Reflective Journal Entry 5

Amanda Lilly

Ms. Albanese

MAS 7998

December 10, 2012

Journal Entry #5

(Tutoring)

Observation	Reflection	Questions Raised/ Answers Attempted
During my observations I noticed that Josh was more engaged while he was picking the cut up word slips out of a bowl and pronouncing them. When he came to a word that he read incorrectly I corrected him and he would say that’s what I said. It appeared to me that he heard himself say the word close enough to what I said but not exactly correctly pronouncing the vowels in each word. He seemed to gain more confidence during this activity because he was able to go through and read most of the words with any corrections being made. After this I used reading fluency flashcards to assist him with short O sounds. He didn’t have too much difficulty with this activity, but he needs more practice on sight words and knowing what vowel sounds the letters together make.	I don’t know if Josh has a harder time pronouncing vowels than consonants because he lives in a bilingual household and the pronunciation of vowels differs than native English speakers. He did a very nice job being engaged and participating in these learning activities, but still struggles with reading fluency and word decoding. I have seen some minor improvements over the past couple tutoring sessions, but in order to see a greater evidence of improvement it would take a longer period of time to assess if he can apply what he’s learned.	Q: Why did he seem more engaged during the first activity?   A: I think he enjoys hands on activities and this allowed him to pick words from a bowl and read them out loud.   Q: What skills does he still need to improve?   A: I think that he still needs to improve on decoding skills and word recognition. It would be beneficial for him to look at words, count the syllables, and work on sounds associated with certain letters.