Monday, May 5, 2014
This Monday we worked in the morning.
1.I returned to the first level of Reasoning and Writing, the one that is much more difficult for Robert than two next levels because it requires Robert not to read, but to listen. As I read the story about the squid who taught a shark a lesson, I wondered what Robert understood. Luckily there was an IPAD and a rather vague short video of an octopus squirting ink at a bird. It looked like a good lesson for the bird not to fish into that part of the ocean. I don’t know. I found it encouraging that as I read, Robert attempted to answer at least some of the comprehension questions from the book and seemed in a very good mood.
2. We continued with emphasizing pronunciation of “ail” words with the help of IPAD (Speak) It. I had to wonder, if my efforts to improve Robert’s clarity of speech don’t backfire. Well, I think that in a way they do. The more I insisted on clear ending sound (L) the more strange the sound became. Finally , I just used Speak It, for each word I typed: ” nail. . nail.” Robert heard the first word, had time to say it again, and then heard the same word the second time. I refrained myself from any additional help. I think that from that point on, I will mainly give Robert tools to organize syllables. I will remind him that this is the segment, triangular, or square word meaning two, three, or four syllables word. When Robert knows that he separates the syllables and matches them with hand movements which results in much MUCH cleared pronunciation. I will also continue (the tool shown to me by a consultant from May Center) with drawing longer and shorter lines for syllables with long and short vowels. No more giving confusing examples on MINE pronunciation.
3. Robert built three-dimensional structures from cubes based on the drawing from the third grade level Singapore Math. Most of them came easily to him, but he had difficulties transforming them into different shapes by removing some of the blocks.
4. We read the next story from Spectrum Reading. Robert seemed to like the story and with just a three prompts answered the 5 WH and 1 How questions.