November 19, 2019

Dear student’s teacher,

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to work with the student during the
months of September through November. I am so appreciative of you giving up this time to
allow me to work with him and help him grow as a student, as well as myself as a teacher.
During this time, I had the ability to assess his reading and writing skills as a preliminary basis
for learning. After assessing his skills, I then had the opportunity to teach him seven new lessons
to build upon his areas for improvement. I am sending you this letter to share the information
about him in result to his strengths and areas for improvement for his reading and writing skills.
Please refer to the enclosed diagnostic chart for specific information on the skills and areas for
improvement this student.

First, I would like to discuss with you the strengths I have found from working with the
student. In his oral reading comprehension, he had a strength in enunciating well when reading
and used tone while reading as well. He tried sounding out words he did not know or would
replace them with random words quickly that sounded similar to what he was trying to sound
out. He used his metacognition when reading orally and chunked words. Another strength is the
vocabulary strategy of antonyms and synonyms. The student understands the concept of
antonyms and synonyms well and was able to identify them, as well as describe that antonyms
are the opposite and synonyms are the same. Another strength is using prefixes and suffixes in
word identification. he was able to identify prefixes and suffixes correctly when working, as well
as knowing that prefixes go at the beginning of the word and suffixes go at the end of the word.
As you will note on the diagnostic chart in the word identification section of structural analysis, I
discuss how he correctly matched up specific prefixes and suffixes by understanding that they
change the meanings of words. Lastly, in writing, the student had a strength in sentence
elaboration. We used bare bone sentences to practice this and he did extremely well with coming
up with words to add to each sentence to make it better. In the diagnostic chart under writing:
sentence elaboration, I discuss how he could read the sentences and add new words to make the
sentence better. He described making the sentences better as helping to paint a picture in your
head as they read it.

Next, I would like to discuss the areas for improvement I have found from working with
the student. In comprehension, he had an area for improvement in silent reading. In this area, he
had a hard time paying attention and staying on task. He could not recall information, identify
key details such as characters, setting, or the order the story took place. He also could not draw
conclusions based on what he read. If you look at the diagnostic chart, I explain in the
comprehension: silent reading section, that Jack had to be redirected and prompted while
working, as well as had a difficulty interpreting what he read. In vocabulary, an area for
improvement is using and identifying idioms. The student had a hard time with understanding
what idioms were and did not understand that they have literal meanings. He could not describe
or define them either. In word identification, an area for improvement would be root words and
identifying them. When working with root words, he had a hard time simply understanding that
root words are the words that go between prefixes or suffixes and are really the “root” of words
that are made. He did not complete all parts of the assessment given and crossed out answer
boxes, as explained in the diagnostic chart. With writing, an area or improvement would be
sentence fluency and structure. When asked to write a story, the student did not write more than
one sentence (a long run on sentence with no punctuation). He does not use complete thoughts
when writing sentences and does not write complete sentences. He did not want to change his
sentence or make adjustments to it when asked if anything needed fixed or changed.

I would now like to share with you a few activities that I, and the student, enjoyed using
in my lessons with him. One of my favorite activities that I did with the student was our “Splat!”
game we played with prefixes and suffixes. In this activity, we laid out our prefixes and root
words. When given a root word, he had to take the fly swatter and smack the prefix that fit with
it best. The same applied with the suffixes. He loved this and did very well because he was
interested in it. The student also learned his prefixes and suffixes through this activity, though he
didn’t think we were really learning, just that we were having fun playing a game. Another
activity that he and I enjoyed and really worked for him was our idioms activity. We played an
idiom where we were given strips of paper that had different idioms on them. We pulled them
from a cup and then had to draw the silly meaning of that idiom and the literal meaning of that
idiom. He got to practice with identifying idioms and understanding that they have other
meanings (literal meanings). He loved this because he loves to draw and color. He was very
positive and had fun completing this. The third activity that the student did well with and really
enjoyed was our context clues activity. In this activity, we read the book Baloney (Henry P.) and
were given an unknown word vocabulary sheet. While reading the silly story, we had to use
context clues to determine the meanings of unknown, nonsense words. He actually loved this and
even read parts of the story with me. He liked having to figure out the unknown words and using
the pictures to help him. He did great with this and asked to do something like that again. When
working with the student, a compromise we had for each time we worked together was that I
gave him free choice to do a few other activities after completing our work for the day as a
reward for working so hard. Often times, he chose to free draw for the last five minutes of our
meeting time.

Thank you again for allowing me to work with the student and for giving me that time
during your teaching. It was such a valuable experience for me working with the student and I
have learned so much about his learning, as well as myself as a teacher. I feel this has helped
prepare me for my future as a teacher and I have grown so much; I hope he has too over this
short period of time working with me. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at
cantlee2021@mountunion.edu

Sincerely,

Emily Cantley