Wyatt arrived at our session on time and ready to work. I conducted a review of the sound deck with visual, auditory, and visual drills. The letter sounds included were b, a, d, ph, th, i, e, w, u, x, o, ch, y, sh, wh and ck. To build phonemic awareness, we did an exercise with Elkonin boxes in which Wyatt had to identify the phonemes (letter sounds) of two-phoneme words. Next, we reviewed the following irregular words: the, to, and you. Wyatt could read, but not spell, the words. He practiced the skill and identified the part of the words that do not follow the expected rules. To conclude, Wyatt read aloud the book "Can You See 3" which repeated the irregular word "you" on every page and decodable CVC words for practice. I was delighted with Wyatt's focus today.

I called at 2:30 as scheduled but the boys were unavailable.

The boys arrived on time and were set up properly on their iPads. Wyatt had to be reminded several times to sit in his seat and point his camera at his face, but once he settled down we got to work.

I presented a review of the sound deck with visual, auditory, and blending drills. In addition to the alphabet, the deck includes consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, wh, ph, and ck. Next, we played a sorting game to reinforce phonemic awareness at the word and syllable level. The boys co-read an oral reading passage called "The Vet." To conclude, we played two games, Phonics Dice with CVC words, and hang-man with one and two-syllable words.

Rhett and Wyatt joined me on time today. At first, there were a few glitches (Rhett didn't have an iPad stand, so the screen was bouncing around). A music teacher, Mrs. Smith, supervised the session and solved the problem.

I reviewed the sound deck with visual, auditory, and blending drills. The sounds included the alphabet (short vowel sounds) and consonant digraphs sh, ch, wh, ph, th. To improve phonemic awareness, we played a sorting game in which the boys had to determine how many letter sounds they hear in a word (2, 3, or 4) and sort the images into buckets. Next, they counted the syllables they heard in 2, 3, and 4 syllable words and sorted the images. The boys co-read an oral reading fluency passage about two dogs. To conclude, we played a round of Phonics Dice.

Today was the first session with Rhett and Wyatt together at school. Jay from the IT department set up the iPads at 2:30. The boys arrived at 2:40. The environment was very loud (I believe that they were in the front office; the teacher supervising also had another class and dismissal duty at the same time).

Once the boys were settled down, I conducted the following OG lesson: I reviewed the sound deck with visual, auditory, and blending drills. We did a phonemic awareness exercise using Elkonin Boxes. The boys co-read an Oral Reading Fluency passage called "The Bug" and accurately answered two comprehension questions. To conclude, we played a game of Phonics Dice to practice CVC words.

I prepared the following OG lesson: using UFLI power point slides, I reviewed the sound deck with visual, auditory, and blending board drills. To work on phonemic awareness (hearing the letter sounds within words) I prepared 20 Elkonin box slides for Wyatt to manipulate on the screen. Sequencing the alphabet was followed by building CVC words on the metal sheet (dictated by me.) I concluded a short passage of connected text and a game of Phonics Dice (CVC words.)

Wyatt and I had a great session this morning. Using a PowerPoint lesson derived from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) I reviewed the sound deck with visual, auditory, and blending drills. Wyatt learned three new digraphs (two letters that make one sound, specifically ph, th, and wh). His blending of CVC words is improving. Next, we played a phonemic awareness game; Wyatt sorted pictures of words (web, shoe, toe, sun, and cup) into buckets according to how many letters sounds they have (3, 2, 3, and 3, respectively.) Wyatt then read a list of ten sight words (and, are, do, for, go, has, have, he, here, and is) and only missed are and for. I will incorporate those sight words into our next lesson. To conclude, we played a game of Phonics Dice with CVC words. As usual, Wyatt beat me!

We brain-stormed the educational plans for the year for both Wyatt and Rhett.

I organized today's lesson using materials from UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute.). We began with the sound deck, with visual, auditory, and blending drills. It was fun to use the online materials as I didn't have to manipulate cards in front of the camera. Moving quickly from activity to activity helps to hold Wyatt's attention. Next, we worked with Elkonin boxes, listening, and identifying the sounds in a word. Finally, we played a game of Phonics Dice with CVC words.

Wyatt was having internet problems, so we rescheduled for 11:00. I began with a phonological awareness exercise; Wyatt moved up to level D2, which asks him to delete one syllable of a two-syllable word. Next, I reviewed the sound deck, with visual, auditory, and blending drills. Wyatt inadvertently dropped the call at 9:16. I texted his dad, and we re-connected at 9:22. I shared an Elkonin Box exercise on the screen. Wyatt had to identify several clip art images (key, bee, fish) and count how many letter sounds he heard in each word (key and bee have 2, fish has 3.) I then revealed the boxes and dragged a counter into each box as we said the letter sounds together. Next, we played a sorting game. Again, Wyatt identified clip art images (web, duck, pie) and counted the letter sounds he heard in each word. I then dragged the images into a bucket marked 2 or 3. Next session, I would like to give Wyatt control of the screen. I think that he will feel more engaged if he can drag the images.