I only got to do one day of guided reading this week due to the holiday. I introduced these cards to him that I was really excited about. I found them in poster sizes on another teaching blog and then shrunk them down to be laminated and put on a ring as cards. They are different animals describing characteristics that "good readers" do. The main two that I am focusing on are "Rocky the Raccoon" and "Jabber the Reteller", who is a parrot. Rocky the Raccoon visualizes as he reads (he has black markings around his eyes making him look like he has on a mask) so that he can be like Jabber and retell the story to me when we're through. He really likes the cards. I'm going to give them to him to keep after our tutoring is finished. They've been really great reminders for him as he is reading; I can see myself implementing them in my own future classroom. We also have made it through all of the second grade Dolch Sight Words. He is no longer struggling with any of them. I will begin with the third grade Dolch Sight Words next week. We completed an anticipation guide for the guided reading book on Tuesday. I had four statements from the book that he reviewed and marked as true or false. Then, as he read the book, he would stop and say "Hey! That's true! I was right!" I was so happy that he was making the connection that he had just read that statement.
We had a little milestone in RTI as well this week. I had Campbell attempt to complete his story map on his own on Wednesday. He did it all on his own! I was so proud of him. I don't think that there is anything that I would change at this time. I was so fortunate to be placed with Campbell for tutoring. My lessons are intriguing to him; I never have to do anything drastic to draw him back in. And, on top of everything, I can see his improvements. He is more of a risk-taker when deciphering strange words, and he is more confident in his answers to questions.
As a future teacher, I find that one of my strengths is being able to form a connection with the student(s) that I work with. I enjoy being able to form some sort of a bond with Campbell and know what sorts of things appeal to him so that I can plan the most effective lessons for him. I think that I am calm when explaining things, as well as good at talking to him in a way that makes him feel comfortable to take risks when learning new skills. As far as my weaknesses go, I think that one would be my pacing and attention to time. I understand that is something that I will master over time, but it seems to be a difficulty in some of my guided lessons. I can never tell if he will need a lot or a little amount of time to read the book for the day, which is the cause of most of our time constraints. Luckily, the RTI days go a little faster, so I have extra time there to complete the cumulative project pages that we didn't get to on Monday and Tuesday.
