Cunningham Week 6

The last week of tutoring at Cunningham went really well! We started by going through the writing assessment. We gave her a piece of handwriting paper and then had her write down any words that she knew how to spell. She started off pretty well with a good amount of words written down that she knew. There were a couple that were spelled wrong, but she kept going! We had to give her some ideas for words to spell out, some she knew and some she would just say "no.." if she wasn't sure how to spell it, and then keep writing.

 The book we read was called ZooZical by Judy Sierra. Our student always likes to start reading a book by going on a picture walk first. She uses the pictures in the story to help her read, which is a great method to use! Every week we have a new book, she is able to use this as a way to get familiar with the story and then she's ready to read! This book was about animals at the zoo who are trying to find a way to get people to come back to the zoo. They decide to put on a "zoozical" for all the people to come back to the zoo, no matter how bad the weather. She really liked this book and we were able to read it through by alternating reading between the three of us. This method of reading together seems to work the best, because it keeps her engaged and we are able to demonstrate reading with voice inflection.

 The last thing we did for our tutoring session was finish the ABC book she started on the first week and had been working on the whole semester. We started at the letter R and made it all the way through to Z. When she got stuck on a letter and didn't know what animal to draw, she was able to go back into the book as a reference to find an animal. The ABC book was probably her favorite thing about each week we would come. She always looked forward to it and asked about finishing her ABC book.

Tutoring at Cunningham has been a great experience and I have loved every minute. Getting to know my student personally and academically was a journey, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything! I hope to make it back to Cunningham to volunteer or even for another field experience.