College Partnership for Kids

CPK

Agenda

• Introductions

• Logistics

• The tutoring session as a social, cultural, and educational experience for both you and your learner

Anne Charity Hudley

What I do…

• Articles and books on language in education– Whose Words: A Guide to Language Variation for

Educators – Language Variation & Education – Service Learning in Linguistics & Education

Kelly Whalon

What I do…

• Research reading development of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

• Teach classes on reading development, ASD, and research methods

• Service learning & ASD/reading

Who receives tutoring?

• Typically children who need extra support– Students who need additional practice– Students with disabilities

Who are you?

• Who are you?

• Why are you tutoring?

Keep a journal!

Examples of Mentoring in schools

• http://www.wjcc.k12.va.us/content/programs/minorityachivement/mentoring/PowerPoints/100409-Mentoring%20Program.pdf

http://www.wjcc.k12.va.us/content/schools/A-schoollocationmap/Map%2011x17%20with%20Schools.pdf

Tutoring Logistics• Make sure school personnel is with you at all times • Schools are mandatory reporters of any suspected

child abuse– Including verbal and instances of neglect

• If you get the sense that something is just not right, tell someone!

• Don’t take any photos • Sessions are not bloggable! • Communicate!!!

QUESTIONS

Strategies for Working with Kids

Building a Relationship

Be Prepared:

• When possible, meet the teacher – Find out what help/support is needed– Ask for tips on materials

• Have a plan– Bring paper, writing utensils, markers, and other

art supplies just in case

Building a Relationship1st Meeting(s):

• Break the ice– Ask about school, hobbies, special interests – Encourage the student to ask questions about you– Ask the student to bring something to share to your next session

(pictures of family, object that tells about him/her, etc.)

• Let the student know you are there as a helper and not a teacher

• Plan for the student to be successful – Have the student reread a favorite book; play a math game with dice

and let the student choose the operation (i.e., x, +, ÷, √, -); have student dictate a story to you as you write it

Maintaining Relationships • Invite and accept opinions• Avoid judgmental words (e.g., always, never,

should) • When working with young children, talk with them

and not at them • Avoid overusing slang• Don’t personalize comments• Respect privacy and confidentiality within legal

limits

Managing Behavior• Get the student’s attention before giving directions.

• Keep directions simple.

• Ask the student to repeat directions to ensure understanding.

• Stay on topic. – “I want to hear what you have to say, but right now we’re going

to finish _______ game.”

• Take breaks when you notice the student becoming restless.

Break

Managing Behavior Continued

• Catch them being good or doing well – praise, praise, praise!

• Let the student know exactly what you expect him/her to do– You can create a checklist

• Make concrete incentives for doing work. – “When you finish X, we will…”

• Give points to the student when he/she follows your explicit expectations, and let them know the reason for the point given– “I like the way you did X. I am going to give you a point.”

• If the student’s behavior is counterproductive, move on…

Keeping Learners Motivated• Ask the student what they would like help doing.

• Create games – Flashcards, beat your time (words per minute; # correct items per minute), rhyming, stump the

tutor

• Give the student some choices (e.g., materials, books, what problem to do)• Make the session interactive.

– Ask open ended questions. – Make personal connections.

• Refer to your experiences, and ask the student about their past experiences: “Has anything like this ever happened to you?”; “How would you feel?”

• Avoid communication roadblocks.– Limit directing, moralizing, and lecturing. Instead, ask questions, provide feedback, model how you

would approach the task.

• Avoid interrupting and critiquing

• Encourage the student to evaluate his/her own work by asking what they did well.

The Tutoring Session

• When possible, ask the teacher how they provide feedback (e.g., missed items, reading errors, etc.).

• Check the teacher’s website

• Come prepared in case you can’t meet with the teacher– Bring books (Jones, Swem, the schools media center)

• Let the student choose a book to read

– Talk to other tutors

• Get group consensus about homework assignments

Guiding the Tutoring Session

• Ask students to explain their work.

• Resist the urge to give the right answer.

