You may have decided to hire a reading tutor or maybe your student's teacher has suggested that a tutor is a good idea for your child. Where to begin? It is important to find a tutor that is a good fit for your child's needs. For of all, make a list of your child's strength and weaknesses. Where do you see your child struggling? If your child is reading below level, it is important to hire a tutor that has some training in literacy instruction. Reading is a complex process that involves all areas of the brain. A struggling reader will have specific needs that must be addressed. Specifically, a child that has difficulty learning to read will often have weak phonological awareness. The tutor should understand these weaknesses and must know what to do to help your student develop these skills. In addition, whole language or sight word heavy reading instruction can be more detrimental than helpful. A struggling reader will benefit most from a tutor who is trained in a multi sensory approach to reading instruction. This approach uses all five senses to instruct a child. It is also important to sit in on your child's tutoring lessons at least in the beginning. The tutor should be able to give you instruction on how to read with your child. In addition, the tutor should give you simple strategies that you can be using at home to help your child find reading success. Finally, the tutor should be progress monitoring your child. This is important because it will let you know that your child is progressing. If the child is not showing progress after 4-6 weeks of working with a tutor, there is a problem. The tutor is either not using methods that are effective or your child may have other learning issues present that must be addressed.
Many parents ask me what is the most important thing they can do to help their struggling reader. The simple answer is read. The difficult reality is that many children who struggle to read are also very good at avoiding reading. The problem is the "Matthew Effect." This is a reference to the bible verse about the rich get richer. While, good readers become better readers because of the amount they read. Poor readers fall even further behind because they are not reading nearly as much at their peers. Furthermore, the struggling reader begins to give up as the reading material becomes more and more difficult. But, reading everyday for approximately 20 minutes can make a huge impact on a child's success.Students who scored 90% better than their peers on reading tests, read for more than 20 minutes a day – exposing them to 1.8 million words a year.
Students who scored at fifty percentile, read on average only 4.6 minutes a day – exposing them to 282,000 words per year. Students in the ten percentile for reading, read less than 1 minute per day – exposing them to 8,000 words per year. (It would take them one year to read as many words as what a good reader would read in two days.) (Retrieved from: http://phoenixacademyomaha.org/read-for-20-minutes-each-day/ Find time to read with your child everyday. If 20 minutes at the end of the day is just too much, try breaking it up into two 10 minute increments. It is important to keep the material simple enough that your child can read without becoming frustrated. Reading a novel or chapter book to your child is another good option. Audio books can also be an option; however, it is important to have your child read aloud for at least part of the daily reading. Reading it does the brain good! |
AuthorWelcome to my website! My name is Theresa Connolly, and I am the Reading Resource teacher at MSW. I work closely with the primary teachers to ensure our students are reading and developing their skills. I hope that you will find this information helpful. ArchivesCategories |