I started my final praciticum on January 7th. Each day, I take two grade three students to the library to work with them on their reading and writing. Although they are in grade three, their reading and writing is at a kindergarten or grade one level. One student mentioned something about money one day and this sparked a great idea for me. These students also struggle with basic math. So, the next day, I brought in monopoly money. The students each get a whiteboard and marker. They say what dollar word they would like (3 letter=$3.00, etc.), I give them a word and they must spell it correctly (or close to) and I will give them $3 for it. I find the students are eager to try bigger words since they are worth a higher dollar amount. Also, the students are regularly counting their money so that they can trade in their one dollar bills for five dollar bills etc. The students are now asking for sentences to write instead of one single word.
When I first started working with the students, one was still unsure of what some letters looked like. Both students struggled with differentiating between vowels. Thanks to my experience in a kindergarten classroom last semester, I had an idea of how to approach this situation. I created a sensory alphabet booklet for the students to flip through if they never needed assistance in figuring out what letter was making a certain sound. As the vowels are the most regularly needed, I have them all on one sheet of paper for quick referral. Previously, the students tended to always choose the letter 'a', now, they are using all of the vowels.
Ever since the beginning of my practicum, during journal time, one of these students would only draw pictures while the other students were writing. A few days back though, this student completely knocked my socks off. Without any prompting from me or the teacher, he began to write sentences. I love my (future) job.
When I first started working with the students, one was still unsure of what some letters looked like. Both students struggled with differentiating between vowels. Thanks to my experience in a kindergarten classroom last semester, I had an idea of how to approach this situation. I created a sensory alphabet booklet for the students to flip through if they never needed assistance in figuring out what letter was making a certain sound. As the vowels are the most regularly needed, I have them all on one sheet of paper for quick referral. Previously, the students tended to always choose the letter 'a', now, they are using all of the vowels.
Ever since the beginning of my practicum, during journal time, one of these students would only draw pictures while the other students were writing. A few days back though, this student completely knocked my socks off. Without any prompting from me or the teacher, he began to write sentences. I love my (future) job.