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! 

post first week of pssa's

My student survived her first week of PSSA's.  We spent Monday working on reading comprehension strategies.  The strategy that Wilson recommends is drawing pictures - both in your mind and actual drawings.  We also talked about using scooping to try to decode unfamiliar words.  On Friday I checked back with her and she said she didn't feel she needed to use the strategies.  She felt confident she had done well on the week's tests.  This week coming up we will once again meet only twice - Monday and Friday.  Monday I will again work on comprehension strategies with her.  On Friday we will begin the last substep in step 3.  She is moving through the program at a good rate.  Now I am concerned about what will happen next year when she goes to a new school.

getting ready for the big test

we are getting ready for the PSSA tests this coming week.  i am hopeful that the comprehension instruction will make a difference for my student.  last week we spent a lot of time on reading and understanding passages.  tomorrow i plan to give my student a sample passage in preparation for the tests beginning on tuesday.  it will be interesting to see how she does with it.

comprehension

I spent Friday afternoon on the comprehension piece.  I was impressed that my student could remember the salient parts of the short passage she had read several days before.  Drawing pictures in her mind seems to be a good strategy.  I will mention that to her tomorrow with regard to taking the PSSA's.  Tomorrow we start sub step 3.4.  I plan to be on substep 3.5 when I am next observed.

sub step 3.3

Well our instructor advised us to not linger on this sub step so I won't.  It deals with teaching the ct blend at the end of a two syllable word and another rule for spelling the /k/ sound.  My student grasped the concept and ran with it.  She certainly learns quickly when given rules.  I am so impressed.  Monday we will spend some time on 3 and 4 syllable words.  I believe she will do well with them and feel good about reading words like "fantastic".

Part 10

I bravely began part 10 on Friday.  One thing is abundantly clear, I need drawing lessons!  Either that, or I need to be reading passages that require less difficult things to draw.  I thought overall it went well.  I read an entire paragraph, illustrated and re-read the paragraph and then had my student retell.  One paragraph was too big a chunk for her for an accurate retelling so I will try to cut that back to a couple of sentences until we both get the hang of this.  Her teacher is going to give me a book to read to her.  That will almost certainly be easier.  I used one of the archived articles from the Wilson website.  It was about life in Antarctica and was very dry and dull.  I guess the old adage - no pain, no gain - applies here.  It was a great opportunity to learn what not to do and I feel I have some good ideas for how to make that part of the lesson go more smoothly next time.

Friday's lesson was my first after the Wednesday observation and I felt that the guidance I got from my instructor was invaluable.  Parts 2 and 7 went much more smoothly now that I understand how to help my student decode multisyllabic words.  I also noticed that she had a much easier time reading the words in part 4 after she had pre-scooped them.  So, onward we go.  This is such a great way to learn how to use a new curriculum!

observation #3

Three down, two to go!  I don't know why I get so worked up just before an observation.  In spite of having to demonstrate proficiency on syllable division, I didn't do too badly.  I learned how to teach syllable division in part 2 with syllable cards instead of the tiles.  That makes sense.  I also learned how to scoop and read the words to help my student see the syllable division.  I really like how this program helps students see how sounds are put together to make individual words and then how words are put together to "draw" a picture.  We now have to demonstrate proficiency in all 10 parts of a lesson.  So, I have to work on part 10 which is a heavy duty comprehension piece.  I will be reading a passage to my student and helping her draw pictures in her mind (I have to literally draw pictures on paper for her - yikes!).  It will be a great piece of the whole program.  I like that I can use Wilson passages or passages from books that my student may be hearing in school.  So, I can use the list of recommended read alouds.  Hmm!  I'll have to collaborate with her teacher to find out what would be most helpful.  This training is a LOT of work but I can see how beneficial the program is for my student.  I'll keep chugging away at this.

schwa happens

Actually, I borrowed that phrase from my colleague next door but it describes my feeble attempts to teach the spelling of schwa this past week.  The directions say that it does not need to be taught at this point unless you are working with an advanced student.  I would say I am working with an advanced student because she asked about it.  I bravely took out the teacher manual and she and I struggled with it together.  It was a learning experience for both of us.  I believe it will continue to be a stumbling block for spelling but at least we gave it a good try.  I am hoping to be more fluent with teaching schwa by the end of this coming week.  We are just about ready to go on to nonsense words but have one or perhaps two more lessons with real words to get through before we move on.  I completed the online training for sub step 3.2 and am not feeling in any great hurry to go there!  That said, I do want to get there prior to my next observation on the 8th.  SO, onward we go!  It's hard to believe, but my student and I have already completed 52 lessons.  She is beginning to wonder about next year.  So am I!

One lesson

Due to my student being out, me being out and a two hour delay we managed to have only one lesson this past week.  Still, during that lesson I was able to identify a student centered problem.  My student is uncertain when to spell the /k/ sound with c, k, or ck.  I have designed the next lesson to at least partially address this issue.  I have a few rules to give her and am hoping these will clarify this issue since there is a new rule in step 3.1 regarding ic (as in panic).  At least we got one full lesson taught on substep 3.1 and I feel like we are both getting a grasp on how to teach this substep.  Next observation in schedule for February 7th so I better get some practice time in between now and then!

stepping up to step 3

My student passed the post test for step 2 with flying colors so we started step three this past week.  We are now starting two syllable words.  The emphasis of the program is on seeing the individual sounds in the words and then blending those sounds into decodable words.  I really like how visual it is.  This past week was beleaguered by foresight testing, a two hour delay, and a soccer presentation so I was not able to get a whole lesson in.  Instead, I used the time to introduce my student to the concept of two syllable words, how to divide the syllables (three rules) and a new procedure for breaking down and spelling multi-syllabic words.  I feel like I did a good job laying the groundwork for a successful lesson.  This coming week I will be able to teach a number of complete lessons so that should get us back on track.  I feel like we are in a good place right now.  My student seems to understand the underlying concepts.  My biggest challenge will be deciding what to do about the schwa sounds.  We have the option of teaching them now or waiting.  My student already asked me about them and I deferred the question, explaining that we will learn about that later.  She is so sharp, I am certain we will be better served to teach them sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, in talking with her regular education teacher, we have decided that I can provide a spelling grade for my student.  The words she is spelling for me are carefully selected to follow the rules she has already learned where as the words in her regular class are not so she is more successful with the Wilson words.

New Year, New substep

Well, I started the new year with a new substep.  The only problem with this approach was that I wrote the lesson plan before the break and didn't think to look it over before teaching it.  There we were, Tuesday after a long week and I was grasping for what I was supposed to do.  It's a good thing my student is tolerant of these gaffs!  I pulled out the teacher manual and refreshed my memory but the lesson was less than stellar.  Prior to the afternoon portion of the lesson I pulled out the lesson plan and the teacher manual and did a quick review.  The afternoon session went much better.  We ended up flying through that substep.  There wasn't a lot of material in it and there were no new sounds being introduced.  All we did was introduce the concept of a three consonant blend and six sounds in one closed syllable.  I have already finished the online course through the first substep of step 3 so I knew that we are going to move to two syllable words next.  I knew that I needed to hammer home the concept of one vowel followed by one or more consonant is a closed syllable.  So, I spent this week making sure she was solid with that.  We will be starting this coming week on step 3.  I will be careful to review the online course and the teacher's manual and plan the first lesson VERY carefully so I don't make the same mistake again!  Onward and upward!