Rapping Delight!

Every once in a while Dereese like to show off all that we've learned in previous tutoring sessions. Dereese always teaches me how to woo the ladies in exchange for some reading and writing lessons. In this rap we worked on more tricky letter combinations while Dereese taught me a thing or two about impressing all the cute honnies out there!

My name is Patrick please love my flow,
That everyone is
about to know,
I shake it up top,
And even down low,
Never tell me to stop,
Never tell me to drop,
Just listen to my man,
Rap like we know he can,
Dereese in on my team,
He looks kind of mean!
So please take some time,
And Listen to him rhyme...

I get all the ladies
Racing in my mercedes,
I know they call me baby
But please don't touch me lady!
I like riding in BIG rims
But I don't have time for my Tims,
NOW AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Anything you can do I can do better!

Like most kids, Dereese gets really tired of reading the short stories in the End of Year Test Prep workbook. So every once in a while I bring in a story for Dereese to read. We then read through story, brainstorm possible endings, and then I have Dereese finish the short story. To help Dereese sound out the bigger words we oftentimes work on recognizing tricky letter combinations. This is an excerpt from a story we wrote while working on the "ea" letter grouping. (Dereese wrote the last paragraph.)

Title: The Best Test of Basketball Skills
Authors: Dereese and Patrick

Patrick was leaning against the basketball hoop eating a big piece of meat. Patrick knew he was going to win! After all, he was a lot meaner than Dereese. Dereese ran up to Patrick dribbling the ball...criss cross, in between the legs, behind the back...and then bounced it off Patrick's head.

"I hope you're ready," Dereese yelled!
"Oh, you're dead!" Patrick yelled back!

Patrick could never know what was going to happen next. Dereese was criss crossing Patrick then he took a shot and made it. Patrick could not believe his eyes! "Mama no!" Patrick exclaimed. The girls went crazy because Ree Ree made it! The shot was so perfect that the net lit on fire and Patrick had to call the fire department.

To help Dereese recognize certain letter patterns in words, we oftentimes focus on reading and writing rhyming poetry. Dereese and I performed this poem at the end of the year celebration.

My Best Girl
By: Dereese

The cutest girl in my world:
She drives me crazy,
Just call me baby TODAY,
You rock my world now,
You make my world so fabulous,

REMIX!

The girl is mine,
And she's so fine,
She's always on my mind!
Oh man, what is the time?
I think I have to go,
But keep this on the low,
I don't want them to know!

Ladies man!

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a tutor is encouraging the kids to open up to you. Many of them have overcome great adversity to get to where they are today. To try to help Dereese open up to me (while also working on his writing), I devised a daily worksheet to help share his feelings.

Today is a _____ day. I am feeling ____and _____ because today I___________________. One thing that I did really well today was ____________________________. One thing that I hope to do better at tomorrow is ___________________________________________.

He responded...

Today is a good day, I am feeling great and happy because today I got a date with a fine girl. One thing that I did really well today was to get 7 digits from a seventh grader. One thing that I hope to do better at tomorrow is to see more seventh graders' seven digits!