We began the session by going over Trenton's homework for mathematics which was understanding time on an analog clock. He had a bit of difficulty with this task when the hour hand was close to the next hour. We discussed some strategies - like lining up a straight edge to the number and if the hand wasn't there that meant it was the previous hour. He was able to count by five's to determine the minutes. He needs more practice to be more confident in this skill.
Next, he read an informational text about the "Arctic Fox". As he read he highlighted the supporting details. He was able to answer the comprehension questions about this text. He was very careful about restating the question in the answer when answering text dependent questions. He was also able to cite evidence from the text for his answers. He then did a fluency check on a passage about the school bus. He orally answered questions to determine comprehension. He did a great job today and is eager to do well.

It was a pleasure to meet and work with Trenton! He is such a delightful, polite youngster and worked very hard during the entire session. Since this was our first time together, I administered some assessments to get a sense of his current reading levels and needs. On the Florida Oral Reading Fluency Assessment, he read at a rate of 94 words per minute. He is at the 59th %ile in oral fluency and is reading at an acceptable rate. He then took the Qualitative Reading Inventory. On the word lists he scored at the instructional level for 2nd grade for words in isolation. Based on this, I gave him both a narrative and an expository (non-fiction) passage. On both passages he scored at the instructional level for second grade. He did well on the “right there” questions and struggled with some of the Implicit questions, those questions that require the reader to draw conclusions from the text. Additionally, I noticed that he had some issues with tracking text. He skipped several lines in both passages and failed to notice when the reading did not make sense. We talked about the fact that he should be asking questions while he is reading so he can notice when he skips lines and can then ask himself, “Does this make sense?”. Trenton also wrote some written responses to questions, so I could see how he communicates his ideas in writing. Trenton was very careful about making sure he rephrased the question in his answer and I could hear him subvocalize as he wrote the answers. He exhibited some reversals and spelling errors, however, he was very thorough in answering the questions. He worked very hard the entire time and was obviously very intent on doing well. Based on these findings, we will begin our work with reading comprehension and focus on questions that go beyond the written text. We will also work on tracking text and reading with fluency. Asking and answering questions while reading text will be a strategy that we use to assist him with improving his tracking. I look forward to working with Trenton.