Finished chapter 12 and began chapter 13 of Ender's Game. Read aloud via Audible and followed along in book. Next, we answered chapter 12 reading comprehension questions by discussion and I typed Ayden's answers into our comprehension doc on Teams. Lastly, we did two rounds of vocabulary on vocabulary.com with January words.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Ayden's reading comprehension skills are excellent. The use of audible for reading/text to speech is incredibly beneficial for him.
We were going to continue our unit on Identity, but I was not prepared for it to have been done online today. Thus, we changed course and spent our time reading and discussing information for Ayden's college research project. We looked specifically into U of Arizona (since he will be visiting soon) and looked into their colleges and majors.
We also read 20 minutes of chapter 12 in Ender's Game.
We did 2 rounds of January vocabulary words on vocabulary.com. Ayden accurately identified 16/20 words in context. Next, we began our unit on Identity. In this unit, we will explore facets of indentity and focus on readings and writing that are expository in nature. This will make way for more complex essay structures like analysis and research style papers. This starting point will build Ayden's writing confidence as he will be writing about his own experiences and working to make personal connections.
The following are Ayden's definitions of identity and culture:
Identity: Who you are, only one of you.
Culture: How people do day to day life; influenced by family history.
Watched video of TED Talk: "We Are Not All That Different: Race and Culture Identity" by Seconde Nimenya. We had a follow up discussion for comprehension and discussed thoughts about her speech.
We worked on January vocabulary via vocabulary.com. Ayden identified 31/40 words in context with support. Then, we finished our analysis of the poem, "Fury and Fire" by the Poetlaureate Amanda Gorman. Åyden did a nice job on this and the completed activity can be found on Teams.
Vocabulary.com practice on instructional level words (based on Lexile level from baseline data) - identified 18/20 in context using "word in the wild" feature. Next, we read "Fury and Faith" by Amanda Gorman. We listened to Amanda read it, then Ayden skimmed it for unknown words: cease*, despair, destructive*, reactionary, dominance*, dignity, prevail*, restoration*, fatigued, fortified*, envision*, magnanimous, modest. (Words with a * he was able to guess their meaning/a synonym when put into another sentence for context). Then, we responded to summary questions, and more specific questions about phrase meaning within the poem.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
The poetry choice used some metaphor and symbolism. Primarily, it has face value meaning I expected would be at instructional level for Ayden to finding meaning within. He did a good job! He struggled to articulate in his own words as we summarized and required support for this part of the activity. I dictated his verbal responses in the document.
I will share with everyone the Excel Spreadsheet we are creating for college research. Ayden uses each college website to research the major areas of college life (recreation, social activities/clubs, academic support, geography, class size/school size, residence halls, etc.) to help him as he gets closer to making determinations for where he wants to attend. This is a mini-project we will work on for 10-15 minutes at a time in future class sessions. Today, we compiled demographic information for each school. Then, we read on the websites of Elon, U of AZ, and Ohio State about campus clubs and activities that may be of interest. Later in this mini-project series, Ayden will write a compare and contrast essay about two colleges from his list.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
75
Lesson Comments
Ayden seems to love this research project! I am looking forward to supporting post-secondary transition through this cross-curricular project.
We worked on Ender's Game vocabulary on Vocabulary.com for chapters 11-13. These words were above Ayden's instructional level, so he was not experiencing as much independent success. I will reassess vocabulary word choices to be both challenging, but managable for a more instructional level (for next week). Despite the difficulty of the words, Ayden really likes the format of the vocabulary.com practice drill. He is given 4 definition choices. Using the "word in the wild" feature, he is able to select from a drop down menu to see the word in context across subjects like fiction, non-fiction, technology, science/medicine, sports, etc. from real sources (news, journal article, books, etc.). After this, we worked on some writing prompts from his own experiences. He struggled to start his sentences, but using speech-to-text he experienced more success. I will continue to encourage the use of speech-to-text and graphic organizers to help him get his thoughts out.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
We will begin an intensive writing process until after winter break. The work we are actively doing is great data to inform me of Ayden's largest areas of growth in vocabulary and writing.
* I really think Ayden would benefit from a LiveScribe pen, like we discussed in his conference. If his family can obtain this for him, I will begin planning a unit to teach him how to use it!
We worked on Ender's Game vocabulary on Vocabulary.com for chapters 11-13. These words were above Ayden's instructional level, so he was not experiencing as much independent success. I will reassess vocabulary word choices to be both challenging, but managable for a more instructional level (for next week). Despite the difficulty of the words, Ayden really likes the format of the vocabulary.com practice drill. He is given 4 definition choices. Using the "word in the wild" feature, he is able to select from a drop down menu to see the word in context across subjects like fiction, non-fiction, technology, science/medicine, sports, etc. from real sources (news, journal article, books, etc.). After this, we worked on some writing prompts from his own experiences. He struggled to start his sentences, but using speech-to-text he experienced more success. I will continue to encourage the use of speech-to-text and graphic organizers to help him get his thoughts out.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
We will begin an intensive writing process until after winter break. The work we are actively doing is great data to inform me of Ayden's largest areas of growth in vocabulary and writing.
* I really think Ayden would benefit from a LiveScribe pen, like we discussed in his conference. If his family can obtain this for him, I will begin planning a unit to teach him how to use it!
Conference with Denise for first 20 minutes - Ayden listened to audiobook of Ender's Game Chapter 11 independently and worked to respond to 3 comprehension questions. He responded with 100% accuracy. After I arrived back from conference, we reviewed what he read so far. Next, we worked together on word analogies and reading vocabulary words in context to find meaning. Then, we began discussion of a college research activity we would begin next week,
Writing Prompts - expand on personal experiences in Google Teams activity.
Assignment
N/A
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Ayden did a fantastic job in our intensive writing session today. Given two sentence prompts, we worked together to brain storm ideas for sentences. From there, Ayden used a combination of typing and speech-to-text to get rough drafts paragraphs written in Google Teams. Today, we did not focus on sentence structure or grammar. Rather, on getting his ideas out as an initial write. We discussed how writing is NOT a process that should be finalized on the first attempt. He brought up how he often feels like it needs to be. We discussed strategy for breaking him of that habit and utilizing outlines to enhance is writing process. Next week, we will go back to these writing passages and work on editing/sentence structure.
