Tutoring report.
I started with the boy. He is interested in UFOs, and I printed out something from the Internet about astronauts who have seen them. It's extensive, so he only read the first part. He did pretty well, even though I didn't dumb-down the wording much.
Then he did fill-in-the-blanks from the last words he didn't know. He zipped through that. One word I had used in my sentences gave him trouble: chameleon. But once I started explaining it, he knew about the animal. I think he had heard of it but didn't recognize the written word. He was eager to do another contest word search, since he won the last 2. He was gloating about that, and I said, "Don't gloat," so that's one of his vocab words, too.
During his lesson, his little sister sat by, watching, with a small pad in her hand on which she was writing. Her brother complained she was taking notes about him saying he didn't want to do something. Remember, their dad asked me if they said that? I guess she figured she'd take notes and report him! It was sort of funny, but I told her it wasn't good to be a tattletale. They both learned what that word meant. I tried to differentiate between telling if something one of them did was actually dangerous and harmful and between just plain being a rat. That's a hard one.
They were in a particularly contentious mood today. Not with me but with each other. At one point I told them I don't envy their parents, who have to deal with this all the time. I said, "Maybe I'd just punish you both!" and the boy confirmed that's what happened when there was a fight between them.
Then, as a reward for being a hard worker, the boy wanted a word search contest. I obliged. This time, the girl won. I was glad to see that, since I don't want one of them winning all the time and the other getting discouraged.
Then it was the girl's turn. We read her 2 books from school. One was about weighing things, and the only word she didn't know was "scales." I explained what they were, and finally the girl said, "Oh! Like in the grocery store." So I just now printed out a few pages of all kinds of scales for her. She will look at the pictures and we'll discuss how the different ones work. In keeping with the subject, I said, "Here's a puzzle for you. What weighs more, a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers?" They both guessed rocks, and when I told them to think harder, then they said feathers. I tried to explain, but I don't think they quite got it.
Then they wanted to do another word search contest, and the boy won this one.
Then we did a Mad Libs, and it was time for me to go.
I started with the boy. He is interested in UFOs, and I printed out something from the Internet about astronauts who have seen them. It's extensive, so he only read the first part. He did pretty well, even though I didn't dumb-down the wording much.
Then he did fill-in-the-blanks from the last words he didn't know. He zipped through that. One word I had used in my sentences gave him trouble: chameleon. But once I started explaining it, he knew about the animal. I think he had heard of it but didn't recognize the written word. He was eager to do another contest word search, since he won the last 2. He was gloating about that, and I said, "Don't gloat," so that's one of his vocab words, too.
During his lesson, his little sister sat by, watching, with a small pad in her hand on which she was writing. Her brother complained she was taking notes about him saying he didn't want to do something. Remember, their dad asked me if they said that? I guess she figured she'd take notes and report him! It was sort of funny, but I told her it wasn't good to be a tattletale. They both learned what that word meant. I tried to differentiate between telling if something one of them did was actually dangerous and harmful and between just plain being a rat. That's a hard one.
They were in a particularly contentious mood today. Not with me but with each other. At one point I told them I don't envy their parents, who have to deal with this all the time. I said, "Maybe I'd just punish you both!" and the boy confirmed that's what happened when there was a fight between them.
Then, as a reward for being a hard worker, the boy wanted a word search contest. I obliged. This time, the girl won. I was glad to see that, since I don't want one of them winning all the time and the other getting discouraged.
Then it was the girl's turn. We read her 2 books from school. One was about weighing things, and the only word she didn't know was "scales." I explained what they were, and finally the girl said, "Oh! Like in the grocery store." So I just now printed out a few pages of all kinds of scales for her. She will look at the pictures and we'll discuss how the different ones work. In keeping with the subject, I said, "Here's a puzzle for you. What weighs more, a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers?" They both guessed rocks, and when I told them to think harder, then they said feathers. I tried to explain, but I don't think they quite got it.
Then they wanted to do another word search contest, and the boy won this one.
Then we did a Mad Libs, and it was time for me to go.
