Mary+Rodger

**Tutoring Session 5 ** **Tuesday, February 22, 2011 ** **4:30-5:30 PM ** **Location: My Dining Room ** **To practice comprehension strategies using ‘think aloud’ with // Frindle // ** **To continue word analysis with inflectional ending // –ed // ** **To work on reading fluency with poem __The First Book__ by Rita Dove ** **To help with homework as needed ** **Observations: ** **We changed up our usual session routine this week. Last week we extended our session because we waited until the end to do homework. This week I didn’t want to let S out late because she had a school function to attend. We began the session with homework. S had a math page to complete-more fraction work. She had a little trouble with the finding the least common denominator, but was able to finish the worksheet with little difficulty. **   **Next, S had a vocabulary assignment to complete. She had to use her 3 vocabulary words in sentences. The sentences she made up were connected to one another so she was able to create a short paragraph. She completed the assignment with very little prompting from me. **   **Her last assignment was to study for a Social Studies test. We went over the material together and I helped her to break down the information into manageable chunks that will hopefully help her to remember it all. **   **Finally, we were able to begin reading together. We continued our partner reading of // Frindle. // I asked S to read the title of the chapter (something she does not do unless prompted) and to make a prediction about what the chapter might be about-based on the title and what we have already read. The title was “Ripples” and she wasn’t sure what that meant. I explained that it’s what happens when you throw something in a puddle or lake-you create a series of circles around the object in the water. I also told her what a ‘ripple effect’ is. She then predicted that maybe Nick’s “frindle” might have an effect on a lot of people. I read the first page, she read the second and so on. While I was reading, I stopped at predetermined places to tell S what I was thinking. I modeled how I visualized and clarified. When S read, I stopped her and ask her to tell me what she was visualizing, or if it reminded her of anything in her life. She was able to tell me what she saw. I then asked S if she could make a connection with Nick. In the book, Nick and his friends thought the school lunches were awful. S told me that she liked their school lunches. Buying lunch is a treat for her. I explained that even though she didn’t have the same experience as Nick, she was able to make a connection to the story. I told her that this is an important part of making meaning out of what she reads. **   **The next thing we did was a fluency activity. I had given S a book of poetry with a recording of some of the poems to take home the week before. She read the poem (and I recorded her) after hearing me read and listening to the recording twice last week. I had asked her to listen to it again and to practice it a few times during the week and I would record her reading again during this week’s session. She admitted that she hadn’t looked at the book since last week. I decided to let her practice it a few times during the session to see if that helped. She listened to the recording twice, practiced reading it aloud twice, and then read so I could record. It didn’t sound much different than the week before. She still hesitated at parts and didn’t read with the same voice inflections as the poet had on the CD. When we finished, I asked her to take it home and try it again. I would record her again at our next session. **   **There was no time for word study this week. We will start with that next week. **   **Critical reflection: ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">I don’t really like beginning our sessions with S’s homework, but I know that she relies on my help with the things she struggles with. I didn’t want her to be late for her ‘Family Science’ night at school, so we had to start with that this week. The interesting thing is that S really doesn’t struggle with her written homework-other than spelling if she is working quickly. Her biggest challenge is studying for tests and quizzes. S told me that she never learned how to study in school. She felt as though her classmates in elementary school knew how to study. It was not something that they were taught in school. I told her that we could work on her study skills in our sessions, but I was intrigued by her perception of her elementary school peers. The school that she attended is thought to have the higher income population in town. A lack of parental involvement has never been an issue. I imagine that most students in that school have parents that work with their children on studying, so it is not necessary to address it in the classroom. Having taught in another elementary school in town, I know that study skills often have to be taught in school. This would be an interesting topic to research someday… ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">By breaking the Social Studies test material into manageable chunks, S was able to study in a more efficient way. S told me that her parents help her study, but with Social Studies, they have a hard time knowing what to help her with. Hopefully what we do together will help them as well. **   **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Thomas and Wexler recommend teaching previewing strategies, such as advance reading of titles or graphics, to struggling readers to build comprehension. (Fall 2007, p. 25) By reminding S to read the title, I am helping to build her reading comprehension. Our partner reading of // Frindle // is much more productive since I introduced S to the think-aloud. When we make reading behaviors visible to struggling readers, we enable them to become independent learners. (Caldwell and Leslie, p. 209) Kylene Beers agrees by suggesting that making the invisible process of comprehension visible to struggling readers will help them build meaning from the text. When the reader is able to make a connection to what they are reading, they are better able to comprehend. (p. 104) I am anxious for us to begin reading a new book. I think that applying the strategy to reading new material will be a better gauge of the impact of the think-alouds. **   **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">S also seems to be struggling less with her decoding while reading // Frindle //. I’m not sure if I can attribute that to the word study work we do, or because she is familiar with the vocabulary. I’d like to think that it is a combination of the two. Reading a new book will give me a better indication. **   **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">I really can’t assess S’s fluency based on today’s poetry reading since she didn’t practice it at all. Hopefully she’ll have time to do it this week so that I can compare the readings. **   **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">I am disappointed that we didn’t get to the word sort this week. I know how much S needs to have tools for decoding and spelling. I am certain that the word analysis that she is engaged in with the word sorts has been helping her. I want to give her as many of those tools as I can in our short time together. **   **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Next Steps: ** ** · ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Partner read with think-aloud ** ** · ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Word sort with inflectional endings ** ** · ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Fluency practice with poetry ** <span style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> ** · ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Homework assistance ** **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The one thing that I am struggling with at this point in our sessions is helping S with study skills. Are there any strategies that you have used or have heard of that could help S to learn how to organize her information into manageable pieces? ** XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Teaching Scenario
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Post for April 6, 2011 **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Session Goals: **

