improvement

Yesterday's lesson went MUCH better with an increased understanding of how to teach part 7.  My student was right on with her responses.  I really felt like the whole lesson flowed nicely.  I am a little concerned that it is taking me so long to get through parts 1-8 of each lesson.  I hope I can become more fluent soon.  Today I remembered vocabulary and sight words!  First time remembering to do them.  Sadly, my student went home sick and was not able to finish the lesson.  She's ready to go on to nonsense words in our next lesson.

substep 1.6

I totally bombed the introductory lesson.  Parts 1-5 were fine.  Part 6 was a bit awkward but really no problem but I fell apart when I got to part 7.  It was awkward and I had a hard time remembering what to do and how to do it.  My student was really off task yesterday afternoon.  It took way too much time to complete that part of the program so we had to cut part 8 short.  I completely forgot to do the sight words.  This morning I went back and watched the training video for part 7 and took careful notes.  Now I think I can be more successful with part 7.  It's a good thing my student is patient with me!

life after the first observation

My first observation was no where near as horrible as I had imagined.  Actually, it was a valuable learning experience.  It was good to know what I am doing wrong and to get concrete ideas about how to make the lesson better.  Yesterday I practiced the skills my instructor taught me and discovered how much richer in content the lesson became.  Once again, however, I feel like a fumbling new teacher.  My student is being patient, kind and understanding as I struggle to learn how to deliver a lesson with complete fidelity.  She and I decided to keep her on the same sub step even though she is probably ready to move on.  I just need a couple more days to learn how to deliver a lesson and she, in the meantime, is benefiting from a couple more days to increase fluency.  Since substep 1.6 (the next substep) works with base words and the suffix s, I believe the fluency will stand her in good stead.  I wasn't too far off on the reading block (parts 1-5).  Where I fell apart was primarily in part 8.  Now I have a solid script for that part.  The other part that I really need to work on is teaching sight words.  Still, every technique I teach my student, she uses both in our lessons and in the general education classroom.  I really do believe that this reading system will be greatly beneficial to some of our struggling readers.  In spite of all the additional work, I am excited to be part of this learning opportunity.

first observation - coming soon!

My first observation is happening this Thursday.  I am sure I am doing several things wrong.  I recently completed substep 1.6 training and was glad to see a clear indication of when a student is ready for this substep.  No more guess work!  My student should be ready for that substep by the end of this week.  I am having some difficulty with some of the procedures.  They feel a bit cumbersome and unnecessary so it will be good to talk with Donna to find out if I do, indeed need to continue using them.  For example, when identifying a short vowel sound, how necessary is it to use the keyword at this point?  I can see the reason for it if the student is weak on short vowel sounds but my student seems solid on that now.  I was glad to see that in substep 1.6 Barbara said we don't need to use tapping unless the student is having difficulty with a word.  Thursday will be a very informative day.

Success!

What an awesome lesson today!  My student told me that she is using the strategies I've taught her in her regular classes!  Wow!  She took her notebook, which is a reference, up to the regular classroom to use during the day.  We learned about the bonus letter spelling rule today and she really seemed to understand the concept and was able to apply it right away.  She asks such wonderful questions.  I feel so honored to be working with such a delightful student.  Great day!

Ready for a new substep?

My student read all 15 nonsense words without tapping today so I am making the judgement that she is ready for the next substep.  Knowing when to progress is feeling a bit nebulous but I believe she is ready for a challenge.  Today's lesson went well until I had to correct her for rearranging the magnetic letters.  That felt really silly and fussy to me but it is the Wilson way.  I explained that tomorrow the reason for the set up will become apparent.  I felt like I lost her a little bit after that but I HOPE we ended on a good note.  Certainly she wished me a good day when she left and seemed happy to see me at recess and at dismissal time.  I messed up the sight word instruction today.  I need to practice that part a bit more to become fluent with it.  I liked the way part 8 went today.  After doing the dictation part we revisited the sentences - doing proofreading and then marking up the digraphs.  I felt like that was more lesson like.  Still lots to learn.  We also attacked when to use ck today - that went well!  So, on to substep 1.4 tomorrow and teaching about bonus letters!