Context

This is week three of the reading program, my third week with Sienna and second with Charlotte. My goal with Sienna today was to get her to stay excited about a text and with Charlotte, it was to continue to learn about her reading style and see what is interesting and exciting to her.

Sienna

Today, I met resistance with Sienna. We read a book entitled Bird first; just two- three letter sentences per page and the rest of the pages were filled with images of bird. and then she grabbed a paper and began writing enthusiastically. Then she moved onto a book about Insects. A narration:

She slowly read page one out loud, struggling with words like mosquitoes . Before we began, I had her look at the images, she knew all the insects.

After page one I asked her about what she had just read.

Then, she turned the page, as she began to read, she stopped, "I don't want to read this book." she ran across the room to get another book that she was familiar with.

I said, "listen, I know it's a challenge but you picked this book and I want you to stick with it"

She grabbed the paper and drew a math problem, 137+155 "can you solve this?" I responded "I can, can you?" she proceeded to solve it.

Finally after the problem was solved I said "let's get back to insects!"

Surprisingly, she could see my resolve and started to read again.

When she got stuck, I used the same tactic that I had with Charlotte the week prior, writing out words in their syllables and helping he sound them out.Things I did today that I thought helped:

• celebrate her victories with high fives and exclamations
• encourage her when she was on the right track, "you are so close! I love the connections you made"

Questions I have:Should I feel bad that I pushed her to stick with the text ?

Charlotte

We continues to read about Duke Ellington. Before we opened the book, we talked about the book:

After sitting down, I looked at her and asked, "do you remember what happened?" She hesitated, "umm it's about Duke." I said, "shall we go back?" She said slowly, "yeah." We flipped through and as we passed through the images, she was able to tell me the story again.

Then we continued, falling into our pattern of her reading and me stopping her to ask a question or point something out.Questions I have:If a student picks a book that is extremely challenging, like this one on Duke Ellington and reading, both from the pronunciation perspective and comprehension are challenges, what are some effective ways to work with the student so they really understand the beautiful imagery and word play the author has used? Is there a time when text is too complex for a student?