Session 5 Literacy Lab

Tonight's session went very well. We continue to read The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark and Frog's Lunch. We did a few worksheet activities that tied in with the reading and we even did a craft activity to keep my student focused on the reading. Because her attention span is pretty short after the first 35 minutes, I need to come up with things to do that keep her focused. But she is doing so well and I am very pleased with her improvements. I just hope that when I do the end of semester assessments, all this work will be reflected in the results.
I went to see my student's classroom teacher today and it was a very productive meeting. We have agreed that I will work around what she is doing in the classroom to support and compliment her instruction. This will give me a better grip on what I need to do with our student so that our efforts are moving in the same direction and not hapzardly being implemented.

We need to meet and come up with theme for our parent presentation at the end of the semester. I know that Yolie has been taking pictures but now we have to decide what strategies we're each going to be presenting and how we are going to put it all together. So, we can do this electronically or we can do a face to face.

My quote tonight is: A child seldom needs a good talking to as a good listening to. ~Robert Brault
This should remind us that as teachers, we can't always just be talking but that we also have to hear what the student is saying - and not just with their mouths but by their actions and body language.

Image by google.

Well it's been about two sessions that J.T. has not been able to attend class, he has been sick with the flu. I will be making up my sessions with him hopefully today if he is up to working. I am hoping he will be cooperative with me. I apologize for not keeping up with my blogging.

Quote:" The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth". Dan Rather

I like this quote because as teachers, we push and tug our students in the direction we want them to go and that's success!

Today's session was a little unorthodox but, all in all, effective. The beginning was spent at the university picking up materials and going over some strategies. It took a little longer then expected but it was necessary. After getting the materials, it was off to Hemrick's house. It took a few minutes to get him settled but we did. We did some sight words and a little shared reading. He seemed to respond well while working in an environment familiar to him.

I chose this book to read with my student tonight. She did very well with it. It is a predictable book with great pictures for context clues. We did paired reading and she was able to read most of the words by herself. I feel like we are making great progress. Dr. Rivera even recorded our reading session tonight so that we could observe some reading strategies I used.

One thing that I have noticed is that my student has a hard time focusing and staying still after 35 minutes of work. So tonight I decided to do the reading activities before the letter and word recognition activities. Unfortunately, the recording was made later in the session so you will notice that she is squirming and can't stay seated. We had fun reading this book, though, and it was easy enough to give her much success in reading.

Tonight's quote is a Sioux proverb: A people without history is like the wind blowing over buffalo grass. As I said in class, my schema for buffalo grass is limited to sword grass and maybe rice and wheat before the chaff. I think that this quote means that people without history have nothing to identify with or to anchor themselves to so like the wind, they don't stay still long enough to do so, they just touch the surface and move on.

A Good Night!

I felt very good about tonight's session. My student did very well and she actually read a book (I Went Walking) all by herself with only one miscue that she self-corrected. It makes all the planning and the preparations so worthwhile. I already see a lot of improvement with her in her reading fluency and in her comprehension. There is still a lot to do but tonight was very encouraging.

My quote for tonight was about nature not disappointing the heart who loves her. My interpretation is that even though nature may sometimes cause havoc in our lives, there is always something positive we can glean from the chaos. In the east coast families can use the stay-at-home days to catch up with each other, or to just rest and relax. After a forest fire, we can look around and really appreciate how important the trees are to our existence. Nature is not always perfect but she always brings hope.

No Go

Quite an interesting session today. The whole court ordered house arrest really altered the plans. However, we all know that things like that happen and life goes on. It was really nice seeing Yollie and Faye getting right to work today. It was very encouraging. Keep it up.

Session 3

Well we were suppose to be back in the literacy lab tonight but the rooms were not decent enough to conduct a session in, so class was once again held in room 119. Maybe next week we will be back in the lab.

Tonights session consisted of more about "Clifford the Big Red Dog"! More reading, identifying basic sight words and writing. Faye shared with me some activities that she has for her student. I am eager to try them with J.T. I think he will enjoy them.

Quote: If a seed of lettuce will not grow, we do not blame the lettuce. Instead the fault lies with us for not having nourished the seed properly. Frank OutLaw

Just like what the quote says, we don't blame the students for our faults in not enriching our students lives. If we nourish them with great teaching, we will see the fruits of our labor in the end.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I attended class for the first time this semester. I missed the first two class sessions due to a bacterial infection that was mistaken for the flu. I felt that it wasn't worth taking Hemrick to class today. I felt I needed to talk with the professor first to get my feet wet. Instead of doing my own session, Faye was nice enough to allow me to sit in on her session. Faye did a wonderful job. Hopefully, I'll be able to be as effective as Faye. Great job Faye!

Two Down

I had a good time with my student tonight. I did a strategy that was suggested to me by a well-known educator for working with letter recognition and letter inversion. I used magnetic alphabet letters and had my student place the letter on a picture beginning with that letter and having the student say both the picture name and the letter name. She had fun doing that. To help her correct inversion of letters, I let her play with a tray of rice to draw letters in the correct way. It was also a good way to orally assess her letter recognition. She liked that activity also. I think that I am getting the hang of this. Next comes the paraprofessional lesson plans.....just when I was feeling less stressed about the lab lessons.

My quote for tonight was a scripture from Psalms. "Be still and know that I am God." I use this scripture to stay grounded and to not be too impetuous, which I am prone to be. I liked Alan's scripture, too but I can't remember it. So Alan, make sure you post your quote tonight.
Missed you in class, Yolie. I hope all is well with your daughter.

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