Week 3 of Observation

Another hectic day of observation took place this past Wednesday, but at least I got to work with my target student with literacy skills this time!  The difficult part about Wednesdays is that their schedule changed to have Rosie's Broadway Dance tap class first, a short amount of downtime to "shop for books", followed by music, then lunch.  No reading or math at all until after lunch and most of the students are lethargic right after lunch.  This was definitely noticeable in Jhon's reading.
In the afternoon, Ms. C. asked me to read with Jhon on the rug a book that was above his level with lots of character dialogue.  The idea of the exercise was to have the students read character dialogue with emotion.  In this case, since the book was high above his level, I did most of the reading, but I asked him to read with me any words that he knew.  Occasionally, I would stop at a word that I knew that he would know and ask him to read it.  I did this a partially to keep his attention since he seemed tired and he seemed to drift a bit.  This is also why I decided not to expose him to the word lists from QRI-5 yet, especially after this difficult exercise.  I was afraid he would burn out.  During several pieces of dialogue, I would read the character's lines with emotion and have Jhon echo what I read.  There was a point where the phrase "drive me bananas" came up.  I asked him what that meant and he didn't know.  I told him, "loco en la cabasa" and I made a goofy face and did the universal sign for crazy twirling my finger next to my brow.  Jhon giggled about that and it helped him relax a bit more.  I just kept telling him that this is a really hard book and we can just read and learn together.
Ms. C. gladly gave me access to all of his past writing to make copies.  I chose two pieces from the beginning of the year and I will choose a piece or two that I have been helping him with later.  Already, I see a big difference in his writing.  He is exercising on his own the strategy of writing words that he is unsure about onto a post-it note before writing in on his journal paper for his writing assignments.  Of course, occasionally, I will come and help him "stretch out" the word for him to spell and remind him of certain blends like "sh", but he is making improvements.  Jhon really tries hard and it shows.
There is a correction that I want to make to his background information.  Jhon lives with his grandmother here in the city while his parents are living in Ecuador (because his father is a professional soccer player there).  It is possible that during the summer, Jhon will be whisked back to Ecador where he will speak nothing but Spanish again.  Right now, his grandmother is taking Ms. C.'s advice in setting up playdates with students who are English proficient and speak Spanish.  Hopefully, his grandmother will grant permission for him to do "Working Lunch" where students eat lunch in a classroom with a reading specialist and are both read to and asked to read.  Ms. C. feels a bit hesitant to send Jhon home (both home here and Ecuador in the summer) with the advice (or materials) to watch programming such as Dora the Explorer and other PBS shows or books to read for fear that his parents might feel judged.  It is a difficult situation, but it would be a shame if Jhon leaves for two months only to forget all that he has learned again, yet parents have the right to be with their son no matter their location.