade began the session syllabicating and then reading a list of unfamiliar, two syllable words. Next, we reviewed last week's new concept, the vowel combination aw /ô/. I re-taught the concept, dictating words for him to spell (law, thaw, straw, squaw, draw). I notice that Cade struggles to hear separate sounds within words (phonological awareness). We will practice this skill. We concluded with a game of Crazy Moose and SLAP to reinforce the session concepts.

First, I will summarize the testing I did session one. The Gray Oral Reading Test-5 evaluates reading fluency (rate and accuracy) and comprehension. Students read paragraphs of increasing difficulty and answer questions. Cade's reading rate is at a 1.7 grade level; his reading accuracy is at a 2.2 reading level, and his reading fluency is at a 2.2 grade level. His reading comprehension is at a 1.2 grade. Next, I evaluated Cade's phonetic skills using the Quick Phonics Screener (QPS). Cade is confident with the following skills: identifying letter names and sounds, decoding consonant-vowel-consonant words, decoding coming beginning and ending consonant digraphs, and consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant words. He continues to misread silent e words, especially when not in the context of a sentence. Cade will benefit from instruction on the following skills: r-controlled syllables, advanced consonant sounds, silent consonants, and consonant digraphs as well as vowel digraphs, diphthongs and advanced vowel sounds. Using this diagnostic information, Cade and I had a productive OG session. I re-taught the vowel combination aw /ô/ which is usually at the end of a word. Cade read and then spelled example words. We played a game of SLAP with example words to reinforce the concept. Cade practiced syllabicating unfamiliar two syllable words. I am pleased with his confidence with this skill and encourage him to use it when he encounters unfamiliar words. To conclude, we co-read a short story from the Wonders textbook he uses at school to practice reading comrprehension strategies.

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 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 Kaniyah using the Gray Oral Reading Test V (GORT) which assesses a student's fluency (rate and accuracy) and comprehension. Kaliyah's reading rate is at a 2.7 grade level; her reading accuracy is 3.4. Taken together, her reading fluency is at a 3.0 grade level. Kaliyah's reading comprehension is in line with those scores at a 3.0 grade level. Kaniyah will benefit from reading practice utilizing strategies such as asking questions, making prediction and summarizing as she reads.

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.