This afternoon we began with a review our reading of The Lemonade War (end of chapter 3) from yesterday. Piero read a paragraph and using a word bank, filled-in-the blanks to complete the summary. He scored 10/12 on this activity and we discussed areas where he needed support. Next, we read the first half of chapter 4. We discussed the events and actions of the characters consistently as we read. Additionally, we read a RAZ kids non-fiction selection on Australia. We decided that looks like a nice place to visit! We worked through the follow-up comprehension and analysis questions together. I provided support on two of the questions, giving a little more explanation. Piero scored 9/10. Oral language: We are working on pronunciation when reading as well as in conversation. Our word focus today was on the silent -e. We read through words such as bit-bite-biting as at times, Piero is observed to use a short vowel (instead of long) when reading the -ing form of the word. Additionally, we focused on possessive nouns. When I asked him where he was today, he responded, “The house of my grandfather.” We watched a Brain Pop Jr. learning video on possessive nouns. Further explanation was provided and then we worked through some examples together. We really worked on getting the /s/ sound on the end of his possessive words. Next, we had fun with our funny pictures. Piero used a vocabulary word from our novel (freaky) to caption one of the photos. For the second photo (a dog wearing sunglasses and a sparkly hat and bowtie), Piero said he has seen a dog wearing a hat before. Finally, Piero was excited to tell me that he won 2 out of 4 of his ping-pong games yesterday!

Piero began the session writing questions to me and my responding in writing and asking him questions that he responded. I discussed any mistakes and explained them. I then reviewed the present and past tense verbs that were presented yesterday. Piero then wrote sentences for the past tense verbs. I then showed him a picture of a boy holding an ice cream cone with ten scoops tall. I had him write a creative paragraph under the picture explaining what the boy might be thinking.

Today we began with a follow-up comprehension and analysis assessment from the non-fiction book we read yesterday, Dawn of the Doughnut. We worked through this together as I clarified concepts of main idea, chronological, and fact vs. opinion. Piero did not seem to understand fact and opinion, so we took some time to work through this concept. We watched a Brain Pop learning video to get some information. We then worked through some questions about koalas. He seemed to grasp the concept scoring 13/16 on our questions. Additionally, we completed a fill-in-the blank follow-up activity for our reading of The Lemonade War from yesterday. Piero was provided with a word bank and needed some further explanation as well. We then completed reading chapter 3. We talked about figurative concepts such as the statement reflecting that the sun was so ferociously hot it felt as if the sidewalk could swallow them up. This was a challenging concept to grasp. Oral language: We enjoyed our conversation related activities of playing Would you Rather and captioning our funny photos. I loved Piero’s clear academic path when answering if he’d rather be incredibly funny or incredibly smart. He chose the latter, and when asked, explained he’d like to attend university and be an inventor, engineer, or a soccer player. We continued with our Marvel project and enjoyed some nice discussion about his favorite character, Spiderman. We are working on expanding answers into 1 or more sentences and engaging in more conversational dialogue (vs. individual monologue). We are also working towards more common English responses, such as “so many colors” (vs. “so much colors”). A great deal of modeling is provided. Finally, we enjoyed some nice conversation about ping-pong. Piero gave me information about his ping-pong tournament today. Additionally, we discussed kitesurfing. We had talked about this yesterday and I was shocked to go to the beach after our session yesterday and see 10 kite surfers in the ocean! I shared some photos and stories of what I witnessed.

This afternoon we began with a review of our novel, The Lemonade War. Piero was presented with statements and a word bank. He scored 9/9 on completing the statements to assess comprehension and recall of the text. We then completed reading chapter 2 and a portion of chapter 3. We discussed vocabulary such as joint venture and deserting. We also discussed figurative language such as “insides felt runny like a fried egg that hasn’t cooked enough” as well as more slang terminology such as freaky, chill, ‘cuz, and buck (dollar). We discussed the purpose of a lemonade stand and what it would mean to “drink all our profits”. We were excited to find “pedaled” and “pedestrian” in the text, which are part of the Latin root of “ped” that we are studying this week. Piero answered 4/5 questions correctly when asked to identify which “ped” word works with the sentence I provided. He quickly discovered the last one with a review of his notes. We also completed a shared reading of the non-fiction, RAZ Kids story Dawn of the Doughnut (level U). We started working through the comprehension questions together as we ran out of time. Oral language: Overall, we are working to stretch responses into full sentences vs. one-word answers. Modeling is being providing and I request echoing from Piero as well to help develop his conversation. We had fun with our Would You Rather game in which we asked each other questions like, “Would you rather fly a kite or swing on a swing?” Next, Piero provided verbal information and a caption to a picture of an elephant standing on a chair in fear of a mouse! We also worked with past tense + -ed pronunciation. We discussed the definitions of some of the words. Piero used them in a sentence with modeling provided as needed. Finally, as Piero is a Marvel Comics fan, we are working on a project to give information about some Marvel superheroes. Piero gave me responses to my questions that we entered in the Google Slide. Today we focused on Captain America!

