A NOTE TO THE READER

Hello there. We are thrilled to present this tutor’s survival guide to you. It was written specifically for all Frontier College: Students for Literacy tutors and other Frontier College tutors who are working one-to-one with a child in elementary school, a teenager in secondary school, or with students in an after-school homework club. This guide presents ideas on how you can help students with their homework and also their literacy skills. One reason that some kids do poorly in school and end up at risk of dropping out is that they have poor reading skills and cannot cope with the increasing complexity in their schoolwork.

In this guide you will find some basic information about Frontier College and our mission. There is also some information about the literacy issue in Canada and Frontier’s approach to helping people learn to read and write.

You will also learn about…

• your role and responsibilities as a tutor
• the SCIL methodology that guides our work at Frontier College and the importance of working with your learner’s strengths
• basic reading theory, as well as tips on choosing good books and ideas on how to instill a love of reading in the child or youth you are helping
• effective tutoring ideas which can help strengthen the literacy skills of your student and encourage him or her to learn more
• other resources to help to you become an effective tutor.

We hope that you find this guide useful. Further, we hope that you will make this guide your own and contribute your ideas to it. Most of all, we thank you for being a Frontier College tutor. Do not underestimate the role you play as tutor and mentor. The time you and your student spend together, learning from each other, may change both of your lives.

FRONTIER COLLEGE: YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Frontier College is a Canada-wide, literacy organization. We teach people to read and write and we nurture an environment favourable to lifelong learning. Since 1899, we have been reaching out to people wherever they are and responding to their particular learning needs, We believe that literacy is a right and we work to achieve literacy for all.

- Frontier College Mission Statement

Mission and History

Frontier College began in 1899. It was founded by Alfred Fitzpatrick, a pioneer teacher who was committed to helping those who were left out of the formal school system. Fitzpatrick believed that everyone in Canada had the right to the best education possible. So he recruited university students and sent them to remote work sites on the Canadian frontier. Known as labourer-teachers, these students worked side-by-side with the people they tutored.

Over a century later, we are still tutoring adults and children to improve their literacy and learning skills to enable them to participate more actively as citizens, parents, workers, students, and members of their community. We rely on a corps of trained and committed volunteer tutors from universities, colleges, high schools, the private sector, and elsewhere to deliver our programs across Canada.

In 1976 Frontier College won the UNESCO prize for “meritorious work in literacy,” the first organization in the West to receive this honour. In 1987 the College received a special citation from the International Council on Adult Education for innovative literacy work with homeless youth. Many Frontier College staff and volunteers have been recognized as leaders in education. The work of Frontier College is known around the world.

By joining in this work, you are contributing to realizing our mission to create a society where everyone enjoys the right to literacy and access to the highest quality education that Canada can provide.

LITERACY IN CANADA

Literacy – the ability to read and write – has always been at the heart of Frontier College’s work. In recent years, literacy has been identified as an important social issue in Canada. According to research, almost 40% of Canadians have some degree of difficulty with everyday reading, writing, and math.

There are numerous reasons why so many people in Canada have trouble with reading and writing. Poverty is one example: More and more children go to school hungry each day and often have difficulty staying awake, let alone concentrating on their studies. Poor nutrition can cause behavioural problems among schoolchildren, which can further prevent them from learning. At the same time, cuts to social and educational spending deny help to children who may need it the most.

Parents who have low literacy skills are often not able to support their children in school. They cannot help their children with their homework. They may not be able to act as advocates for their children if they are having difficulty at school. Because low literacy and low income levels often go hand-in-hand, many children miss out on experiences that help to grow literate minds: museum visits, books and magazines in the home, travel, or even a bus ride to a local library.

There is more that we can do as a society to address this issue. Frontier College is committed to training volunteers, so that more people who need literacy and learning support will be served. One way we can begin to do this is by helping our students experience success in learning.

SCIL (STUDENT-CENTRED INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING)

SCIL, or Student Centred Individualized Learning, is the method and philosophy of Frontier College. It guides all our tutoring activities. SCIL is based on the strengths and interests of each student. Every person has strengths, no matter how he or she has been failed by the system. By focusing on those strengths, you can play a pivotal role helping your student improve. For example, your grade nine student may only be able to write a five-word sentence. By encouraging your student to write a little more at each session, and by reading with your student, it won’t be long before he or she is writing more complex and interesting sentences. That’s what SCIL is about – starting with the student’s strengths, finding out what his or her interests are, and finding materials and books which speak to those interests. If you do this, you and your student cannot fail.

