I just have to screech about how unexpectedly difficult it was for me to find a tutor for one of my students who lives in Victoria. It's not a huge city, but it's big enough that I thought it should be straight forward finding someone qualified to work with a little girl with dyslexia. I called seven different tutors and tutoring businesses, and was not satisfied with the methods described by any of them. Some were actually a little weird, I thought. There are lots of people out there willing to take your money!
At the last minute, a colleague found a name in the back of an education magazine. Thank goodness it was a wonderful woman who does the Lindamood program!
Hmmm. This feels more like a whine than a screech; oh well, I did have all day to get over it...
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Your post here has got me ta thinkin'. If you had called me to ask about my tutoring service how would I have answered your questions regarding my methods or program of teaching? So in order to give an answer to a prospective client who would call and ask such a question (usually they don't ask) I am sitting down and creating a mission statement as well as explaining briefly my methodology in printable materials to give to new parents. What were some of the specific questions you asked these tutors and tutoring businesses? Thanks.
Hi Lynda
I ask what their approach is, but most notably; how long and how often do they see the learner,and what does each session entail.
I am looking for a length of time and duration that can have an impact.
I am also looking for a segment of the day devoted to phonological awareness, and another to fluency training. I also want to see some writing that stems from the reading instruction. If the lesson is about the R controlled vowels, then I want to see some writing that involves them.
Remember, I was looking for something specific for the learner I was referring to in my post- a discreet unit of intervention that will have tangible results in a suggested time frame. We are working with a budget, and so we want the biggest bang for the buck.
I am not looking for a tutor for academic areas for this child- I am looking for someone who can get her reading.
Thanks for checking in- I will make time this week for another post!
Kathy,
What is your experience with students who skip short words like "the" "to" and "a" AND who skip entire lines of text? I just evaluated a student who does this a lot. He obviously doesn't monitor his reading for understanding because he does not self-correct his reading when this happens. But I wondered if there might be a tracking problem with his eys - or is this a bad reading habit. Thanks for your input.
Hi Lynda
I find that linguistic readers tend to do that (see my previous post). While there may be some movement problems with the eyes, I think it is more that they are not using the visual clues while reading- rather they are going more by context, listening to what they are saying, and touching down now and then to notice the first letters in a word. If a reader is not attending much to the letters on the page it would be very easy to skip lines. While they are listening, I think they are only attending to the "patter"- the rhythm of the words, not the actual message in the text. (If they were listening to the content they would realize it isn't making sense)
When I have a reader like this I discuss this with her, so she understands what she's doing. Then, we work on fluency building by SLOWING down the reading, practicing using the visual clues as much as the context. After being stopped every time she makes an error in accuracy, she soon starts slowing down and attending.
Rereading the same text until it's perfect is a good exercise for this.
Kathy,
How do you run the writing segment of your lessons? Do you give the children a sentence to write - say with r-controlled vowels? Or do you just give them spelling words with r-controlled vowels? Do you work on proper letter formation? Or do you just let them write how ever they have learned at school (or on thier own). What percentage of your lesson is spent on writing?
Thanks again!
Hi Lynda
I usually get the student to do a little writing every day- but it is not the focus. The focus is in getting words off the page.
There is a reading in context section, where the student reads a selection with lots of what we are working on (r-controlled vowels is a good example. Then, I ask her to write two or three sentences about what she read. I don't work on letter formation at all- however she writes is fine with me as this isn't about penmanship. I look for spelling and punctuation to be correct only.
Percentage wise- I don't know, but it's not much: however long it takes them two write two or three sentences.
I do it because she needs to practice the skills she learns in several contexts. Spelling is artificial in lists, if that's all she does. Writing fluently AND applying the skills is trickier.
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