I discussed the present tense and past tense of thirty verbs today. Piero wrote the verbs in both present and past tense. He then created sentences for both tenses of each verb. This brought us to the correct use of the pronouns his and her. Piero began substituting the correct pronoun in his sentences. He did very well today and made great progress.

This afternoon we began with a reading level inventory on RAZ Kids. This tool allows the program to select targeted books at Piero’s English reading level. We then began a new novel study with The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. We performed a shared reading of the text and I provided modeling of fluency and expression. As we read, we made predictions about what might happen, inferred why Evan was mad at Jessie, and analyzed the characters actions and feelings. We discussed vocabulary such as slump and break-up. Additionally, we went through figurative language phrases and words such as “bats in his chest” and “straight shooter”. To ensure comprehension, we paused our reading and discussed the content of the text frequently. Finally, we looked at pictures of lemonade stands to help visualize this concept. Vocabulary: We worked through our Latin root of “ped”. Piero recalled many of the words and used his notes for support as well. Oral language: We first focused on funny pictures (including a dog wearing glasses sitting at a computer) to help promote conversation. Piero worked to describe two pictures with increasing details and we captioned each one. Next, we worked through some “Would you Rather” questions. I modeled asking Piero a question and then he asked me the next question. We discussed our answers to questions such as “Would you rather be a pilot or a detective?” Finally, we examined some -ed words from our reading. Piero often produces past tense -ed words with the -ed audibly produced as a segment of the word (for example: call-ed and jump-ed). We are working to achieve the English pronunciation, which is just a /d/ or /t/ sound at the end of the word. After practicing at the single word level, Piero then made a sentence using the target word. Throughout these oral exercises, after he responded, we discussed ways to stretch his response with modeling provided.

Today I began the session with Piero by working on shared conversation. We alternately wrote a question for each other. I corrected mistakes as they arose. Piero then did a lesson where he was given paragraphs written in the present tense. He rewrote the paragraphs changing the verbs to past tense. We discussed all mistakes and will review them tomorrow.

This afternoon we began with a get-to-know you interview. I learned that Piero has a six-year-old sister and that he likes to read comic books. He enjoys science and sports such as soccer, mini-golf, and ping-pong. For literature today, we read some stories from Readworks. Piero did very well with the passage, Happy Trails (680 lexile) and demonstrated good understanding of the material through follow-up comprehension questions. The challenge level was increased with the non-fiction passage, Asteroid Attack (840 lexile). While Piero read fairly fluently overall, deficits were revealed in our follow-up comprehension questions. We worked through some of his errors together. We discussed slowing his pace and stopping at periods in his oral reading. We also discussed the vocabulary used in the articles such as calling someone “Sugar”, hip as in cool, and blast as in fun. Oral language: We worked through some “ch” words that use a “k” sound such as stomach, and words in the “ache” family. Additionally, we worked on past and present tense verbs and the pronunciation of words with the -ed ending. Grammar and vocabulary: We discussed the Latin root of ped (foot). We then worked through 10 English words using the root ped and discussed their meanings and parts of speech. We will work with these words throughout the week. We also reviewed the role of a subject and a verb in sentences. We then worked through example sentences working to identify the verb, adverb (which is a new concept for him), and to tell what job the adverb served in the sentence (to tell how, when, or where). Piero did a great job with these activities! Piero stated that his goals for this class are to speak good English and have better pronunciation. We reviewed ways we addressed those goals today and we will strive to maximize our efforts to continue to achieve these goals.

I began with Piero by completing a shared writing assignment. I would write a question and he would write to answer it. This allowed me to evaluate his English writing skills. I then gave Piero the topic of friends and he wrote a short four-paragraph essay describing what he likes to do with his friends. I corrected and discussed any errors as the writing progressed.