Education must be obtainable on the farm, in the bush, on the railway, and in the mine. We must educate the whole family wherever their work is, wherever they earn their living; teaching them how to earn and at the same time how to grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually…. This is the real education. This is the place of a true university.
- Alfred Fitzpatrick, University in Overalls, 1920

YOUR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS A TUTOR

By now you probably have a lot of questions about tutoring: What do I do? What are my responsibilities? How do I help someone learn? This section will show you how to apply the SCIL methodology and philosophy in your tutoring. You will also learn more about your role and responsibilities as a tutor. This information is vital in helping you to build a stronger relationship with your student.

APPLYING SCIL TO YOUR STUDENT-TUTOR RELATIONSHIP

In the previous chapter, we discussed the Student-Centred Individualized Learning (SCIL) methodology and philosophy of tutoring. Here are some guidelines to help you use the SCIL approach in helping your student to learn.

Learn to recognize your student’s strengths.

• What does your student do well?
• What are his interests and skills?

Help your student to identify goals for learning.

• What does your student want to do?
• What would she like to learn?

Work with your student to define his or her needs.

• What does your student need to learn in order to reach his goals?

YOUR ROLE

You and your student will create your own learning materials. Ask your student:
What would you like to do? What would you like to work on next? How can I help you? Rather than relying on a ready-made curriculum, you will create materials that are based on the strengths and needs of your student. However, if you are working in a homework club, homework will be the first priority. In this case, there will be little need to create your own materials.

Build on your student’s strengths and confidence. Start with what your student can do and what your student knows. Set your student up for success. Praise your student. Motivation is often enhanced by success.

Take the time for you and your student to get to know each other. Only when you have a relationship built on mutual respect and trust, will your student take risks in front of you. This can be particularly true of learners who are newcomers to Canada. In some cultures, students are taught not to make mistakes in front of their teachers. Finding out a little about your student’s culture and previous school experience will be helpful. Help your student understand that making mistakes is an important part of learning.

Focus on your student’s successes. Show your student how he has made progress during your time together by focussing on his accomplishments and the ways he has improved rather than comparing him to others or using standard tests.

Treat your student as an Individual. Everyone learns differently. Your student may learn by doing, or by observation. He may need a lot of activity, or he may need a quiet space to learn. Be flexible and vary your tutoring by using a variety of activities.

Make participation voluntary as much as possible. It is important that your student meet with you on a voluntary basis. One-on-one tutoring works best when both the tutor and student choose to be there.

Be clear about your role. You are a literacy tutor first and foremost. Over time, you may become your student’s advocate or part of her support network, but – especially in the beginning – it is important that you focus on your student’s learning.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Show up on time and be prepared. This will show your student that you are committed to your tutoring relationship and that you expect the same of him or her. On the other hand, by showing up late or unprepared, you are teaching your student that your tutoring relationship is not important and that there is no reason for him or her to take it seriously.

Get feedback from your student. This way your student sees that his or her opinion is valued and that he or she is capable of making decisions about learning.

Contact the Coordinator if you run into difficulties. The Organizational Team is there to help you. Even the most skilful and committed tutor may run into problems either in tutoring or with logistics. Get help.

Report suspected abuse. You are obligated by law to report even suspected cases of physical, sexual or other kinds of abuse. As a volunteer, you should report this to your OT or to the Regional Coordinator responsible to you. Do not attempt to investigate or take action on your own.

Attend training sessions, idea exchanges, and evaluations. This is important for providing you with support and also for improving the overall program.

READING

Pause for a moment and consider the fact that you know how to read. Since you are interested in being a Frontier College tutor, chances are that you’re probably pretty good at reading. Now ask yourself, Why am I a good reader? There are several possible reasons.

Most likely, you:

• grew up in a home where reading was a part of daily life
• usually had interesting reading materials at hand
• had a library card at some point in your life
• were read to as a child
• attended school regularly
• had a teacher, parent/guardian, or relative who encouraged your reading.

The list of possibilities could go on. The common factors are access to reading materials and access to someone to help you to read them. Further, there is no evidence to suggest that one method of reading instruction is more effective in teaching children than another. In this section, you will learn about reading theory and how to apply this to tutoring your student.

