Ben is still in good shape for the FCAT. We did three passages from the ACT reading comp, and he did very well. I reminded him that he should be reading at least two articles every day, which he says he will do. As long as he chooses to focus, Ben should have no problem whatsoever with the FCAT.
We went over the short answers Dylan has already done, and talked about how to improve them. For somebody with such strong retention skills, Dylan can give much more detailed and fully developed answers.
Ashley began her session by completing the Skippyjon Jones writing project that she had worked on last week. She was quite pleased with her final results. We transitioned to discussing the importance of conext clues to help with unknown or unfamiliar words and played a board game to work on this skill. We ended her session by working in the Raz Kids reading program. Ashley read a level K book called, Anna and the Magic Coat. She then completed the comprehension quiz and we discussed the the story.
Today, I introduced Josh to the idea of Parody and Irony in writing, attempting to elaborate on our topic of legitimate and illegitimate sources. I had Josh watch several videos from TheOnion.com and discuss the "big joke" and "underlying message" of each. To this end, Josh and I finished our discussion on whether or not parody is an effective means of exposing a societal flaw.
I was a substitute for Miss Debbie today. Maya continued reading from a chapter book entitled, The Switcheroo. She touch-typed a caption and picture to go along with her summary of what she read. She used Mindcraft to build her picture of a classroom, desks, students and a video camera. She is amazing!
Ashley began her session by reading the book, Skippyjon Jones. Skippyjon - the title character, is a siamese cat with large ears that make him look like a Chihuahua. He has a group of imaginary Chihuahua friends, Los Chimichangos. Ashley loved all of the trouble that Skippyjon gets into with his wild imagination. After reading the story, we played a comprehension game. Ashley did a fantastic job with the comprehension portion of this lesson. Next, we worked on writing about her favorite part of the book with a cute Skippyjon Jones writing craft. During the writing activity, we discussed the importance of using solid details to create a mind picture for the reader. Ashley continues to work extremely hard when she comes for tutoring.
Today, I had Josh research J.R.R Tolkien. To distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate sources, I showed Josh a blog from a Tolkien fan, explaining to him that something informal like a blog, Wikipedia, and even an online journal would be inappropriate sources to cite. Afterwards, we looked at a legitimate source (CNN.com) and discussed the differences between this and Wikipedia.
Dylan did a great job reading this book, and am very impressed with his understanding and retention. We had a great discussion about the larger themes of the book, and compared those themes to other works of literature. I think Dylan got a lot out of this exercise.
Ashley began her session listening to a Chris Van Allsburg book called, Just A Dream. She had some very insightful comments about the illustrations and how they make the reader "curious" about things. She followed that up by saying, "I know what curious means." We made some text-to-text connections between Just A Dream and The Polar Express - which she had read at school earlier today. Following our reading activity, we focused a great deal on word building, phonics, and decoding strategies. Ashley showed many inconsistencies during this activity which caused me to take some of the skills back to basics. We will continue to work on phonics rules, word building and decoding strategies weekly to reinforce these skills until she shows signs of mastery.
Grace began her session by listening to a story called, Ivy and Zelda One Christmas. We discussed the characters, storyline, problem and solution in great length. Grace made some insightful comments about the characters and their thoughtfulness in making homemade gifts for their neighbor. After the reading activity, we worked on word building, phonics rules, and decoding strategies. We discussed the bossy R and the different sounds he makes in different vowel combinations. Grace worked very hard and both grasped and applied the skills we were working on during her session.
