Dear Mrs. Vonderahe,
As you know, I have been working with Gavin the past few months on reading and writing. He has really been a wonderful student to work with. He has a lot of different interests which allows him to find meaning in many different kinds of text. We spent a lot of time writing. Sometimes, we would get an idea for a piece of writing from text we had read; other times we would get an idea for a piece of writing because of something personal in his life. For instance, we made several birthday cards for his family members while we were working.
He has a strong understanding of phonemic awareness and is able to use these skills in his writing. He needs to continue writing so that he can build his phonemic awareness skills. He needs to have writing modeled to him so he can see the correct way to spell some common words. He has a solid understanding of the other concepts of print (spacing, capital letters, etc.), but would benefit from models of different types of writing such as using pictures with captions and using subtitles. He also needs to continue writing for a purpose. He could write a letter to someone, or make a list of things he is going to do.
Gavin chose books from different genres when we went to the library. He chose some nonfiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy. He is able to sound out words and use picture clues and context clues. The next thing I think he needs to work on is rereading the same text and increasing fluency. He pays a lot of attention to what he is reading and has a good memory, so I think he would be successful at this fairly quickly. He could also try different ways of retelling a story (through art, acting it out). This would require him to pick out the most important parts of the story and start focusing on the main idea and supporting details. He is always willing to discover new things in reading and writing, so I think it would be easy to get him interested in these new ways of learning. I’m sure you will enjoy working with him as much as I have!
Sincerely,
Amy Killion
As you know, I have been working with Gavin the past few months on reading and writing. He has really been a wonderful student to work with. He has a lot of different interests which allows him to find meaning in many different kinds of text. We spent a lot of time writing. Sometimes, we would get an idea for a piece of writing from text we had read; other times we would get an idea for a piece of writing because of something personal in his life. For instance, we made several birthday cards for his family members while we were working.
He has a strong understanding of phonemic awareness and is able to use these skills in his writing. He needs to continue writing so that he can build his phonemic awareness skills. He needs to have writing modeled to him so he can see the correct way to spell some common words. He has a solid understanding of the other concepts of print (spacing, capital letters, etc.), but would benefit from models of different types of writing such as using pictures with captions and using subtitles. He also needs to continue writing for a purpose. He could write a letter to someone, or make a list of things he is going to do.
Gavin chose books from different genres when we went to the library. He chose some nonfiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy. He is able to sound out words and use picture clues and context clues. The next thing I think he needs to work on is rereading the same text and increasing fluency. He pays a lot of attention to what he is reading and has a good memory, so I think he would be successful at this fairly quickly. He could also try different ways of retelling a story (through art, acting it out). This would require him to pick out the most important parts of the story and start focusing on the main idea and supporting details. He is always willing to discover new things in reading and writing, so I think it would be easy to get him interested in these new ways of learning. I’m sure you will enjoy working with him as much as I have!
Sincerely,
Amy Killion