Summary

Recap

I tutored a struggling reader in fifth grade for my Teaching Literacy college course. During our time together we worked with fluency and word work. I assessed him by distributing a spelling inventory. The result concluded that he struggled with unaccented final syllables, which is what we worked with during the word study. When reading, he did mostly one to one reading with some phrasing, which lead into discussing how we need to read like we are having a conversation with a friend.

Recommendations

My advice for the classroom teacher would be to bump him up a level or two for his running record. His scores on level N and M were very high with me. I would also recommend continuing working with unaccented final syllables. Whether that is with word sorts or other activities. This will really help him be able to read higher level texts. Reading to someone at home will also help him and give him great practice. I would also ask the adult at home to ask questions about the story during his reading. This will help him form questions in his head while he is reading and even help with visualization. Working on rate can also be practiced very easily at home, either on his own or with someone. Cover up all the lines except for the line he is reading. This will allow his eyes to focus on one line at a time, which will lead into more fluent reading.

What I learned

            I had so much fun working with my student! We both learned so many helpful things and had great experiences. I learned new ways to help my student with his fluency, covering up all the other lines. I also learned what a close read is and how to actually do one with my student. I had also never done a word sort before these tutoring sessions, which ended up being my favorite part. After realizing that my student struggled with unaccented final syllables, I found words in that category and created a word sort. He really enjoyed this activity, which helped him excel. Working with a struggling reader is definitely preparing me for what I should expect in the future. I am so excited to incorporate all of the great new things I keep learning into my practicums, student teaching, and my own classroom very soon.