A Reading Tutor's Toolkit: Learn How to Inventory Your Student's Reading Needs

A Reading Tutor’s Toolkit is the definitive, most comprehensive textbook for instructors and parents who want to help struggling children advance in their reading skills. Learn how to analyze the student’s reading level, understand the root causes of common reading errors, and work through exercises that will help the student unlearn bad habits.

The first half of the book teaches you how to be an effective reading tutor through the creation of reading inventories for students. Reading inventories are critical to understanding how readers are comprehending—or not comprehending—a portion of text.

From word use to cause and effect, reading inventories will tell you exactly where students are struggling. Once you zero in on the problem areas, you’ll use the lessons and activities in the second part of this guide to improve the child’s skills and develop a reading-level report for his or her teacher.

Whether you’re a tutor, a teacher’s assistant, a parent, or a student teacher, A Reading Tutor’s Toolkit is your essential guide to coaching struggling readers. And since advanced readers often outperform students in other areas, improving children’s reading gives them a gift they will benefit from for the rest of their lives.

Jean Schaber worked for a decade with Fred G. Aston, PhD, to develop a reading and literacy research program through the Reading Laboratory, a literacy organization based in Portland, Oregon.

In her long career as a reading and literacy expert, Schaber has trained aides, older students, and parents in reading assessment and remediation for children in grades one through six. She continues to be a professional tutor for new generations of struggling readers.

Partial to red convertibles and Great Danes, Schaber lives with her husband in Oregon.