TS # 16

This was my very last tutoring session with PJ! I was definitely sad for it to be so, for I truly loved meeting with PJ and being able to understand his needs and limits in reading and reading comprehension. Fortunately, this last meeting with PJ was absolutely by far our best tutoring session together. Ms. Kim gave me the reading material to go over, which was a short story about the Wright Brothers, the American brothers who essentially created what became the modern airplane. I showed PJ a short video of old footage of the Wright brothers trying to launch their first place. He definitely seemed interested, and even started discussing plane engines. For this session, we read the short story about the Wright brothers and again I stopped PJ every few lines to recall and recap together what was learned. After doing so, we started working on a crossword puzzle that relates to the names or words used in the story. PJ was so excited to complete the puzzle-- particularly so because he was recalling the answers by himself very quickly. He focused more on this task than on any other reading comprehension task that we had gone over together. This result truly affirmed my general understanding of PJ's strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension. PJ is such an intelligent child, but he only fully applies all of his intelligence when he is fully engaged in a topic or when he fully understands it. This is why I have been going over stories with him much more slowly and encouraging him to concentrate on each small portion of the story. Usually during our sessions, we go over various readings and worksheets, but for this successful last session, we only went over the one story. And it was phenomenal. PJ was focused and was recalling information very quickly. I definitely will miss PJ and tutoring him, and I hope the best for his reading future!