Lesson 1:

Text The Missing Cat Fiction

Essential Literacy Skill Procedures
Read To: Motivation - Introduce this book by having students
Vocabulary sniffed, vet, do a picture walk. Ask them to look at the pictures in
thaw, the book.
Questions to ask Who are the characters? What is
15 minutes the setting? What seems to be the problem of the
story?
Vocabulary Introduce key vocabulary words for the
text. Show a picture for each vocabulary word.
Provide other examples of these words.
Write vocabulary words on the board.

Read With: Fluency - Read the text two times. First time, student
Fluency follow along with teacher and read the last word
Comprehension before a punctuation mark. This is to ensure they are
Vocabulary following along. Second time, student reads aloud
independently.
Language Expression Vocabulary As student comes to a vocabulary word,
(When asking give a thumbs up. Then discuss the word(s) with
comprehension students.
questions, ensure student Comprehension Ask the following questions after
is responding in complete reading. Encourage student to look back at the text
sentences and restating for evidence.
the question in their Why were Meg and Grandma worried?
response. What was the problem in the story?
How do you think Meg and Gram felt after they found
20 30 minutes Hugs hiding because he stole Gramps meatballs?
Write With Writing Process Student will work on dictation
Writing process sentences.
Remind student that sentences start with a capital
15 20 minutes letter and end with a period. Remind to reference text
) if they need help with spelling.
Write the following sentences:
Hugs doesnt want to eat the turkey and the cheese.
Gram and Meg think Hugs is sick and he should go to
the vet. But Gram and Meg cannot find Hugs. Hugs
ate the meatballs and was hiding in the bathroom.
Review sentences and guide student to correct any
errors.
Word Study When reading new words, you can see patterns or
parts. Some words have two vowels together, which
5 10 minutes are vowel combinations. The vowel sound in the
middle is usually the name of the first vowel. Student
will use their word study notebook to draw two
columns. The first column heading will be ail and the
 second column heading will be ain. Have the student
re-read the heading. Explain they will write each word
given in the correct heading.
Words: train, sail, rain, pain, gain, mail, pail

Lesson 2:
Text Too Tall - Fiction
Essential Literacy Skill Procedures
Read To: Motivation - Introduce this book with a clips of
Vocabulary coach, different sports on YouTube
decided, try out, Questions to ask What sports have you played?
Were some sports easier to play than others? What
15 minutes made the other sports harder to play?
Vocabulary Introduce key vocabulary words for the
text. Show a picture for each vocabulary word.
Provide other examples of these words (i.e. types of
coaches, things to try out for, etc.)
Write vocabulary words on the board.

Read With: Fluency - Read the text two times. First time, student
Fluency follow along with teacher and read the last word
Comprehension before a punctuation mark. This is to ensure they are
Vocabulary following along. Second time, student reads aloud
independently.
Language Expression Vocabulary As student comes to a vocabulary word,
(When asking give a thumbs up. Then discuss the word(s) with
comprehension students.
questions, ensure student Comprehension Ask the following questions after
is responding in complete reading.
sentences and restating Explain why Lola could not find a team to play on?
the question in their Why was Lola sad?
response. Who keeps supporting Lola to try out for different
teams?
20 30 minutes How do you think Lola felt when she found the right
team?

Write With Writing Process Student will work on dictation

Writing process sentences.
Remind student that sentences start with a capital
15 20 minutes letter and end with a period. Remind to reference text
if they need help with spelling.
Write the following sentences:
Lola wanted to play on a team, but she was too tall.
She was too tall for volleyball, softball, swimming,
 track and bowling. Her friends and family said not to
give up. Lola joined the basketball team and it was
perfect. Review sentences and guide student to
correct any errors.
Word Study When reading new words, you can see patterns or
parts. Some words have two vowels together, which
are vowel combinations.
Yesterday, we worked on the vowel pattern ai. Today
we will do another long a vowel pattern, ay. Long a is
spelled ai when the sound is in the middle of the
word. Long a is spelled ay at the end of the word.
Student will use their word study notebook to draw
two columns. The first column heading will be ai and
the second column heading will be ay. Have the
student re-read the heading. Explain they will write
each word given in the correct heading.
Words: train, sail, say, tray, mail, pail, wail, way, stray
Reflections

For this round of lessons, Sarah and I met two days apart to complete

the lessons. During the lessons, she was more attentive and engaged. Our

sessions lasted approximately 45 minutes, with majority of the time spent on

the writing portion. Before we met for the second set of lessons, Sarah took a

STAR reading test to assess her reading level. She went up .2 and is now at a

1.6! This growth was done over the span of a month, which is great progress.

Again, I chose books about animals because I know it is a subject she is

interested in.

Course Reading Connections

Currently, Sarah is not able to organize her sentences. She generally

has the ideas, but the words are so disorganized. Therefore, a lot of writing is

practice is through dictation. Also, Sarah does well with sequencing the

events in the story. In the text, Writing Between Languages: How English
Language Learners Make the Transition to Fluency, it states students need to

use a composing process to organize information in their minds and to find

personal words to express their knowledge (Fu, 2009). The goal is for Sarah

to reach this point of being able to organize her writing in her mind, and then

expressing her thoughts on paper. After she is successful at writing dictated

text, and masters correct grammar and spelling from referencing the text,

we will move onto her saying her own sentences.

Reading is extremely difficult for Sarah. Most of the students have low

fluency rates, but high accuracy rates. After my first year of teaching I asked

my principal, Why are we making these fluency goals for students? They are

never going to be fast reader, and that is okay! My concern is if they are not

accurately reading. Sarah is a concern because her accuracy levels average

in the 70% range and ideally I want her to be in the 90s. In the article,

Growth in Oral Reading Fluency of Spanish ELL Students with Learning

Disabilities, by D. Rubin, it argues the best way to increase fluency is to use

repeated reading. The goal of repeated reading is to increase the speed of

word recognition and make decoding of the words automatic, thus enabling

students to concentrate on the meaning of the text (Rubin, 2016). This is

exactly why we read the text two times during the tutoring session. By

reading the text two times, she was able to really focus on the meaning for

the second reading. I always encourage students to read the text more than

once. The only issue with this is time. On any state or district assessment,

there is only so much time to provide students for the assessments. Also,
students will start to lose focus due to the length of the passage. Repeated

reading has always been a strategy I have used with my reading groups.

References

Fu, D. (2009). Writing Between Languages: How English Language Learners Make the

Transition to Fluency, Grades 4-12. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Rubin, D. I. (2016). Growth in Oral Reading Fluency of Spanish ELL Students With

Learning Disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic,52(1).