Literacy Tutoring Lesson 1

Instructional Decisions:

I recently started tutoring a Kindergarten student in literacy at a public elementary school.  I started by giving a little introduction to myself.  I showed my student, L, my “About Me” paper.  As I shared a little about myself, I asked L a few questions, as well, so I could find out a little more about L’s interests.  After spending a short time going through introductions and letting L know what my role was, I next decided to give the FAST survey assessment.  Not only did I want to make sure I had enough time to get to this, but I also decided to administer this first because it would give me a good indication on what I could work on with L.  There were some words that L did not know how to say, but I did realize L was pretty good at sounding out words that could be said phonetically.  During the test, L would say "I don't know" to a word L did not know.  I checked the words L knew and circled the ones L did not know with a pronunciation or marked with "I don't know" underneath.

The first 20 words from the FAST test.  A check marks a correct word, while a circle marks an incorrect word.  

The book we read! 

After doing 20 words on the FAST assessment, we moved on to the mini lesson.  For my first lesson, I focused on vocabulary.  I read the book “The Curious Garden” by Peter Brown.  Before starting the book, I asked L questions about gardens and if he had ever grown a garden.  L knew what a garden was, but L had never actually seen one before.  Throughout the book, L was really interested in the illustrations.  I asked L a few questions throughout the story, and I could tell that L used the illustrations to help guide his answers.  This shows me that L is good at using the resources to understand the context.  When the book was finished, I asked some follow up questions.  I wanted to know if L liked the story and what parts L liked.  We also talked a little bit more about gardens.  While reading the book, we looked for a few vocabulary words.  I wanted L to look for the words “plant,” “garden,” and “flowers.”  I showed L how to look for words, and then I had L place a sticky note of the word next to the word in the book.  During this part of the lesson, I realized that L had a little trouble understanding what to do and recognizing the words.  As I move forward, I realize that looking for simpler words may be more beneficial at this point.     

Post-Its with vocabulary words to find in the book!

                                           

Once the mini lesson was over, we had a few minutes to start the ABC book.  L really only had a chance to work on the cover and one letter of the ABC thematic unit book, and L enjoyed using the colored pencils to create a drawing.  I liked the format of this lesson, and I think that is something that I will continue to do. I like doing the assessment first because it gives me plenty of time and it allows me to see what the student knows and what work could be done.  I also liked moving to the book after the survey assessment because it is a little more fun for the student.  Finally, I will keep the ABC book last because there may be days we can’t work on it and I want to prioritize the assessment and mini lesson with the book.  


Differentiation:  To keep moving forward,  I think it will be necessary to continue to use books with good illustrations.  As an English language learner, L can use the pictures to help form ideas and better understanding while still working hard in learning to read the English language.  I also think I’ll have to rethink some of the words I use in the lessons to make them a little more simpler.  L is good at using the pictures to help.  L is also good at sounding out words.  Words such as “can” or “not” were good for L.  Words such as “by” and “we” were more difficult.  Understanding Ls background, it will be important that I help L learn the different sounds.  In this lesson, I tried to use some differentiation during the lesson.  Using the “I” do “we” do “you” do model during the vocabulary part of the mini lesson was helpful to show L what to do.  I also decided to use fewer words than I planned on once I noticed L was struggling.  Now I know the level and word recognition I should be working towards with L.

Goal Setting:  An overall goal I would like to work on is to allow L to feel more comfortable with me.  I want to also help L feel more confident with words.  L is quiet and often seems unsure, which is understandable especially as an English language learner.  I would like to encourage L to try even if the answer is not correct.  I would also like to work with L a little bit on sight words and practicing the pronunciation.  In my other lessons, I would like to move a little more slow and chose words that are more appropriate.  

Expanding My PLN with Twitter!

I participated in an International Literacy Association (ILA) chat on January 11. The topic of this chat was exploring what is necessary to effectively implement early literacy instruction.  Overall, I had a very positive experience.  At first I was a little nervous because I do not use Twitter very often and this was my first Twitter chat; I wasn’t quite sure how everything would work.  However, as soon as I introduced myself and starting seeing other people join the chat, I felt more comfortable participating. It was fun that there were a lot of preservice teachers, and not just from University of Northern Iowa.  There were fellow students from different parts of the country who were also interested in expanding their personal learning networks while learning valuable information, which was inspiring and hopeful to see.  Even with all of the preservice teachers participating, I felt very supported from experienced teachers and educators.  The experienced teachers seemed excited that there were so many preservice teachers on this Twitter chat.  

Introducing myself to others to get started on the chat! 

Through the more experienced teachers, I was able to learn quite a bit from others.  I was able to discover ideas and books to read aloud.  I learned that some of my thinking is similar to others, but I still can expand my thinking so much more.  For example, I agreed with many people that it is so important for children to be exposed to a good vocabulary at a young age.  Additionally, it is so important for students to have access to various types of print.  I also agreed with many teachers that reading is a good way to use transition time in the classroom.  However, I also learned and realized that many teachers think it’s necessary to not just use transition time, but to also make sure the teacher is creating time in the classroom for students to be read to.  I agree that this is important, and now I can use this belief to help plan my days once I have my own classroom.  Making time for a read aloud is so important.  

This question really caused me to think how important it is to make time for reading!

Not only did I learn different ideas from teacher, but my PLN has already expanded even after one Twitter chat.  First of all, I had never heard of ILA before.  Now, I am following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  I am seeing a lot of really good resources appear from these pages.  I am also more aware of chats that are happening and the interesting topics they cover.  I am now following ILA, and I have also started following specific educators and authors who were participating in the chat, such as educator Colby Sharp and The National Writing Project.