So What's a Tutor to Do? - Softcover

Roller, Cathy M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087207191X ISBN 13: 9780872071919

Publisher: Intl Literacy Assn, 1998

Synopsis

This complement to Cathy M. Roller's "Variability Not Disability" provides both a general outline of how a tutoring session should be structured and specific suggestions and strategies for each segment of the session. The author's concise description of the tutoring session and the principles of good tutoring will guide even the most inexperienced volunteer tutors. Although the book is intended for tutors, it will be most effective if it is used under the direction of a qualified reading specialist. "For the Supervisor" sections at the end of each chapter provide tips for the reading specialist who is training the tutor.

About this title

About the Author

Cathy M. Roller is a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

From the Back Cover

Most volunteer tutors are skilled readers who want to share this skill with someone else. But what does it take to be an effective tutor? Can tutors teach children to read? Cathy M. Roller argues in her introduction to "So... What's a Tutor to Do?" that the goal of having every child read by the end of third grade can be realized only if tutors are trained properly. The author who designed this book to complement her 1996 book about teaching struggling readers, "Variability Not Disability", describes best practices based on her own years of tutoring experience.

Calling for tutor training programs to "do it right," Roller outlines research in reading and writing development as a basis for the tutoring session. Her concise description of the tutoring session and the principles of good tutoring will guide even the most inexperienced volunteer. She also provides specific suggestions and strategies for each segment of the session and reassures volunteer tutors at every stop. In addition, a section at the end of each chapter titled "For the Supervisor" explains how trainers best can teach tutors to use the strategies. The concluding chapter, also designed for tutoring supervisors, describes how to establish a tutoring program locally.

This accessible text, full of solid information and tips for tutoring, will appeal to volunteer tutors and the reading specialists who train them.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter 1

Tutoring is difficult, and you may have no idea where to begin or what a tutoring session looks like. What is covered in sessions? How much time is spent on each section? What is my role as tutor? This chapter will describe tutoring sessions with three different kinds of early readers. Its purpose is to provide an overview. Do not expect to understand every detail; there will be a full chapter devoted to each activity later in the book. For now you should read to get an overall impression of the kinds of things that tutors and children do during tutoring sessions.

Most reading tutoring sessions last about 30 to 45 minutes and include several basic activities: (1) reading easy books to build confidence; (2) reading new books that include a few challenges; (3) a writing activity; (4) a minilesson about words, word-recognition strategies, comprehension strategies, or other critical skills; and (5) reading challenging books. SRP tutoring sessions, as well as Success For All (Wasik & Slavin, 1983) and Reading Recovery (Handerhan, 1990), two other successful tutoring programs, spend over half the tutoring sessions actually reading books.

Reading easy books is just what it sounds like. This activity gives readers the opportunity to read fluently and well. The books should be easy enough for the child to read without help, and the goal should be to enjoy the book. In general, reading easy books means allowing the child to choose a book that they read to you. You may want to talk briefly about the book, either before, during or after the reading.

Reading the new book is the activity in which most new learning occurs. The new book is one that the child can read relatively well; however, it includes a few challenges so that the child can learn new strategies, skills, and words with the help of the tutor. This activity is important and more tutoring time should be spent on it than on any other.

Writing is included in the tutoring session because reading and writing are closely related and information learned in one activity can be reinforced with the other activity. In tutoring sessions where time with the tutor is necessarily brief, writing activities cannot be very extensive. However, a few well-chosen writing activities directed specifically at what the child needs to learn can promote learning.

Minilessons are specific and direct lessons that focus on something important the child needs to learn. Tutors know what the child needs to learn because they are reading and writing with the child, they pay attention to what the child knows and what he or she is ready to learn next. Chapter 11 includes lists of sample minilessons. Although theses lessons are brief, they are effective because they can be targeted accurately to the individual child's learning needs.

Reading challenging books is included in the tutoring session because many children who struggle with learning to read feel as though they never get the chance to read "good" books. "Good" books have words that are too hard for them. It is important for children to have the opportunity to read books that they actually want to read and the one-on-one tutoring session is an excellent place to read challenging books because the tutor is there to give needed support. Reading challenging books is one way to remind the child of what their struggle is all about -- reading good books. It's inclusion in tutoring boosts children's motivation.

Basic activities in reading tutoring sessions are similar across programs because the best way to learn to read is to learn about reading as you are reading. Tutorial sessions that include reading easy books, reading new books, and reading challenging books ensure that children will have many opportunities to read. Using these in a single tutorial session means a first-grade child may read four or five short books. This is many more pages and words than an average first-grade struggling reader reads daily during school instruction (Allington, 1983). This abundance of reading is a very important part of what makes tutoring effective.

Having provided a quick description of the activities that make up a tutoring session, I will now give an overview of tutoring activities for emergent, beginning, and transition readers. First, however, I will describe each type of reader.

Edition details

• Publisher: Intl Literacy Assn
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087207191X
• ISBN 13: 9780872071919
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200