READING THEORY 101

Experienced readers use three types of cues in order to understand printed words. (A cue is a hint or a tip-off. For instance, if you smell gas in your home, that is your cue to have your furnace or stove checked.) These are:

1. Grapho-phonemic cues

   The shapes (grapho) and sounds (phonics) of letters and words. To read well, a person needs to know the letters of the alphabet, their shapes, and the sounds that they make – alone, or in combination with other letters. This knowledge is very important in trying to figure out new words and their meanings.

2. Syntactic cues
   Sentence structure and word order. A reader with knowledge of syntax would look at the sentence, “The cat is black.” and know that the word cat is a noun and the word black is an adjective that describes the word cat. Good readers know how words work to form meaningful sentences.
3. Semantic cues
   Word meanings. Developing a large vocabulary is an essential part of becoming a good reader. And the more a child reads, the more words he learns and understands and the result is that he becomes a better reader.

Finally, good readers have knowledge of the world or prior knowledge. For example, camels are not native to Canada. Yet a child, born or educated in Canada, who reads about camels, sees camels in the zoo, views programs on television about camels, and so on, will bring a large amount of knowledge about camels to new stories or books about camels. His knowledge of the world includes a good deal about camels. Reading widely is the best way to continually expand one’s knowledge of the world.

STAGES OF READING

While we do not wish to generalize about how and when people learn to read, there are some basic patterns to the way in which children and youth learn to read in school. Following is a template which outlines three stages of reading describing the characteristics of the reader in each stage and the activities you and your student can do to help improve his or her reading skills.

HELPING YOUR STUDENT READ: AN OVERVIEW

The previous section of this guide explored some of the basic theory behind reading. In this section, we will show you how to apply that knowledge to helping your student read better. This section will be particularly helpful to you if your student is still in the learning to read stage.

The best way to determine if your student is a beginning reader is to simply ask her or simply listen to her read. If your student tells you that she has a lot of trouble reading and spelling, or if she is unable to read most words with any degree of ease, then you have a pretty good idea that she is still at the earlier levels of reading.

Some students can read a number of words by sight and therefore can read familiar texts with ease. However, these students have a lot of difficulty reading new and unfamiliar words. Ask your student to read some new big words to determine if he is essentially a sight word reader. If your student is unable to figure out these words, you also have a good indication that he is a beginning reader.

During this beginning stage, a reader must be glued to print. Every word and every letter becomes important as she learns the mechanics of reading. The ideas that you rely upon will become evident as you work with your student
and learn about her strengths and needs. Experience will be the best teacher for both you and your student in determining what works best for her.

SIGHT WORDS AND WORD BANKS

Objective: Help your student learn to read some key words by sight. Help him compile a bank of sight words.

Why focus on sight words? Sight words are words that we are able to read instantly, without sounding them out letter-by-letter or syllable-by-syllable. There are many words that we learn to read by sight. Many sight words are non-phonetic (can’t be sounded out) and therefore must be recognized as a whole. Examples of non-phonetic sight words include the following:

through / thought / though / cough.

Other sight words occur frequently and need to be recognized automatically for fluent reading. Examples include the following:

of / it / he / I / the

Other sight words are of high interest to the reader. For instance, your student’s personal sight words might be connected to his interests in school, popular culture, part-time job, and so on. Examples might include:

video / delivery / hamburger / restaurant

Your student may wish to learn these words by:

• writing them on flash cards (an accompanying picture can be helpful)
• creating a crossword puzzle or word search
• completing cloze exercises
• playing word games with you, such as Jumble, Concentration, or Hangman.

PERSONAL DICTIONARY

Your student may find it useful to keep track of her word bank in a personal dictionary. A small address book is perfect for this purpose, as words can be listed in alphabetical order and then easily found.

PHONICS

Objective: Help your student learn the sounds associated with various letters and letter groups.

Why use phonics? The aim of phonics is to help beginning readers learn letter/sound relationships, so they can decode (or sound out) words by the way they are spelled. Phonics is one of the cues that people use when reading. Reading also depends upon connections between spellings, speech, sounds, and meanings. Use the ideas in this section when you read and write with your student as letter/sound relationships are best learned during meaningful reading. Avoid nonsense exercises or repetitive drilling.

