August 23 - The Day I Turned 22

August 23 marked the second day of class, it also was my birthday.

We had 10 students show up for class and we covered two lessons. We covered lesson 3 and 4. In these two lessons we went over many literacy topics including: the alphabet, the before position, reading left to right, sequencing plastic colored letters in alphabetical order and reading them each out loud, counting syllables and defining monosyllables and multisyllables.

We also learned new consonants including n, l, and d, and identifying the initial and final positions of sounds in words. We defined what closed syllables are and how to determine what a short vowel is. We also covered high frequency and learned words including: it, in, and did, and used our colored blocks to determine same and different sounds.

We covered the 3 units of sound which are, sounds, words, and syllables. We introduced short vowel a, and covered the high frequency and learned words the and a.

We always follow the order of:

1) look & listen
2) echo
3) name
4) write

From lessons 3 and 4 we can conclude that:
monosyllable is a word with one syllable.
multisyllable is a word with two or more syllables.

high frequency and learned words are the most commonly used words. high frequency words follow the regular rules. learned words are pronounced differently than their letters indicate.

a phrase is a group of words that do not express a complete thought (a verb or noun is missing)

Our students seem to be picking up and catching on quickly. It is so inspiring to have them participate, come to class, and be engaged. It is very gratifying and humbling to be able to serve such people in our community. I am very thankful for this opportunity and am learning a lot about myself and teaching.