Tutoring

After work today, I had my first tutoring session as part of my Diagnostic Reading assignment. My tutee is W, the third-grade brother of one of my preschoolers. First, I had him fill out some reading interest surveys. The results pleased me; they seemed to indicate a kid who likes reading more or less but absolutely hates being asked about or demonstrating reading in class. It bolsters the idea that kids naturally want to learn and explore their world, but school crushes their inquisitive academic spirit.

I gave him a running record, the first I've administered to a real live student. Those things are hard to do --- you have to mark every single word the child reads, using a different symbol for each miscue (a check if correct, a dash if the word is omitted, an R if the child repeats the word, and so on). It's hard to keep up. I skipped making the checks and only put in the miscues and filled out the checks later. Shh! Don't tell the Teacher Police.

Then I helped him read his science assignment and answer his worksheet questions.

He's a good reader, but skips over punctuation as if it weren't there. I think students need a good solid review course in punctuation every year. A lot of adults don't seem to know how to read punctuation marks fluently either.

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The Dog has what is either a big blood blister or a tiny tumor or her muzzle adjacent to her upper lip. I hope it's not a growth. She also had an accident on her chair, which is bizarre, as she's been totally house-trained for over a year. How could the two be related?