Hearing sounds in words
Your student must be able to hear the various sounds within words to be able to learn letter/sound relationships. To help your student develop and strengthen this ability, ask your student to listen for a particular sound while you are reading together or to identify words with a particular sound while silently reading. Ask your student to identify all the words with a ‘ssss’ sound while silently reading a passage or a group of words.

Initial consonants
Help your student learn the sounds of consonants by first focusing on initial consonants. These consonants usually sound the same at the beginning of words.

bad / date / fun / hand / joke / key / man / name / pen / queen / radio / tape / van / wet / zipper

But the letters c and g can have two different sounds:

cat or city / gas or gem

There are eight pairs of consonants that represent one sound:

phone / shoe / wheel / this or thumb / chair, choir or chute

Rhyming word families

When you read with your student, look for opportunities to show her the relationship between words in word families, e.g. book, look, took, mistook. Understanding how word families are built will help your student learn about vowels. As your student gains confidence and knowledge about word families, draw your student’s attention to words that have the same sound but are spelled differently, e.g. Spain, rain, plain versus lane, plane, Dane.

Sounding it out
Help your student learn how to sound out words by breaking long words into syllables. You may need to divide the word into syllables for your student by clapping or tapping on the table. Examples include the words:

phar-ma-cy / de-ve-lop

Demonstrate phonetic rules
Help your student learn about vowels by pointing out words that demonstrate how the rules work. Example:

mat / mate

The final letter e in the word mate changes the vowel sound from the word mat. Discuss exceptions to phonetic rules with more advanced students. An example is the old elementary school rhyme:

When two vowels go walking,
the first vowel does the talking

For example:

boat / beat

However this well-known rule doesn’t work all of the time. For example:

chief / piece / heinous

Games, tongue twisters, poems, songs
Play word games with your student based on word families. Read poems, song lyrics, or try to stump one another with tongue twisters. Meaningful repetition is the best way to learn about the exceptions to the rules.

How do children learn how to read? Many children learn to read by being read to. They intuitively figure out letter/sound relationships. They notice a pattern between different words and recognize the sounds associated with various letters and are able to apply this knowledge to figuring out new words. For many children, simply reading with them is the best way to help them learn to read.

However, there are children who need to have phonics instruction to learn about letter/sound relationships. For some children, informally pointing out the relationship between sounds and letters as they try to read and write stories will be enough. However, there are some students who need systematic phonic instruction which focuses on letter/sound relationships.

WORD STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Objective: Help your student learn how to break down words into manageable pieces.

Why use word structure analysis? While experienced readers use phonics to build a word by analysing the sounds of letters, they also break down words into smaller parts in order to read the word.

1. Help your student learn about compound words:

   newspaper / lawnmower

   root words:

   read / misread / reread / reader / reading

2. Help your student find familiar words in new big words.

   continent: con / tin

3. Help your student learn about prefixes.

   mis – misinform
   re – redo, remove

4. Help your student learn about suffixes.

   able – learnable
   tion – participation
   er – teacher
   ing – playing

5. Help your student learn how to make words plural.

   es – makes words ending with s, ss, ch, sh, and x plural.
   s – makes most other words plural with a few exceptions.

   Some exceptions:

   foot – feet
   moose – moose

   child – children
   fish – fish or fishes

6. Help your student learn about contractions. (i.e. the shortened form of a word or phrase)

   is not – isn’t
   they are – they’re

   will not – won’t
   he will – he’ll

HELPING WITH SPELLING

Objective: Help your student become a successful speller.

Why focus on spelling? Spelling, writing, and learning how to read are interconnected. Spelling helps students learn letter/sound relationships and writing helps to reinforce spelling. Encourage your student to take risks and view errors as a natural part of learning how to spell. Spelling is best learned while reading and writing rather than through spelling lists and drills.

Help your student practise:

• breaking words into syllables in order to make a large word more manageable. Divide words into syllables by tapping on the desk or clapping. Remember, every syllable has a vowel sound.
• sounding out the words by slowly pronouncing the word and writing down the letters they hear. Encourage your student to try to spell the word, generate several choices and choose the best one.
• thinking of words that rhyme with the word to be spelled.
• breaking down big words into manageable pieces by looking for prefixes and suffixes or smaller words.

