Joshua and I worked on his Algebra 1 homework. I met with mom after the session and discussed my concerns. I believe that Joshua needs additional tutoring in math. Mom was going to get back to me about this.

Great Session!
Josh and I continued our work in reading comprehension. He read the story "The Flying Dutchman" and answered all the comprehension questions on main idea, recalling facts, making inferences, and using words precisely. He missed 11 out of 28 questions. We went over and discussed all the questions that he missed. We will continue working on these skills. I look forward to seeing him again in two weeks!

Great Session!

Josh and I continued working on reading skills. He read the story "The Kelly Hopkinsville Siege" and answered all the comprehension questions. He had difficulty with the main idea section and missed a couple of the vocabulary (synonyms) questions. I will begin working on FCAT specific reading skills next week.

Oral Reading
Main Idea
Text Features
Vocabulary Development

Read two stories from 'Aliens and UFO's. Was able to identify the main idea, answer very detailed comprehension questions, choose outcomes based on inferences, identify the synonym/antonym of a given word from the text. He was full of ideas and information and enjoyed discussing the concept of why people do or don't believe in aliens.

Josh and I discussed questions to ask yourself as you are reading nonfiction to make sure that you understand what you are reading. We read and discussed an article about animal communication by infrasonic sound. As we read, when we came to a word that Josh had difficulty decoding such as implicated, we practiced decoding techniques. We then read and discussed "Trapped in Death Cave" and made notes of clues to Grandpa's death.

We went over the order of operations that should be used to solve equations. I taught Josh the acronym PEMDAS or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to remember the order. I also taught him about exponents and we solved several problem that he had gotten wrong and didn't understand. We then continued reading and discussing "Trapped in Death Cave."

I asked Josh to tell me about his recent trip to Nickelodeon Park in writing using his senses of sound, sight, smell and touch. Then I showed him a paragraph describing a cabin in the woods described using sense imagery. He then added adjectives to his paragraph. We discussed the use of descriptive adjectives and how author's use them. Then we read and discussed the mystery "Trapped in Death Cave" we had been reading. We looked for sense imagery as we read.

I went over the purpose that author's have for writing such as to entertain, inform, explain and persuade. We went over many examples of these types of writing and also found examples from TV. Josh tested his understanding by completing an exercise which we discussed. We continued to read and discuss "Trapped in Death Cave." As we read I worked on decoding skills with Josh. We went over the rule for reading words with double letters such as brittle and cattails in the novel. At the end of the reading, Josh answered a question in his Response Journal.

Josh brought his You-gi-oh cards and explained the game to me. Then using the "Critical Reading Inventory" I first asked him to read sight words. He was able to successfully read 85% of the fourth grade words. I asked him to read some of the fifth grade list and was able to see where he had difficulty with decoding. Then he read several passages on the third and fourth grade levels, retold them and answered test-based, inference and critical response questions. We then continued reading and discussing "Trapped in Death Cave."