Thursday, February 20, 2025

 Thursday, February 20, 2025

     Today was a down day until I went to Ulu Wini to tutor. As much as Tuesday was somewhat depressing, today was uplifting. 

   I had two friends call with upsetting news. One called to warn me about a scam she had fallen for. It was that "Oh, so sorry. I didn't mean to add $25,000 to your account when I only meant to add $250."  Again, the scam was only squashed because someone else intervened.  On two previous occasions, a bank clerk stopped her.  Today, two young men were at a shop with a Bitcoin machine.  Worst yet, she couldn't even remember all she had done. She wound up at the police station.  She said next time, if she gets a notification about money, she should not respond. She should call the company directly.

   I worked with two first-grade children. I had worked with TR before, but I found it very frustrating. I resorted to working with kindergarten-level material for just word recognition. This was the third time I used the same story. Wow! What a difference! She had enough recall and decoding skills to read most of the story on her own. I sent a copy home with her to read to her mom.

   The other first-grader was AM. She was academically sophisticated and did well in school. When I asked her what she wanted to work on she said math.  It became clear quickly that she was more interested in the slime. She showed me she was learning that 9+4+ is the same as 4 +9=. I showed her how to count on, which means starting to count from the larger of the two addends instead of the number one.  I also showed her subtraction, making 9 marks and crossing out 4.  She caught on very quickly.  

   I had two-second graders, JM  and TC. JM reads fluently, way above her grade level. Her problem is comprehension. I used a first-grade story from IXL.  She has problems at the most basic level of language.  "Martin gave his stuffed monkey a squeeze. He was starting first grade tomorrow. He was scared because he wouldn't know anyone. 'I'm so glad you're coming with me,'" he said. "   Question: who said," I'm glad you're coming with me?  Who was he speaking to? What does squeeze mean?  JM usually says nothing. She has good reason to be afraid.  The classroom teacher isn't trained to deal with reluctant participants like JM.  Today, I got her to give her best answer.  This was a significant breakthrough.  She may start participating more in school when she's had enough success working with me.  Now, she just looks stupid.  That's something most of my students fear.

   I went through the Fry sight word list with TC.  She moved quickly through 1-300. I wondered if she was always such a good reader. I couldn't find my notes on the kids to know where I had to start.  When I checked my notes for the last time I worked with her, I saw she struggled with the 150-200 list. This is huge. She is doing much better.

   Then, I had third-grade PL.  She's the one who got the slime stuck on her hands on Tuesday, a child I get frustrated with. I started her on the same material I used with TH, a beginning reader.  She couldn't decode the word Sassy.  She had no idea how to decode.  She managed to remember all five of the vowels, but not in order. Learning them in order is important so they're easy to retrieve.  The vowels are the cornerstone of all syllables. The reader's first job is to locate them and identify which make sounds and which are silent.