I have the good fortune of being able to tutor the same student from last semester. S is a fifth grade student in our suburban middle class town. She has been given a variety of reading interventions since second grade. She has made progress, but is still not reading on grade level.

As a result of the assessments I have administered, S is a level or two below grade level. She wants desperately to be able to read aloud without struggling with unknown words. She also wants to be able better understand what she is reading. The goal for our tutoring sessions is to build her confidence and teach her strategies that will help her with word decoding as well as reading comprehension.

Having worked together last semester we now have more time to focus on the reading difficulties that S has been dealing with. We continue to work on developing her oral reading fluency. She also has a very difficult time spelling, which impedes her ability to decode unknown words. Last semester, S and I talked about her spelling difficulties. I was able to give her a few quick strategies to help her. One thing I suggested was to look for the word on the worksheets she is completing. Many of the words she is misspelling can be found in the context of what she is working on. This strategy worked for a little while, but recently I noticed that she is misspelling words that are on her worksheets or in her texts.

I am working more consistently on word sorts this semester. I make it a part of every tutoring session. S tested in the Late Syllables and Affixes stage on the Elementary Spelling Inventory. This is higher than I would have predicted, given the difficulties she is having with her spelling. I am working with her in the Early Syllables stage and she has been successful so far. I believe that word study will help to improve S’s spelling ability and in turn, positively impact her oral reading ability. Having said that, I wonder how much of her spelling issues are a result of years of bad habits and a lack of understanding word construction.

I am wondering if the word study that we are doing will be enough to overcome her difficulties. I do give her follow-up work to do between our meetings. Sometimes she does the assignments and sometimes she doesn’t. I know it would be more effective it she did the assignments, but I’m not sure how to enforce the completion of assignments.

So here are my questions: Is word study enough to make a lasting improvement on S’s spelling abilities? How do I get S to complete the “homework” that I give her?

