Greg - TP - Child # 4

P.J. was a great tutee tonight!  Instead of starting into his vocabulary homework immediately, we took time to chat a little and touch on some topics that gave us a few smiles and an isolated giggle or two.  It was enough to put us on the same page.  It also helped me to see at what level he was willing to be verbal and involved in the lesson once we got started.  His engine wasn't racing, but it had a strong idle that I believed could move forward once the light turned green to start the lesson.

His hot chocolate with marshmallows arrived, with a side order of banana.  This was a plus.  Even though he was fishing for marshmallows part of the time, he was tuned in to our vocabulary lesson.  His school gave him 8 words and a paragraph that included most of them.  These included "apartment, delivery, medicinal, handcart, musty, market, celebration," and one I can't think of at the moment.  We practiced their pronunciations, and we discussed each one.  He provided examples of many of them, such as his grandmother's apartment in Korea. We actually had good discussions around these words in which he was not simply responding, but leading.  That was fun and encouraging!  After going through the words, we took the paragraph and put it in front of us.  Then I asked him to follow my finger, stop me when it was passing one of his new words, and then say the word out loud.  I went "ding, ding, ding, ding" when he stopped me correctly.  He smiled at this.  Finally I had him read the paragraph to me.

We transitioned to story time, using a book on his reading level about Egypt.  Before we began, I opened to the table of contents and explained to him what it was.  I helped him to see that the contents gives him a hint of what the book is going to be about.  I said that if someone told me to go to the market and meet P.J. before I had ever met him, I wouldn't know if P.J. is a girl or a boy; an American, Chinese, or Korean; is tall or short; has blonde or black hair, etc.  "But," I asked, "if they gave me hints by telling me he is a 2nd grader, a Korean, a boy with a shirt that says "Colorado," and wears glasses, would I be able to find P.J. quickly?"  He said, "Yes."  Then I explained that the table of contents gives us those kinds of hints so that we can know that this book we are about to read is not about a girl with a dog, a cat with a hat, etc. It is about different places and things you find in Egypt.  I hope this helps him to get curious about a book before he starts reading page one.

P.J. asked if we could take turns reading, with him going first.  I agreed.  He stayed focused the whole time and was able to answer most of my comprehension questions.  We also found (and recognized) some of his vocabulary words in this story, too.  Ah, reinforcement is nice.