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1. Literacy students see their tutors as a role model as well as a reading/writing tutor. We should consider that the parts of our experience that we share with our students can motivate them to move ahead with additional interests in the world as well as the way they conduct their lives. Consider these questions that you can ask yourself.
a. What are you reading about now to improve yourself and expand your knowledge?
b. What new words and meanings have you added to your vocabulary?
c. What have you learned about yourself and your student since you began working with them?
Do you share this information with your student?
d. How can you make you tutoring sessions more interesting and varied to avoid boredom?
2. A heteronym is a word that has a different sound and a different meaning when used in context, but the same spelling. Try this exercise with students.
Print the word twice, one above the other, with the accent marks to indicate the different sounds: Then use it in a phrase or sentence to see the different meanings.
Con/tent The boy was content with his achievements. (satisfied)
Con/tent The content of the newspaper article seemed biased.
Try these:
Invalid
Object
Minute
Conduct
Digest
Contract
Converse
Address
Compound
Desert
- Help your student practice at home by having them turn on the CLOSED CAPTION capability of their TV. This will put the words on the screen that are being spoken as the student watches and hears the same words from the program.
- Check out free.ed.gov . This site has lots of free teaching and learning resources.
- Improving a students reading rate (reading pace with understanding) by helping the student see more than a word at a time. Students can be encouraged to see multiple words and learn to read words in phrases or groups.
- Give your student an exercise once in a while to see how their reading rate is improving. A grade level of 2.5 reads at about 121 words per minute. A grade 5.5 reads at about 163 wpm.
- To improve reading rates avoid the single finger pointing to a single word. Have the student use a card under the words, or use a sweeping motion of the hand to lead the eye across the page at a slightly faster pace than the student is comfortable with.
- Model reading rate to your student in your reading to the student. When they hear your reading pace they will be more likely to increase their own reading rate.
Here are some more training tips that were presented at the Literacy New York Summer Institute
Spelling Tips
1. Make spelling words relevant. Learn to spell words within the students interests. 2. Write a whole passage first then edit it. Don’t struggle over each word as come up 3. Try word games like crosswords or Scrabble 4. After writing something, have the student underline any words that he/she thinks are misspelled. 5. Use many methods to teach spelling. Any one method will get tedious and use of many methods will be more fun and yield better results. 6. Use the computer lab with a word processor to show the student a spell checker program.
Activating Personal Knowledge
Discuss with your student the importance of using any personal knowledge they have of a subject while reading about it Ask the student to describe how their own knowledge of some reading helped to understand the material.
Challenge the student if the knowledge is incorrect, or could lead to an incorrect solution.
Be willing to share any information you have on the subject.
Encourage students to push against their own learning “comfort zone”. We can all learn more about any subject.
Make sure the student understands that you are sharing learning experience. It has to be a two way street to be effective and collaborative. Be a good active listener.
The Tutors Role:
Effective Presentations with small groups
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