blank tiles

I have begun using the blank tiles.  This is helping my student visualize the elements of each word.  How it works is I dictate a word, have the student repeat the word, have the student tap the sounds of the word and then have her build the word using blank tiles.  The tiles are color coded for vowels, consonants, digraphs, welded sounds, and the suffix S.  So, my student needs to know how the word is constructed before she can build it with the blank tiles.  She then needs to spell the word out loud which reinforces the elements of the word.  This has had an unexpected benefit - she has been very slow to find the letters of each word after she taps it.  With the blank tiles, once she knows the structure of the word, it's much quicker to just pick up the correct blank tiles and lay them in the correct order.  It was so successful the first time I did it that we have decided to just use blank tiles for part 7 of the lesson. 

Friday I got the biggest compliment ever from my student!  We went a bit over in the afternoon so I apologized to her for taking up some of her recess.  She said that coming to work with me was like having an extra recess!  Imagine that!

This week we will be doing some review lessons because I don't want to start a new substep just before Christmas.  After the Christmas break my student will be ready to work on substep 2.5 (the last substep in step 2).  She is making awesome progress.

observation #2

Wow!  I survived observation #2!  I was really nervous and made some stupid mistakes but my coach was really kind.  My student was AWESOME!!!  Some things she had been having trouble with she nailed during the lesson.  It was really fun to see her shine.  There were very few corrections from my coach.  I forgot, once again, to do the sight words and vocab section.  That has been a problem right from the start.  I'll just have to be more deliberate during that part and refer to the lesson plan more carefully.  I also forgot to have my student repeat the sounds in section 6 before she finds them.  I have that scripted for me so I'll go back to the script for that part.  I used the script for part 8 and was really glad I did.  Also, I forgot to use the blank tiles during part 7 which was no big deal - I just need to really remember to use them.  I learned some useful information.  I spoke with my coach afterwards and told her of my concern that I am moving too fast with my student.  She reassured me that the pace seems good.  She also said that I can do some review lessons from time to time.  Apparently, we are supposed to have completed at least 20 lessons with our student and I've completed 36 lessons!  So, I am ahead of the game as far as that goes.  Yay!  So, onward we go and we have a couple of months before our next observation.  Now I have to start using part 9.  Ugh!

substep 2.3

O.K. now we're teaching exceptions.  I hate exceptions!  Still my student seemed to grasp the concept fairly easily.  It will take a few days for her to be solid on the idea that some closed syllables have a long vowel sound but I believe she will be fluent with this shortly.  Today I noticed that she was using the skills she has been taught to help her correctly spell words in the dictated sentence.  It was really neat to see her thought process.  My second observation is looming so I am trying my best to not forget any parts of the lesson.  I, too, am becoming more fluent with this.  Still, I'll be glad when Wednesday is over!

video taping disaster

Today I video taped the lesson.  I warned the rest of my students that I was video taping and that it would be helpful if they could keep their voices down.  However, it soon became apparent that was a good way to ensure they would be loud and as disruptive as they could possibly manage.  I don't know how my student is able to concentrate with all that background noise!  Fortunately, the video tape is for a department meeting so it's not a total disaster. 

My student is making great progress in the program.  She is making a lot of really neat connections.  I just wish I could remember everything I am supposed to do within a lesson.  I keep forgetting things like having her cover and spell a word after she has built it.  I am getting better at reviewing the sight words before she reads the sentences and I am more consistently having her read sight words and go over the vocabulary words.  Still, we are being observed by our instructor next Wednesday and I am concerned that I am still not up to par with this.  It will be interesting to see what feedback I get from the instructor next Wednesday.