Here we are practicing with a drawing conclusions activity. I had him read everything aloud as well as explain why the pink card went with the blue card. This was a 1st grade activity which he did great with. I think the Kamico activities can be pretty difficult so I sometimes go down a level. He was very successful with this one!
I've pulled out an Old Timer for some tutoring lately. I got out all the old Kamico books. I've always had the 5th grade activities in some stations or for small groups, but for tutoring I work with kids who are not in 5th or 6th grade. So I got the 1st-4th grade books and got goin'. There were several concepts I felt like we needed to reinforce and a few I felt like I needed a hands-on way to introduce. Here we are practicing with a drawing conclusions activity. I had him read everything aloud as well as explain why the pink card went with the blue card. This was a 1st grade activity which he did great with. I think the Kamico activities can be pretty difficult so I sometimes go down a level. He was very successful with this one! As I started making and getting more and more activities ready, I needed a way to organize them. I don't have the best system, but it's working for now. I glue everything we need onto a file folder and then label the file folder with the grade and objective. I also highlight the grade and the objective on the instruction page. Then I use my favorite organizational tool ever...plastic sleeves! I use these suckers for everything. I usually keep the originals so if I ever need to remake or make more, all the copies are right there.
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For one of my tutoring students, I've been able to move on from exclusively teaching phonics. Yay! That means improvement! We still hit on rules and have 5 minutes or so on phonics, but not near the amount of time we were spending. So now that the reading is starting to improve, we have begun to do more word work with vocabulary. For a starting point on went on EdHelper because I like how you can input your own words into their activities and games. First, we used a cut and paste activity where he simply cut glued the picture next to the picture it best defined. Then, we used one of the board games where he just rolled, moved, and said the definition in his own words. I only wanted to spend less than 10 minutes on this so these two activities worked perfectly. Next session we will use a game again and we will start with shapes before moving onto the cutting and pasting of the picture definitions. I got the shapes on EdHelper as well.
Spelling has been a pretty big issue so we have been working specifically with some spelling rules and reminders to give my student some support. On this day we were focusing on C and K at the beginning of words. He was just guessing whenever he came to words that started with the /k/ sound. We went over the rules using these TPT posters (free). We made our own little anchor chart as we discussed and practiced spelling some words aloud. Then I previously printed off some lists of C and K words (found a good list on Enchanted Learning) and I used these to call out to him. I had him say the vowel sound aloud and then point to where that vowel was on the posters. Once he pointed, he wrote down the word following that rule. If he made a mistake on C or K, I had him go back to the rules, but if he made a mistake on the rest of the word, I would have him rewrite while I called out the correct spelling. This was a good 10 minute activity that we will do again to begin our next session.
I noticed signs of my student forgetting many of the "Bossy R" sounds and how to spell them. I found some good review ideas on pinterest and put them to use. I liked both of them and will continue using them in the coming sessions. The first game was practicing reading the sounds in real and nonsense words. We focused on -ar and -er this session. I found this game here for free. I made the little anchor chart to help him remember the sounds. Next, I had him read a passage aloud. We went back through it to identify -er words and he highlighted them as he found them. This can be found here and it was also free. These were both a great review and refresher for him.
One piece to tutoring this week is Nouns & Verbs. First is a review of each and an anchor chart to go along with both. He really does better with something to look back on and to anchor his thoughts in what our or his class discussions have been about. Next, is a picture to look over and then he will name all of the nouns and verbs that he sees. I got this idea from here and then just found a picture that my student could relate to.
The more rules we gather for spelling and word work, the harder it can be to remember it all. I don't move on until he pretty much has the skill or rule, but sometimes we add in more than one and sometimes we reach way back to something learned a while back. We have been adding the rules into a Spelling Deck-- just note cards with rules and examples. I have him pull the deck out when we start working on words that are review. It still takes some direction by me, but I feel like he is learning to think about the sounds or letters and then look for what the rule might be. This picture shows the basics, but we have started adding in cards for phonics rules as well.
I got the idea from an old grad school book, Foundations of Literacy, and like that he has a way to keep stuff organized and in one place...at least while he's at tutoring with me. Our warm-ups lately have consisted of some speed reading. We've been using the same one for a couple of times to see progress. Here are a few we have used. Super Speed Reading Fluency Practice with Nonsense Words This one has been a big need for him! One of his struggles is putting the rules he learns into action while reading. The nonsense words are helping with that! Just regular ole Dolch Word Lists Just regular ole Fry Word Lists We spend about 4 minutes max on this. We set the timer for one minute and he reads as fast and as accurately as he can. We mark which word he got to and use the same lists a couple of sessions in a row.
I have a third grade tutoring student who is getting prepared for the STAAR. He does an awesome job in math, but it reading (like most students), he gets tired and bored and then stops proving answers. His mom wanted me to work with him on test strategies, proving answers, and drawing conclusions/inferential thinking. Our first session, we strictly worked on making inferences from pictures and then backing up those inferences with evidence from the picture. Our next session, we moved more into reading and making quick and easy inference. For this I used a free resource that I found here. This worked great for a quick session starter. Next, I used another free resource that worked really well. This was a perfect thing to reinforce the point of going back into the story to look for the answer. I found these here and saw that this seller has quite a few other ones like this available for purchase. We also worked on questions that he had previously missed on a STAAR-type test (the district's "practice") to go back, look, and answer the question, "Where was the answer?". I talk more about this in a post called: "Using Old Tests".
We have started hitting on -ed and -ing in tutoring. To start out, we watched this little song on youtube found here. Next, I really liked this sort I found on this website. We discussed the rule and used the little anchor chart for support. As I handed him each word, he would look at the ending to determine (1) Silent e? (2) Just one? or (3) Already 2? (1) If ended in a silent e, he would add it to the "Drop the e" category (2) If it ended in just one consonant, he would add it to the "Double the consonant" category (3) And if it ended with two consonants already, then he added it to the "Just add ed/ing" category. This worked as a quick sort and review for us. We actually only did about half of the words and plan to start the next session with the other half for review. Once he had the sorting down pretty well, I had him write the new word using the rule.
We have started working on syllables. I thought this was going to be an easy next step. Part of me thinks I am wrong. The other part of me thinks we are fine and just keep swimming. We started with this simple sort. I found it here, where there are quite a few free sorts. The next step was practicing what syllables sound like if they are OPEN. We worked with real and pretend words that were two syllables with an open first syllable. I found this sort here. I cut apart the words and he would read them based on the open first syllable. He would them glue them down one syllable per column and write the word altogether. For this one we had Open A, Open E, Open I, Open O. We had words and syllables that ended in open syllables and I had him say the word/syllable out loud. He would sort it to where it best fit and then wrote it on his answer sheet. I also had him read some out loud to a kindergartener. She would say which sound it fit with and he would tell her if she was right or wrong. He wrote those on his answer sheet too. I found this sort here. We have way more syllable work to do so those will be other posts. This weekend I will be using some of the games found here. The weather is supposed to be nice so I think I will make a twister board outside on my driveway like I found on that website.
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TutoringShort lessons and activities used to tutor primary to third grade students Archives
April 2016
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