I decided to work with a new student this semester. The reason I chose to work with Jake is because after a conversation we had last semester I learned he was born and spent several years in Lebanon. His family moved to the United States after tension and religious conflict. He doesn't remember much but he does remember spending time in a refugee camp and there being loud sounds. If I had never taken the time to 'chat' with Jake I would never have found this information out. It makes me start questioning how much do we really know about our students? If we don't take the time we could be missing out on crucial information about who they are and where they come from. Jake has worked with the reading interventionist in third grade but does not receive any services this year in fourth grade. I work with him in the morning during our intervention block, where we focus on reading, during writing/social studies and during guided reading in the afternoon. We get to spend quite a bit of time together! :) One of the biggest observations I have made is that Jake lacks motivation and puts forth minimal effort. He speaks Arabic fluently and that is the language mostly spoken at home. He even goes to school where he studies Arabic on the weekends. The areas I would like to target this semester are word study, fluency and motivation.

I plan on administering the Garfield Motivation Assessment. I will attach information regarding his Wonders Spelling Inventory taken this past week. My next steps are to complete a running record on familiar texts in both fiction and nonfiction.