When your student spells:

• look for patterns of errors. Your student may always have difficulties with certain words. For example, many students have difficulty with the homonyms

  your / you’re

  and

  there / their / they’re

• encourage self-correction. Before pointing out errors, ask your student to identify the words that he feels may be spelled incorrectly.
• share your personal spelling strategies. Some people use mnemonic devices such as the principal is our pal, or deliberately mispronounce words on purpose such as knife. Spelling involves a lot of memory. Remind your student that spelling can seem complicated and involves a lot of practice and memory.

Why do some students learn “as few” as 1,500 new words a year while others learn up to 8,500? They rounded up the usual suspects – ethnic origin, socioeconomic status, parents’ education, parent’s occupations, family income, size of family, position in birth order – but none of these accounted for the difference. But they did find what seemed to be making the difference, possibly much to the surprise of some people but not to many others. What made the difference was reading, keeping the company of books.
- Frank Smith

TUTORING IDEAS

TUTORING IDEA #1: LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACH

Objective: Help your student increase his knowledge of print by writing down the ideas he would like to express.

Write down the words of your student as he orally composes a story, poem or talks about a personal experience. You are essentially acting as a scribe for your student. Use this reading material to help your student learn to read.

Why use the language experience approach? It can be overwhelming for a student to simultaneously learn the meaning of new words and work on decoding words. This approach creates reading material that your student will understand completely. It is made of your student’s language and also your student’s experience therefore all of his energy can be focused on learning how to read.

When using the language experience approach:

• brainstorm some ideas with your student before writing.
• write down all of your student’s words.
• write clearly. Printing is best for many students.
• anything goes. Your student may wish to compose a letter, a journal entry or a poem.
• read it aloud to your student to make sure he agrees with what you have written.
• date each piece of writing.
• keep each language experience in your portfolio for future use.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Immediately after you finish writing down your student’s words, respond in a positive way about the message of the text and ask your student to read it back to you. He should be fairly successful unless it is very long.

Your student may wish to edit it as he reads and copy it in his own handwriting.

In a few weeks, your student may have some difficulty reading this piece of writing which gives you the opportunity to help him develop some decoding skills.

You may need to read the passage aloud for your student or you may read it aloud together.

Use some of the strategies outlined in the Phonics and Word Analysis Sections to help your student with words he has difficulty reading. Help him break down these words into smaller words and think about words that rhyme with them. Help him sound them out by breaking them into syllables.

Words your student had difficulty reading can also be:

• used to help build your student’s bank of sight words
• used in a new sentence
• written on cards and then matched to the passage
• used to be the focus of a cloze exercise.

Write the sentences on separate cards and ask your student to put them in order. Your student may wish to edit this writing in terms of language, grammar or ideas. Discuss replacing certain words or how to say things more simply. Your student may also wish to enter it on the computer or continue and add more thoughts.

TUTORING IDEA #2: READING ALOUD WITH YOUR STUDENT

Objective: Read aloud with your student so she can practise reading.

Why read aloud with your student? Reading aloud with a beginning reader is the most effective way to help her learn how to read. When you read aloud with your student, you help her practise reading familiar words and figuring out new ones. You can help your student learn words that need to be learned by sight.

Before reading:

• choose short predictable reading materials that are relevant to your student but are not too lengthy or complicated. Use a passage that will be of personal interest or use a text that you and your student created through the language experience approach.
• look through the text and pick out the words that may not be familiar to your student. Read these words aloud with your student and discuss their meanings.

While reading:

• give your student positive feedback whenever you read together
• encourage your student to ask questions as you read together
• stop reading if your student’s interest wanes.

There are many ways a passage, article or story can be read.

• Read the passage aloud to your student.
• Encourage your student to read aloud to you.
• Take turns reading. Read to each other page by page or paragraph by paragraph.
• Read a passage aloud together. Your student may read every word with you or interject words.
• Read a sentence aloud to your student. Your student then reads the same sentence. Continue through the entire passage in this manner. You and your student can also read a passage phrase by phrase or word by word.
• Tape yourselves reading.

HELPING WITH DIFFICULT WORDS

When your student pauses at an unfamiliar word you can read it aloud for your student. This will maintain the flow of story as interruptions can be frustrating and divert attention away from the meaning of the story. Make a mental note of the words your student has difficulty with and work on them afterwards.

