Final observation

Here I am at the final observation!  My student is beginning to understand the concept of vowel, consonant, e syllable types.  She made no errors on real words last week and only one error on nonsense words.  Today she made two errors on nonsense words.  I will NOT be at substep 4.2 for my final observation but my instructor said it would be acceptable to be at substep 4.1 as long as I have multisyllabic words.  I think this has been a good year and feel like I have grown.  I like the way we learned how to use the Wilson reading system.  I can see that taking the entire year to learn how to use this intervention helps me be a better reading instructor.  I like having the use of this tool.

a full week

We had a full week of lessons.  I am now getting my student for a full hour in the morning.  What a difference having her for a solid hour has made!  She is still struggling with vowel consonant e syllable type.  I have really tried stressing to look for that e and then put the long vowel sound in her head.  She has made some progress but it is slow going.  We tried nonsense words but her charting was so bad that we went back to real words in an attempt to really drill this.  In writing, she consistently leaves off the e.  I am hoping we can move back to nonsense words by the end of this week because we have to be on step 4.2 by next Wednesday!

this past week

I didn't get much time with my student this past week.  However, we finished up with real words and began nonsense words for the v-e syllable type.  I was not surprised to see that my student had difficulty with decoding these words.  She is still having some confusion about when to make a vowel long and when to put a silent e on the end of words.  I believe we will be at this substep for a bit now.  We're winding down, however and I feel confident we will be on step 4.2 in 2 1/2 weeks which is where I NEED to be by then!  I can see how this step is helping my student with decoding.  I feel good about giving her the tools she needs to be a successful reader in the future.  My only concern now is if I will ever get to use what I've learned with future students.  Only time will tell!

Observation #4

Observation #4 is scheduled for tomorrow.  I am to go back and do a 3.5 lesson.  It will be good to review the vowel suffixes with her.  This past week we spent more time on the V-E syllable type.  She is still consistently missing one word in the charting.  I charted words with the suffix S.  That didn't seem to be more difficult for her.  She just doesn't remember that if there is an e at the end of the word the vowel is long.  In writing she is also consistently missing putting the e on the end of words with a long vowel sound.  I am hopeful that with work on this, she will significantly improve her reading and writing skills!

v-c-e

We started a new syllable type last week - vowel - consonant - e.  I was surprised by how difficult this was for my student.  I really thought she would have been taught about silent e somewhere along the way.  She may well have been taught about it but I guess it didn't really stick.  She is showing significant difficulties decoding words with a silent e.  In her first word chart she made three errors.  Interestingly, she heard and self corrected all three errors.  This week in her charting she made only one error so I am already seeing some improvement.  I believe we will be at this sub step for a while.

step 4

Well, last week we did the posttest for step 3.  I wasn't sure if I did the spelling part right so I re-did it with the same result - 100%.  My student was really off last Monday when we did the posttest.  I felt like I really had to drag stuff out of her.  She is still having trouble with a gap between what she thinks in her head and what comes out her mouth.  It is so interesting to hear her misread a word and when I get her to look at the word and tap it out and say it again, she'll read it correctly and then say, "that's what I said!"  with absolute conviction.  At any rate, even with being in another world on Monday she managed to pass the posttest so all is well with the Wilson world.  This week we are starting step 4.  In step 4 my student will be learning a new syllable type - v-e.  I am anticipating it taking a few days to get through the first lesson because we have a LOT to add to her notebook.  Since it's a short week I am thinking I'll just spend the whole week doing this one lesson.  We are WAY ahead of where we are supposed to be by now so I feel like we can slow down and get it right.  It will be interesting to see how this lesson goes.

end of step 3

We have now covered the -ed and -ing suffixes and my student is ready for the posttest on step 3.  Inservice on Friday really highlighted a nice meshing of the reading apprentice approach and the comprehension sos of Wilson.  There is a great deal of similarity between these two approaches to reading comprehension.  I can see how all students can benefit from using these approaches to help them better understand text and to engage metacognition in the process.  My student is becoming a more secure reader.  She is still struggling with making the correct sounds in her head but what comes out her mouth is different.  When I have her tap a syllable to check it she sometimes gives me a blank look and says, "that's what I said".  It's very interesting because I am sure she "said" it that way in her brain!  Gotta love it - but what a challenge for her!

So, this week coming up we will posttest on step 3 and begin step 4.  She will be well beyond substep 4.2 by the end of the school year, I'm sure!