Katie's+Page

April 26, 2011

Today was my last meeting with Brett. I really enjoyed all the time I had with him. Today we again worked on reading and on math. Brett was much more interested in working on his math problems but his mom did ask that I help him with his reading. We split the time 50/50. We worked on reading first. He just read a story to me where I again asked him recall questions and again asked him to make predictions. This book also had a few more challenging words for him. He often looked to me to tell him the answer but I would give him strategies to help figure out the word. Strategies I used were picture clues, context clues, decoding, and sounding out the word. If he was still having trouble I would tell him the word but make sure he reread the sentence with the word in it. This way he was applying more meaning to the word and to the sentence as a whole. After that we worked on his math. He really enjoys his multiplication facts. I could tell that he had been working really hard on them. His speed and accuracy has improved greatly since we first began working on his facts. Overall, I have had a great experience with Brett. He was able to teach me many strategies for working with young students. I wish I would have been able to work with him the entire semester to see him grow. However, the times we had together we great. I liked when I would see him using strategies I taught him to either figure out a word or to help with his multiplication facts. This was a great experience to teach me ways in which to work with young students.

April 19, 2011

Today was another wonderful day with Brett. Today he wanted to work on his book report and then review his math facts one more time. First we worked on his math by doing a quick timed test of 25 problems in 45 seconds. This is what he does in school so I was working to prepare him for this test. We wrote down how many he got right and how many he did not finish. Then after that one test we started reading again. The goal for this was to see how he would improve after doing the test. Then we worked on his book report. Brett still had three more chapters to read for his story. He read those stories out loud. Throughout the story I would ask him questions to check for comprehension. If I noticed that his response was either not accurate or I could tell he did not really understand that section I would have him go back and reread to ensure that he was understanding the text. I would also ask him questions to make predictions. This got him thinking about what was going to happen next in the book and it also helped him to answer any questions which he may have had earlier when he was reading the book. We then finished the book because we did not have very many chapters to read. Even though he only read a few short chapters with me I had him fill out a story map. He wrote down characters, problems, setting and solution. This map will then help him later when he goes to write his book report. He will have quick reminders of what happened in the story because he was able to write it down. Following this we had time for one more math test. Again we did 25 problems in 45 seconds. Although he did not get them all finished and correct this time he did show improvement. He answered all the questions correctly he just did not have enough time to finish. I told him that if he just practices with small math tests like this more often he will improve greatly with his multiplication facts.

April 13, 2011

Today with my tutee we worked on his spelling words. He had a full packet full of various activities that involved his spelling words. I had him spell the words before we began the packet. I wanted to see how he improved after writing the words several times throughout the packet. The packet included activities that involved him finding the rhyming word, using definitions, and adding base words, and filling out a crossword puzzle. Some of the activities were difficult for him to comprehend. The rhyming activity was the one which he struggled with the most. Working together though he was able to do it all by himself after I gave various examples to help him understand the concept. After he completed the packet I quizzed him on his spelling words again. He improved a lot from the beginning based off the amount of times he had written the words and the activities which he did.

April 5, 2011

I met with Brett again today and I continue to have positive experiences. I love that not only am I teaching him new things but he is also helping me develop my teacher skills. Today I helped him with his multiplication worksheet. This worksheet was also beneficial to his literacy skills. He had to answer questions and then with that product put a letter that corresponded with it. I was able to see his multiplication skills but then also his literacy skills. When there were still blanks in words he would try to figure out what the word was based on the letter that was missing. When I compare him to another child I tutor who is in first grade I was able to see the difference between the two age groups. Brett is able to make educated guesses at what words can be based on the letters that remain. While I notice with my first grader he has absolutely not idea what the words could possibly be. I have learned in classes that this is a good literacy skill to be able to predict what words are, we use this all the time when we read. To continue to work on this skill I plan on having him do work with letters missing from words. I will also try a cloze test to see his predictability with words in an entire page of writing.

March 29, 2011

Today I met with Brett again. I had another great experience with him. I really enjoy working with him. He is working on book report for his school within our tutoring sessions. Doing this project is actually very helpful for me to see how he is as a reader. We read the book together which he has to write the report on. Following the reading we then did some comprehension activities. We wrote out the main points in sequential order and then we did facts about the main characters. With this reading I again noticed that he is a very good reader but he does have difficulty with comprehending. In future sessions I know I need to incorporate more activities to help him with remembering what is going on in the story. I hope to do more during reading checks for comprehension during reading to help guide him through reading stories. I am looking forward to next week when I get to work with him again!

March 15, 2011

Today I met with my tutee for only the second time. We continued to do interest inventories and other getting to know you things. I found out more about what I will need to address the next time I meet with him. He is a very good reader he does however, struggle with his comprehension. I had noticed it last time but again through further activities I realized how true it is. He also seems to lose interest very fast. He will do almost anything to change the subject and avoid doing work. I know for other sessions I will need to work on comprehension activities as well as getting him to become more involved in the learning process. I will not meet with him next week because he will be on spring break but I will have activities for him in two weeks!

Tuesday March 1st

Today was my first actual day of tutoring. I was very excited to start tutoring after my original student had failed to come. I was very excited when I saw who my new student was because he is in 3rd grade and that's the grade that I would like to teach. It was great working with him today. I did an interest inventory and had him read two small passages and answer questions which corresponded with the stories. I learned that he is a very strong reader however, he does struggle with comprehension. Even though the stories were only a page long and we did the questions immediately he did have trouble answering some of the questions. I hope to work on his comprehension more throughout the remainder of the semester. He told me he often starts to stop paying attention toward the end of a story. I also hope to increase his interest level in reading so we can avoid this problem. If he is more interested in finishing the story his comprehension will also increase. Overall I thought that this was a very good session and I am looking forward to working with him for the weeks to come. Katie, I would try to first start reading books with content he is interested in. Intermittently when reading, have stops in the reading where he can tell you what is happening. Basically checking for comprehension, but not after reading too much text where he will start to lose attention. Additionally, before beginning to read again, try to work with him to make predictions about what may occur in the upcoming text. After reading some more, stop and check the predictions and repeat. Also, before even reading the text, try to have him make predictions about what the text may be about. This will help stretch his mind activating prior knowledge and helping him prepare for comprehension.