Read through the text twice. The first time you read through a passage focus on reading the words aloud and the second time concentrate on the meaning of the passage. The first time you read, you may wish to use verbal prompts to help your student. Over time you may discover a number of prompts that help your student with common difficulties she may be having. Your student may find short prompts helpful such as ‘break it down’ to remind her to break the word down into smaller parts or ‘begins with’ to focus on the initial consonant.

If your student is unsure of the meaning of a word, you can tell her the meaning of the word, encourage her to predict the meaning based on the context of the passage or look up the word in a dictionary together.

Look for patterns in the types of difficulties your student has reading. For example, some students overlook the endings of words such as ‘ing’ and ‘ed’.

After reading:

• work on the words that your student had difficulty with using the strategies outlined in the sections on phonics, sight words and word structure analysis.
• try to follow every reading activity with a writing activity as reading and writing are interconnected.

TUTORING IDEA # 3: CLOZE EXERCISES

Objective: Delete specific words or parts of words from a text then ask your student to fill in the blanks. (cloze exercises are essentially fill-in-the-blank exercises.)

Why use cloze exercises? Completing cloze exercises helps your student focus on specific difficulties he may be having. You may notice certain patterns in mistakes your student makes when he reads such as overlooking word endings.

When designing and using cloze exercises:

• use passages that your student is personally interested in, such as one of his journal entries, a language experience story or his favourite song.
• design exercises for one specific purpose by focusing on one difficulty your student may be having.
• cloze exercises are regularly used by teachers and in some cases have been overused. Make sure your student wants to complete cloze exercises.

SOME VARIATIONS ON CLOZE EXERCISES

To help your student focus on using context clues to predict the meaning of an unfamiliar word: delete key vocabulary words in a passage. Either list the deleted words below the passage or ask your student to think of words that keep the meaning of the passage.

To help your student learn about consonant sounds remove initial consonants from a number of words in a passage.

To help your student focus on suffixes (word endings) remove all the suffixes in a passage.

To help your student focus on spelling delete all the letters except the initial letter in a number of key words in a passage.

TUTORING IDEA #4: WRITTEN CONVERSATION

Objective: You and your student are having a conversation on paper. The only reason to speak during this activity is when one of you has a clarifying question to ask.

Why use written conversation? Written conversations encourage your student to practice writing in an engaging way.

It is an activity to get both of you writing which is much more interesting than if the student is the only one writing.

It allows the tutor to make corrections in spelling in a non-intrusive way.

HOW TO DO WRITTEN CONVERSATIONS

1. Begin with a blank sheet of paper.
2. Tutor writes down an open-ended question.
3. Student responds.
4. Tutor asks another open-ended question perhaps incorporating words spelled incorrectly by the student in the question.
5. Student responds …and so on and so on.

After the activity, you and your student may want to talk about your written conversation piece.

OTHER READING AND WRITING IDEAS

You can create a number of meaningful reading materials with your student by using the language experience approach, however it is important that you do a variety of activities with your student.

Choose reading materials and activities that are relevant to your student but are not too lengthy or complicated. Connect reading and writing with the activities that your student does every day. Your student will learn the best when she is engaged in a literacy activity that is meaningful to her. Use all of your student’s senses. Talk about it, read about it, do it!

Music and Poetry

• Bring music lyrics to read – write lyrics for a song.
• Rap and read – talk about music.
• Read and write poetry.
• Record each other reading and listen as you read the words.

Mail

• Read junk mail and catalogues.
• Send post cards, cartoons, newspaper clippings to your student.
• Write a letter to a sports figure, music personality, or politician.

Life Skills

• Order from a menu.
• Read shopping flyers.
• Create a shopping list.
• Read a recipe.
• Shop together for groceries.
• Read brand names, cooking instructions and ingredients.
• Read the newspaper, sports section, comics, news, letters to the editor.
• Read the yellow pages.
• Fill out job applications.
• Compile a personal address/telephone book.
• Enter sweepstakes contests.

Movies and Television

• See the movie/read the book.
• Role play a story.
• Read a TV guide, select a program, watch, then critically discuss the program.
• Meet with others to discuss books, magazines, movies, music, etc.

Hobbies, Interests, and Games

• Play word games: scrabble, boggle, hangman, concentration, wheel of fortune, word chains, crossword puzzles, word search.
• Play 20 questions on paper.
• Make a list of crafts to make, list materials needed and steps to take.
• Play computer games.
• Read magazines including comic books.
• Collect and read sports cards.
• Write your own stories.
• Keep a journal.
• Read short stories.
• Read children’s stories. (Use children’s books only if your student has the opportunity to read to a child.)