• Be descriptive with your praise so the student knows what he/she is doing well.

• Ask questions to further student thinking – “What would happen if…” “What do you think will happen

next?” “What will this be about?”

Responding to Your Student

• “I don’t get it.”

• “I can’t.”

• “I don’t know.”

• “Let’s look at it together.”

• Tell me what you are thinking.”

• “Think about what you know about this problem/word. What have you done like this before?”

• Intonation patterns are tied to how we interpret the emotions of others

• What tones of voice make students sound polite, respectful, and curious?

• What about withdrawn or bored? Or disrespectful, non-compliant, and angry?

• Could there be mismatches between the tones that some educators expect and those that some students use?

Cultural Differences: Intonation as a model

Cultural Differences: Intonation as a model

• African-American males might have less melodic variation in their voices, in contrast to white females

• Other frequently misunderstood student behaviors include not making eye contact, shrugging one’s shoulders; such differences are often culturally mediated

• When behaviors co-occur, teachers’ and tutors misimpressions may be intensified

When the Student Has Difficulty Reading

• Ask the student to reread.

• If stuck on a word, remind the student to say the sounds:– “What are the sounds?” “What sound does c make?”

– Model sounding out the word• Cat

– Point to the c and say /c/

– Point to the a and say /a/

– Point to the t and say /t/

– Point to the c and blend by scooping your finger from left to right as you say /caaat/

– Then say, “Watch as I read the whole word,” and point to the c while quickly sweeping your finger under the word and say cat.

• Help students connect unfamiliar word/terms to the context. – The boy played the ukulele. “A ukulele is like a guitar.”

• Don’t let a student get frustrated. Know when to help and move on.

• Write down words the student struggles with and revisit them later.

The key to remember that language differences are systematic differences, they are not

random errors

Phonological Feature: Consonant Cluster Reduction

• When clusters of consonant sounds -- like SK, ND, TS, KT, STS, SKS, etc. -- sound like single sounds

• Most speakers do this to an extent: “Bring me your tests” sounds like “Bring me your tess,” “Fact check” sounds like “Fack check”

• For some English speakers, this same process can apply to a wider range of consonant clusters: test as tess, desk as dess, walked as walk, find as fine, hand as han, cold as code, west end as wes end, etc.

• Reduction also occurs with plural, possessive, and third person singular s (cents, Anne’s, walks) and past tense (walked)

Consonant Cluster Reduction: Implications for Students

• Students with this feature may write “w-a-l-k” for walked and walk, “f-i-n-e” for fine and find, etc.

• Students with this feature may have reading difficulty: In sentences like Last month I read the sign, the past tense form of read is easy to interpret. But students who pronounce “passed” like “pass” may have great difficulty with When I passed by, I read the sign.

• Speakers may need to pay special attention to past and present tense pronunciations

Phonological Feature: Vowel Mergers

• Words like feel and fill, heel and hill, wheel and will may be pronounced (and therefore also may be written) the same• Fail-fell, hail-hell, bail-bell• Since-sense, wince-whence, eminent-imminent• Sell-sale, pell-pale, hell-hail

Vowel Mergers: Implications for Students

• Students who have vowel mergers thus may have trouble with spelling -- for example, repeal may be spelled repill; travail as travel or travell -- and with closely-pronounced pairs that are spelled differently (e.g., eminent-imminent) may be particularly difficult

• They may also show language-influenced variation in rhyming: pairs like field and filled, etc.

• Features can co-occur: words like sinned and send are said and spelled the same way

Ending on a Positive Note

• Encourage the student to talk about what went well

• Identify what you think went well in the session– The student’s strengths– How the student improved

• Help the student set goals for future sessions

Resources

• Standards of Learning– http://ttaconline.org/staff/sol/sol.asp– http://www.doe.virginia.gov/go/Sols/home.shtml

• Tutoring – http://www.marylandmentors.org– http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/read/tutors.html– http://www.readingrockets.org/article/24184– http://www.math.com/math-tutoring.html

Welcome to College Partnership for

Kids!