Reading and Math Tutoring Approach

Reading tutoring terms and techniques:

• Decodable Readers - Books that focus on the phonetic code and present words to students that follow the concepts that they have been taught. If students have only been taught the sounds s,a,t,i,p,n, then the text would only contain words which the students can sound out (blend) using these letter sounds (tip, pin, tap, etc.). 
• Decoding - Decoding is how students sound out words. You'll hear teachers also refer to "chunking" out a word. In this approach a child will make the sounds of the individual letters and then put them together to form the word.
• Magic "E" - This is an "e" that makes the vowel before it make the long letter sound. Because there is an "e" at the end of "make", the "a" is a long "a" rather than a short one.
• "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking. - In the word "cream," the "e" and the "a" go walking together so the "e" says it long vowel name.
• CVC - CVC stands for consonant vowel consonant. Sometimes teachers will want you to work through a list of CVC words (some may be nonsense words) to help learn decoding. It sometimes a good idea to use similar CVC wors so that students can get the hang of how words work together. ( i.e. cat bat, and hat or cab, cat, or car or top, tap, and tip.
• Site words - There are a lot of short word that do not readily follow the phonetic rules. Students learn these words as site words. Examples include the, who, where, toy, etc. You can use flash cards to teach the kids these words. Start with just 5 to 10 words and additional words as the kids master the initial words. Sometimes it's good to refer back to words they had difficulty with during the reading assignment.
• Comprehension - After students start to make progress in reading, it's time to start looking at comprehension. Get the kids to tell you about what they just read to make sure they understand it.
• Typical 30-minute session. - Spend a few minutes talking with the student.  Have the student read an appropriate level book provided by the teacher for 15 to 20 minutes.  Let them know that you will work with them to move through the level readers and become a great reader. Use decoding tools to help them figure out words. Play a flash card game where you flip 5 to 10 site word flash cards. Celebrate the ones they get right to help them build confidence. Let them know that it's alright not to know words, but that the two of you will work together to learn them. Alternatively, you can work with the kids on a CVC sheet.

This year the library will be available for tutoring. This should work especially well since there will be a big focus on getting the kids to check out books and take them home. 

Brunswick County Schools Traditional Calendar