Who was the main character?  Petey

            What was his main focus in the story?  He was looking for a boy

            When did the story take place?  Christmas

            How did Petey find his boy for Christmas?  He asked each dog if he would give up his

            Boy as he walked and he kept walking until he came to the home for boys.  He found his

            Boy sitting on some steps.

Then we talked about the begging, middle, and end of the story and I had her write one sentence for each part of the story.  She wrote,

            Beginning:  Petey asked if he can have a boy for Christmas.

            Middle:  Petey asked each dog if they want to give up there boy.

            End:  Petey saw a sign that said home for boys and there was a boy in front of the

            building.

            I was very amazed at how well she remembered the story.  She had made several errors as she read the book and she added and changed words throughout the story too.  I was very happy to see that even though she had problems when she read the book, she was still able to retell and remember what Petey wanted, how he searched for his boy, how he found his boy, and where.  She didn’t even hesitate when we did the five finger retell or when she wrote her three sentences about the beginning, middle, and end.  I was nervous about her retelling the story, I really thought she would struggle, but I wanted to know if she would be able to comprehend what she read.  I was glad to see that I was wrong.

Today we finished reading The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy.  It took us a while to finish reading, because she kept adding her own words into the book.  I noticed today that she is trying to read too fast, and she just changes the sentences using words that help her understand the story better.  I kept having her reread the sentences and slow down a little so that she could see what she was reading.  Once again, I don’t know if that was the best approach to take with her, but I just wanted her to read the words and understand the words she was reading.

            After we finished reading the book something else I had noticed about her reading is that she doesn’t read the word all the way through to the end.  She kept leaving off her ed, ing, y, and ly endings.  Therefore, we worked on spelling and reading words using letter strips I cut up.  I gave her words from a word list that was the level she read at for her reading record and the level that was below that as well.  I made sure to give her words that had different endings, which she had some trouble spelling some of them.  We worked with words for about 45 minutes to an hour, and she still needs a lot of practice.

I enjoyed this experience working one on one with a student and practicing doing running records.  I feel like I definitely need more practice and I have a lot to learn about running records, but I have a better idea of what they are all about and how to do them.  I am disappointed that I was not able to help my student more, because she needs a lot of help.  I have been so busy this semester with my other classes; that I was only able to meet with her the required five sessions.  When I saw how much help she would need to improve her reading I wanted to work with her more, but I couldn’t find the extra time to go to Animas.  Something that I learned from this experience is that teaching reading can be very difficult, and the older students get who have problems reading; the harder it is to correct their reading habits.  I also learned that it is important to work with students, who have problems reading, consistently to see any kind of improvement.

            I would recommend that this particular student be put into title one, which I know she has recently qualified to be put in special education or title one.  I would also recommend that she get some one on one time with someone who can help her remember to read the whole word, sound out words, and read the sentences as they are written in the book.  I would recommend that someone start from the beginning with the sounds of the alphabet, because she doesn’t know how to sound out letters or chunks of letters to try to figure out what the word is.  I would recommend this because if she doesn’t know what a word is she either skips it or puts her own words into the sentences.  I don’t think she has a lot of confidence as a reader.  I think she might want to try harder if she had someone who could boost her self confidence, but right now she struggles with reading so much that she doesn’t even want to try.  I hope she will get the help she needs next year.  I encouraged her to keep reading over the summer, and I hope she finds her a good book that she’ll enjoy reading.