Weekly Summary #7

Weekly Summary #7

February 26th-28th, 2019

Meghan Taylor

     In my first grade gen-ed class, I got to finish up lessons 5 & 6.  Overall, the lessons are getting easier to write and go through each time.  I feel as though they are becoming too repetitive, in the sense of repeating the Elkonin Boxes and CVC words, but the students are learning them.  On Thursday, I had the chance to re-assess them on their Fry words and compare their results to the beginning of the lessons.  Both students progressed with their knowledge of recognizing the words.  One student knew 17 more words as compared to his first try, and the other student knew 21 more words compared to her first try.  Most of the new words they knew came from the first half of the words, as we have focused on those more greatly at the end of the lessons.  But, as we move into the second half of the words, I am certain their knowledge of these words will increase even more.  I also believe that using these sight words within their guided reading helps them a lot more.  They become more familiar with the words, and they are not just presented in the normal flash-card format.
     Now that the students are progressing through the CVC short vowel words faster, I am changing the pace of my lessons.  I originally thought that I would do a week on each letter, working on short 'i' next week, and so on.   But, for this upcoming week I think I can get through both 'i' and 'o.'  This way, we will work through the CVC words faster, and there will not be as much lag time as I believe there is now.  I would also like to add in more activities with the CVC words as a whole towards the end of the lessons and more reading that is strictly focused around these words.
     My general education teacher also asked me if I would like to attend the first IEP meeting for one of my students and give feedback from what I have been doing and how she is as a student.  She does not yet have an IEP, so this is their first and initial meeting to discuss everything.  I gave my feedback, but only finding out about the meeting a day prior, I was not able to reschedule work to accommodate going.  I would have loved to gain the experience, but I am excited to hear how it went this upcoming week.
     In the CSS classrooms, everyday is just a hectic experience.  Something is always happening between more than one student at a time it feels like.  So many different behaviors overlap and the students all have had their rough days and times.  Although the class may be overwhelming at times, I sure am happy to be in there and working with the students.  I even had a breakthrough with one of them, completing five work sheets and some Achieve Articles in one day that he had missed (skipped doing) previously.  The teacher was definitely surprised, so Thursday ended up being a really good day for him, and for me.