Today, Liam and I reviewed chapters 5 and 6 of his summer reading text, "Across Five Aprils." I asked him comprehension questions. He was able to summarize well, but had forgotten vital details in the text, and had confused a few new characters. I looked in his book, and it had no markings. He has not taken notes. I encourage him to increase his interaction with the text by annotating. While I was with him, I had him highlight important plot turns, and I had him write the month/year in the margins. I also gave him a copy of a Civil War timeline that will help him follow the war as it progresses in the book. He will continue to read and annotate the rest of the chapters for our next meeting.

Today, Liam and I read and discussed 8 pages of his summer reading book "Across Five Aprils." We made a character diagram, discussed Biblical character names and their meanings, made predictions, and learned about the historical period. He will continue reading on his spare time. We also went over the 15 vocabulary words of Lesson 1 in the Wordly Wise 8th grade text. He mastered 11 out of 15. The four words he can continue to review are the following: rebuff, avid, demean, and evoke.

Today. Liam and I did the following:
1. Reviewed SSAT reading strategies (how to approach general questions and specific questions)
2. Practiced with SSAT Practice Drills 16-19 (His scores for 18 and 19 were 50% and 80%, respectively, so there was some improvement.)
3. Read the first few pages of his summer reading book "Across Five Aprils," and discussed tone, characterization, and predictions.

Today, Liam and I reviewed two articles from the "Daredevils" Critical Reading Series: "Mario Andretti: Racing Legend" and "Elephant Keepers." He completed the first set of comprehension questions independently, earning a score of 80% out of 100%. We discussed weaknesses and strategies for improvement. I followed up the readings with one chapter each in the Specific Skills Series workbooks "Getting the Main Idea H" and "Identifying Inferences F." He is showing great improvement in both areas already. Together, we plan to work on the SSAT reading comprehension sections and his new summer reading book next week.

I had the pleasure of meeting Liam today. We reviewed reading and annotating techniques, and completed two readings with comprehension questions. I identified two weaknesses: identifying accurate main idea sentences that are not too broad or narrow, and drawing inferences. He does well with questions based on facts stated in the text. However, I've encouraged him to confirm that his answers are correct (not going on a whim) before he moves on to the next item, and I also encourage him to read the directions carefully. One question, for example, asked for two answers and he only chose one because most questions only asked for one answer. Today was a great introduction to our future reading adventures. He did very well over all.

I subbed for Jackson for about 30 minutes. I had him start to write 3 paragraphs based on what he did the past weekend. We worked on correct punctuation, and proper formation of sentences.

i subbed for about 15 minutes, and we did some reading that was left for him.

Today Morgan and I had the opportunity to work together for the last 30 minutes of the day. Morgan completed page 155 and 156 in her handwriting book. We then read the book "Skippy Skunk". This book contained many words with the "sk" blend. Morgan then answered all 3 of the comprehension questions correctly. We finished class by trying to remember as many words that contain the "sk" blend as possible from the story.

Raz reading online lesson

Today Ethan and I worked will Kara and her student Yanuell on the book the two students assembled about dinosaurs. The students both decided together the order of the information presented in the book. Then, they stapled their assembled books together. Finally, the two students took turns reading pages from the book they created. After this, the students separated, and Ethan and I worked together on raz-kids reading a story and answering questions about hermit crabs.