Street Literacy

• Go for a walk. Read street and store signs.
• Read city maps and subway maps.
• Read signs in the room.
• Draw a map of the neighbourhood, highlighting important places.
• Visit the library and pick books for reading together.
• Visit a used book store or library.

HELPING WITH HOMEWORK

Your student may wish to work with you on homework assignments and school projects. Your role in helping your student with homework is:

• to ensure that your student develops and strengthens literacy skills through doing homework with you.
• to help him complete his homework assignments.
• to help your student develop strategies for doing his own homework, assignments and other school related tasks.

Some of the challenges in helping with homework are:

• Your student may only want to focus on getting the homework done allowing little time to focus on the thinking process or strengthening literacy skills. This is the time to be creative. It is up to you to find ways to ensure that some real learning happens while helping your student meet a deadline. You may need to negotiate with your student to work only half of the session on homework, the other half on reading or writing together.
• Sometimes teachers and parents are more concerned that your student obtains credits rather than ensuring he becomes a successful reader. You may feel pressured to focus on achieving marks. Good marks can be helpful in building your student’s self esteem but only if he feels that he earned them himself. It may be important that you define your role not only with your student but other people in your student’s life.
• It is sometimes tempting to do too much of the assignment or homework for your student. After helping to ensure that your student has all the information and tools to complete his homework, it is important that you stand back and allow him to complete the assignment himself.

Some homework tips

• Read the homework instructions together. Ensure that you and your student both understand the homework instructions. Many students are frustrated by homework because they are confused by the instructions. Reading the instructions first also gives a focus for reading the text or passage.
• Build on the prior knowledge of your student. Skim through the text first yourself. Discuss the concepts in the text with your student before reading it together. Ask your student to tell you what he knows about the subject. Then, build on this knowledge to ensure he understands the concepts and language used in the text.
• Read the text with your student. Talk about the text as you read together. Show how you check your own comprehension. Encourage your student to think
  aloud and question information or ideas. Highlight information that relates to the homework instructions for the assignment.
• Discuss the text after reading. Discuss key points from the text which relate to the instructions. Help your student to organize his thoughts orally or on paper.
• Let your student answer questions. As your student writes his answer, you may be tempted to intercede and change words or phrases. However, your role at this point is to help with spelling and encourage your student to frame the answers himself.
• Encourage your student to edit and proofread his work for spelling and grammar mistakes after he has finished writing his answer.
• Help your student organize. Discuss the strategies that you use for dealing with assignments or essays. Encourage your student to use a school journal or calendar to keep track of assignments, exam dates, appointments, etc.
• Avoid writing in your student’s workbook or binder. Instead, use a blank pad of paper to explain concepts or to show how certain words are spelled. Let your student do the assignment!

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Using standardized tests may help you understand some of the learning needs of your student. However, they are not helpful in many ways.

There are many reasons why students do not do well on standardized tests. It could be that your student simply does not do well on tests or he could have difficulty understanding test questions. Especially if your student is in school, she is already being tested in a number of ways. Your role as a tutor is not to test your student but to figure out the best way of helping her and to provide encouragement by showing how she has progressed. We recommend that you use informal methods of assessing your student’s learning needs and measuring her progress.

WHERE TO START?

When you first meet with your student ask her:

• What would you like to work on?
• What do you want to learn about?
• What are you interested in?
• What would you like to get out of this tutoring?

This information will help you learn about your student’s goals as well as her strengths and needs. Your student’s goals may be very general. For example, your student may be meeting with you because she wants help with schoolwork. On the other hand, your student may have very specific goals. For example, she may wish to work on geography assignments (which involve reading and math), or improve her spelling or learn about the computer. Your student’s learning goals may only become apparent as you work together and they may even change over time.

This discussion will also help you decide what materials to bring to tutoring sessions (books or magazines) and what to encourage your student to bring to tutoring sessions (textbooks, homework).

If your student would like you to help her read, write or spell better, ask her to:

• write a few lines about anything
• read a paragraph out loud.

Make sure your student knows that you are not testing her but you are trying to figure out how best to help. Respond to her reading or writing by pointing out some strengths and by identifying areas where you might be able to work together.