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Tutoring Log #1

** Student Background: ** S is my 10 year old neighbor. She lives with her mom, dad and 3 year old brother. S is in 5th grade in public school. I knew she had struggled with her reading during her years in elementary school. She had attended basic skills reading instruction when she was in 2nd and 3rd grade. During her year in 4th grade, she attended Sylvan Learning Center for help with reading and math. She also had a private tutor for reading. For financial reasons, S had to stop the tutoring last year. Due to her low NJASK 4 scores in language arts, she has been enrolled in basic skills instruction this year. I tutored her last semester, but the majority of our time was spent in assessment. ** Goals/Objectives: **  In this session I will:  <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Get reacquainted with S  <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Establish new routines for our tutoring sessions Begin using think-aloud strategies when doing our partner reading <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Complete a word sort with adding //–ing// to words <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Look over S’s homework and give assistance where needed ** Summary/Observations: **  It had been over a month since I last met with S in a tutoring session. Since most of our sessions last semester included some kind of assessment, I wanted to restructure the sessions to include more tutoring and less assessing. We began with our partner reading of //Frindle// by Andrew Clements. I asked S to tell me what she remembered from what we read so far. She couldn’t recall much, so I prompted her with things like, “Think about the main character, Nick. What can you tell me about him?” She was then able to tell me that he was a trouble maker who made up a new word for ‘pen’ and got all of his friends to say the word. She was also able to tell me that Nick’s teacher, Mrs. Granger, didn’t like it when Nick and his friends used the word ‘frindle’ instead of ‘pen’. We began our partner reading of //Frindle//. We usually alternate reading pages, but I wanted to introduce S to some think aloud strategies, so I read the chapter to her. We talked about the things that readers do while they are reading. I asked S if she could think of anything that she does while she is reading, besides reading the words on the page. She thought about it for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything. I shared with her some of the things that I do when I read, such as predicting (in my head) what will happen next, going back and rereading something that confuses me, or asking myself, “Why did the author do that?” I explained to her that many readers do these kinds of things without even thinking about it. It helps them to understand better what they have read. As I read the chapter to her, I would stop periodically to tell her what I was thinking, what questions I asked myself and some words that I wondered about. At the end of the chapter, I asked her if what I had read made her think of anything other than the story or if any questions came to her mind. She couldn’t think of anything. We partner read the next chapter and I continued to pause and tell her what I was thinking-both while I read and while she read. When we finished reading, we talked about what I was doing by letting her know what I was thinking about during the reading today. I asked S if she did any of the things I was doing while she read. She said that many times she rereads parts of what she is reading if it confuses her. I told her that these strategies will be the focus for much of what we do this semester. It will help her to become a better reader. For our next activity, I introduced a word sort with //–ing// endings. I gave S the headings //double, drop –e and nothing// and asked her to put the words under the proper headings. She was able to do that. We talked about why we were using these titles for the words we had. She was able to tell me that the last letter in some words had to be doubled before adding //–ing//, some words had an //–e// on the end of the word that had to be dropped before adding //–ing//, and some words just got the //–ing// added to the word without doing anything. I then asked her identify and underline the base word in each word. She had some difficulty with the words that doubled the consonant. She wanted to include both consonants in the base word. We talked about why that wouldn’t be the case. She had no problem with the other 2 types of words. I had her put the 3 lists of words in her notebook under the correct headings. Then I gave her a base word. I asked her to write it in her notebook and then decide which category it would belong under when adding //–ing//. She was able to correctly add //–ing// to //bag, step, make, line, walk and spill// and put the words under the proper heading. I asked her to keep the notebook with her throughout the week and add words like the ones in her lists. I asked her to look for them in the things she reads at school and at home. Our final activity was to look over S’s homework. She had a math worksheet with equivalent fractions. She told me she was having trouble with it. Once I showed her how to convert the fractions, she was able to complete the worksheet independently. ** Critical Reflection: ** It was good to get back into our tutoring routine again. S seemed eager to get started, which certainly makes for an enjoyable session. She was not familiar with any of the strategies that good readers use that we talked about during our partner reading. The only behavior that I have witnessed her using is trying to sound words out and sometimes rereading a phrase if it doesn’t sound right to her. She has told me that when she reads silently, she has to keep going back and rereading so she can understand it. This is consistent with the QRI5 results that I got last semester. Her silent reading took longer than her oral reading. She has also told me that she has run out of time on tests because she has had to go back over what she read. I believe that making her aware of good reading behaviors and teaching her how to use them will help her to become a more proficient reader. This session, I gave her an overview of a variety of proficient reading strategies to serve as an introduction to the think aloud activity. In subsequent sessions, I will focus on specific strategies in each session.

Last semester, I administered the Elementary Spelling Inventory from //Words Their Way// to S. She is at the Late Syllables and Affixes stage in spelling development. This is appropriate for her grade level (5th grade), which was somewhat surprising because she is such a poor speller in her writing. I am hoping that this foray into the exploration of words will help her to become aware of sound and spelling patterns. According to Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston (2008), this will help her to read, write and spell more effectively. I am wondering, though, if the disparity in the assessment results and her spelling performance has more to do with the development of bad habits than it does with an actual inability to spell. I have observed her misspell words on homework sheets where the words are either in a word bank or appear somewhere else on the page. Even though I have pointed this out and explained that this could be a strategy that she uses to help her with her difficulties, she doesn’t seem to do it with any regularity. I know that she has not had any experience with word sorts or word study of any kind, so I am anxious to see if the work we are doing with it will have a lasting, positive impact on her spelling and ultimately her reading.

** Next Steps: **Continue partner reading with a focus on predicting, visualizing and clarifying Continue word study with –ing ending Continue homework review