College Partnership for Kids

1. CPK College Partnershipfor Kids

2. Agenda • Introductions • Logistics • The tutoring session as a social, cultural, and educational experience for both you and your learner

3. Anne Charity Hudley

4. 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

5. Kelly Whalon

6. 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

7. Who receives tutoring? • Typically children who need extra support • Students who need additional practice • Students with disabilities

8. Who are you? • Who are you? • Why are you tutoring? Keep a journal!

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

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

11. 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

12. Strategies for Working with Kids

13. 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

14. Building a Relationship 1stMeeting(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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. Break

18. 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…

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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?”

22. 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?”

23. Cultural Differences: Intonation as a model • 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?

24. 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

25. 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.

26. The key to remember that language differences are systematic differences, they are not random errors

27. 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)

28. Consonant Cluster Reduction: Implications for Students • Students with this featuremay write “w-a-l-k” for walkedand walk, “f-i-n-e” for fineand find, etc. • Students with this featuremay 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. Welcome to College Partnership for Kids!