KEEPING ON TRACK

Check in regularly with your student to make sure that your tutoring is on track. Ask your student:

• Are you finding our time together useful?
• Are there other things we should be doing?

Look at some of the things you have done together and focus on improvements and places to focus on. Ask your student:

• What has worked? What hasn’t? What should we be working on?
• How do you think you have benefited by us meeting together?

Reviewing activities may cause you and your student to re-think what you work on or how you work together. Be creative when problems arise.

DEMONSTRATING PROGRESS

Provide your student with encouragement by showing her how she has improved.

• Compare initial writing samples with more recent samples.
• Ask your student to comment on any improvements that she has noticed.
• Look at tests or assignments to see improvements.
• Talk about your observations about any improvements you have noticed.

Remember, it takes time to reach goals. Help your student to view goals in manageable chunks.

KEEPING TRACK OF YOUR STUDENT’S PROGRESS

Maintain a journal and portfolio so you can both see where progress has been made and what still needs to be worked on. Discuss with your student why you would like to keep a journal or portfolio when you first meet with her.

PORTFOLIO

Compile a portfolio of activities with your student. Remember to date everything. Things that can be included in your portfolio:

• brainstorms and outlines for assignments
• first drafts and final copies of assignments, homework or writing samples
• list of books read and dates read
• crossword puzzles and word games
• photocopies of articles, passages and other documents you have read together
• copies of tests or exams from school.

STUDENT’S JOURNAL

Keep a journal with your student that describes the activities that you and your student do together. You and your student can share the responsibility for writing in the journal right from the beginning. Your student may ask you to write in the journal initially and he may write in it over time. Make notes in your journal about:

• what you did during the session
• the most enjoyable activity you did during the session
• what you would like to work on the next time you meet.

TUTOR’S JOURNAL

Keep a weekly private journal with notes of your observations on:

• the ease in which your student reads passages aloud or reads silently
• your student’s feelings towards school and the tutoring sessions
• your student’s punctuality, attendance, materials brought to session.

(You may prefer to note this information directly into your student’s journal so that your student is involved in all aspects of the process however you may find a private journal a useful tool.)

SESSION PLANNING

The extent to which you need to plan your sessions will become apparent as you work with your student. Especially if your student is in school, he may have some very definite ideas about what he would like to do. Conversely your student may ask you to plan what you do together. Whatever the case, it is important for you to provide some structure to the session.

• Choose a place to tutor that is comfortable for both of you. Avoid places that are distracting or inappropriate.
• Talk at the beginning of each session about what you will be working on that day. Together, draw up an action plan for the session.
• Vary activities. Work part of the time on homework or the computer, and try to read and write something every session.
• Be prepared but remain flexible. Always bring something to work on even if your student is eager and always seems to bring something to do.
• Make sure to have time to talk and listen to your student. Discussing what has been read helps with understanding and developing critical thinking skills.
• Talk about what you will do together the next time you meet at the end of each session. This will help both of you prepare.

RESOURCES

Jones, Donald M. Tutoring One-To-One. Peterborough: Paedagogus Publishing Inc., 1994

A good resource for high school students and others who tutor youth.

Kropp, Paul. The Reading Solution. Toronto: Random House of Canada. 1993.

The author provides good advice on motivating reluctant or bored readers. He also recommends some computer games and books for teenagers.

Kropp, Paul and Hodson, Linda. The School Solution: Getting Canada’s Schools to Work for Your Children. Toronto: Random House of Canada. 1995.

The authors provide some valuable tips on helping kids with their homework. Although this book is geared towards parents, tutors will find some useful information as well.

Rabow, J., Chin, Tiffani., and Fahimian, N. Tutoring Matters: Everything You Always Wanted To Know About How To Tutor. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1999.

A book which describes in detail the very successful tutoring project organized out of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) where students from the university work one-on-one with inner-city children in Los Angeles. Highly informative.

Trelease, J. The Read Aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin Books. 1996.

Jim Trelease is a champion advocate for reading. In this book he provides tips and ideas about how to motivate reluctant readers. Also included is a list of popular books geared to varying reading abilities.

Smith, Frank, The Book of Learning and Forgetting. New York, Teachers College Press. 1998.

This short book provides some refreshing ideas about learning.

ON THE INTERNET

There is a wealth of information on helping with homework. We recommend you visit a search engine and use key words like “homework “help” “web sites” “Canada”.