a complete lesson at last!

Finally, we got through an entire lesson today!  There is a significant difference between my student's ability to decode real words and nonsense words.  I saw issues with reversals and short vowel sounds today that I had not seen previously.  For my part, I need to increase my knowledge of how to run a lesson, especially the spelling parts of the lesson.  I need to watch Barbara Wilson teach part 8 again - not at all sure I did that correctly.  I think we need to stay on the same level until I am more fluent with delivering a lesson and to give my student time to strengthen short vowel sounds and some of the consonants. 

I separated the letter cards into separate piles for vowels, consonants, and digraphs which made making words go more quickly today.  I'm looking forward to getting into a more reliable routine next week.

fire drills, assemblies, and early dismissals

So, this is my first time blogging.  I am learning to use the Wilson Reading System (WRS).  Here I am sharing my reflections on lessons taught and the lessons I have learned from this.  Yesterday I started my second lesson with my practicum student.  We met for only a half hour in the morning because we had an assembly during our meeting time in the afternoon.  I used the letter cards more efficiently yesterday.  I pre-sorted them into vowels, consonants and digraphs so I had smaller stacks and could find the letters more easily.  I also used the technique of changing just one letter to change the word.  My student really liked seeing this.  Today we got a late start in the morning because of a bus fire drill.  We did a quick warm up of the short vowel sounds, the digraphs and a few of the consonants.  Then I had my student illustrate the digraph key words.  She did a wonderful thing - she had a theme - starting with sh - ship - /sh/.  The pictures told a story and were all done in red, white, and blue!  Such a creative mind.  I was excited about working with her this afternoon but she had to leave early.  Oh well!  Tomorrow is a new day.  I wrote an entire new lesson plan for tomorrow - hope we can get through the whole thing in the time allotted.