Help Me Read

Tutoring Tips

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Thoughts on Tutoring

Reading Level

As you read with students you want to know if the book is at the correct level. You do not want the book to be too easy or too difficult, otherwise the child will be too bored or frustrated. The best book for the child will be one they have to use some problem-solving strategies as they make meaning from the print. However, when reading for fluency it is appropriate to have the child in easier, 'text-friendly' books.

The reading level is correct when the child:

  • does not know a few of the words
  • reads most of the passage in a fluent manner
  • understands most of what they read
  • gets a degree of satisfaction and enjoyment from the reading

Before Reading

As students struggle understand the text they bring background knowledge of the reading process. In order to increase comprehension and enjoyment of the text it is important to support the child in making connections with their reading materials. You can do this by 'walking' through the book and discussing the title, the pictures, and any interesting words the child knows. You can ask the child to predict what the story will be about and ask them why they predicted that. You can also ask what they might learn from the passage.

During Reading

Word Level

As you read with your child there are several ways you can improve their reading ability. You can focus on the word level: meaning you may have the child chunk a word and sound the parts out, problem solving the word by combining sounds they already know. The child can also reread and use the context of the sentence to problem solve the word. Whichever of these you might be doing, be sure the child rereads the sentence to confirm the word is correct and the sentence makes sense.

Syntactic Level

You can also focus on the syntactic level, which is thinking about the structure of our language. Students may run have difficulties when they misread a given word and it does not fit the structure of our language. Simply having the child reread the sentence or talking about how the order of words works in our language ("Does that sound right?") will help the child better monitor their reading.

Passage Level

Thinking about the whole passage is another way you can help the reader. Many struggling readers do not monitor their reading and frequently do not relate what they are reading to the context of the entire passage. To assist the reader you can have them think about what they are reading and ask if the word they misread makes sense.

As you read with the student it is possible to build their understanding of the text by occasionaly asking them questions. Remember to be selective about what you ask and depend more on discussion about the text. By discussing the text with the child you will find out what comprehension problems they are having.

Some questions you might use selectively are:

  • Does the story location remind you of anywhere you have been?
  • Who is the most important character or what is the most important information?
  • What is the text mostly about? (main idea)
  • What new things did you learn?

When discussing the text it's important that the child shows an understanding of the text. Some ways to do this are:

  • Tell what surprised you about the text.
  • What did you find most interesting about what you just read?
  • As you were reading did you make any connections? Tell me about them.
  • Which part did you enjoy reading most and which part was difficult for you?
  • What other things would you like to learn about the topic?
  • Would you want to be friends witht he main character in the story?
  • What questions did you think of as you were reading?

Word Work

Early readers work at decoding new words they encounter. In order to assist them you will need to have them:

  • use what they know about letter-sound relationships to blend words and then confirm the word by rereading the sentence and see if it makes sense
  • notice parts of the word
  • connect any new words with words they already know
  • develop a more extensive sight vocabulary of high frequency words

"Word work" should not be isolated from real text, therefore it makes sense to include their current reading material. An example might be if they are having troubles with the word then. You could begin by telling the child there is a tricky word in the story and that together you will figure out a way to read that word. You might write the word the on the paper and and ask the child to say the word. You could then add an n to the and say that it says then. Say, "the becomes then" and ask the child to find it on the page. Finally, ask the child to read that part of the passage to you.

As you read with the child be sure to keep a set of index cards with a high frequency written on each one. Each card should also have a short sentence in which the word is used. For beginning readers you can include a sentence with a child's name in it.

Adapted from "Tutoring Tips", which was presented at a Washington Reading Corp training. Author unknown. Adapted by Charles Stuart.

Resources

Lesson Plans for Teachers & Tutors

  • A to Z Teacher Stuff Network
    Lesson Plans, Units, Activities and Resources for Teaching.
  • Core Knowledge Resources
    Includes resources to build on, lesson plans, teacher's guides for core classics, Spanish translations of grader books and more.
  • Discovery Channel School
    The Lesson Plan Library offers kindergarten, elementary, middle school and high school lesson plans. Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers. Free clip art too.
  • ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication
    Lesson Plans on debate, listening, journalism, handwriting, literature and reading for grades K-12.
  • OFCN's Academy Curriculum Exchange
    The Curriculum Exchange is an area where teachers can find a variety of lesson plans.
  • The Educator's Reference Desk: Lesson Plans
    This collection contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which were written and submitted by teachers from all over the United States and the world.
  • Proteacher
    Primary Reading lesson plans for elementary school teachers including emergent literacy, phonics/decoding, reading skills, book lists, 25 ideas to motivate young readers and many other resources. Note: This is a collection of links. The links use a frameset though, so it's a bit confusing.

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