FINAL THINGS A TUTOR NEEDS TO KNOW

This chapter includes suggestions that are very important as you start your tutoring work but they do not fit into any specific previous chapter. This may be the most significant chapter of the training manual because it contains practical ideas that you can employ from the first day you tutor at your assigned school. Consider these suggestions as Life's Little Instruction Book for America Reads Challenge Tutors.

• The single most important factor in your student's success is you, the tutor. This has been documented repeatedly over the years. This means that you can make a difference. Think back and decide in which course you learned the most. Was the teacher a factor in your success? Therefore, if you care, are interested, and put forth effort, the child will have some success.

• In order to learn to read, your student must read. This makes sense. If you want to be a better golfer, you must practice golfing. If you want to be a better pianist, you must play the piano. Likewise, if you want your student to learn to read, he must read. This means that reading is more important than talking about reading, doing worksheets, or listening to someone else read. Your student should read every day. Remember the old Chinese proverb as you tutor. Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand. In other words, have your student read every day.

• Gear activities to the interests of your student. Find out from the student what his likes/dislikes are, what kind of hobbies he likes, what interests him, before tutoring begins. This will help in planning activities and finding books of interest for each individual child.

• When in doubt about what to do, read to your student. This is good for several reasons. It helps develop a sense of story. It helps him know what language sounds like. It helps the student realize that reading can be fun. And it can be very motivating, especially if you select something fun. They will want to be able to do for themselves what you are doing for them (reading). Carry with you, one of Shel Silverstein's poetry books. People of all ages enjoy those poems! Use it to fill those minutes at the end of the session when it is too late to start another activity and too early to return to the classroom.

• When you read to your student, you should direct his attention to the pictures (if there are any) as you read. If the book you are reading is straight text and you have a very restless student, it would be all right for the student to draw as you read. You need to ensure that the student is listening by discussing the story and predicting what will happen next as you read it. Do not make the mistake of reading a story or book without comment or discussion.

• Make reading purposeful. Any time you have an opportunity to write a message to your student, do so. For third graders, for example, who love riddles, have a written riddle of the day. And do one every day. By the time you finish your year tutoring, you will be an expert on riddles and no one will be able to stump you! Another way to make reading purposeful is to write to your student. For example, if your student has school during an SIUC break, let him know ahead of time about your expected absence by writing him a note telling him that you are going to miss a day of tutoring.

• Always plan more for a session that you know you have time for. It is always better to have too much to do than to run out of material, ideas, activities. If you exhaust your activities and plans within the first few minutes of the session, the remaining minutes will be the longest you have ever endured!

• Remember that you are the adult. You are in charge. You must direct the session. You cannot let the student take charge. If you do, you will never regain control. If you do not have control, the student cannot learn and your time will be wasted.

• While you are the person in charge, you can let the student have some control. For example, if you have difficulty getting a child to comply with what you want to do, tell him that you and he are going to do certain things in the session and you should tell him what those things are. Then let the child tell you what he wants to do first, next, and so on. This accomplishes two things. You have determined what will occur in the session and he has the sense of control that he needs.

• If a student does not recognize a word, does not know the definition of a word, or cannot pronounce a word, do NOT tell him to look it up in the dictionary. The dictionary should be the course of last resort. How many of you run to the dictionary when you have difficulty with a word? Probably very few. It is unrealistic to expect that behavior of your student. Teach him to pronounce the word by spelling patterns and analogy or with phonic principles. Teach him to use context to determine the meaning of a word. Or, have him skip the unknown word and determine what it means as he continues reading. That's what good readers often do. Dictionaries are a valuable resource but probably should not be consulted first.

• Be human. Teachers and tutors do not have to distance themselves, remain aloof, and always be the authority. You can be respected and personable and fun. Know something about your students. Greet them by name when you see them at school or away from school. Like them. You will have much more success if you build relationships and have rapport with your students. If you do not like children, you need to find a different job.

• Use your student's name frequently. Nothing catches attention better. Nothing gives the impression that you care more than saying your child's name often. It gives the student the impression that he is important and that contributes to his self-esteem.

• Remember, reading is a process. It is not a product like social studies. There are no facts or dates or names to learn. You are teaching someone how to do something. Keeping this in mind will promote your student's success.

• Phonics does not equal reading. It is a helpful strategy in learning to read. But it is just one of four cueing systems that good readers use in order to read. They are: syntactic (how language sounds), semantic (what the words mean), background cues (memories, mental images, associations, prior knowledge and background), and graphophonic (this is the phonics part). There is a balanced use of cues in good readers.

• Fewer than half of the words in the English language are regular and conform to phonics rules. If a person knows and can apply every phonic generalization correctly, he will hit the correct pronunciation probably about half the time. Do NOT overemphasize phonics but do NOT ignore it, either.

• Remember that motivation is extremely important. Your student will not learn to read unless he wants to. Help him want to learn by having interesting sessions.

• Nothing succeeds like success. You must balance what you do between challenging material that pushes the student and easy material with which he can be successful. If you went into a situation daily and failed, you would give up and not go back, or at least not want to go back. The same is true of your student. Every minute of every session need not be challenging to the student. But your student should be focused on learning every minute of every session.

• Be consistent and predictable. This is extremely important with the age group and children you will tutor. This applies to lesson planning, attendance, and discipline.

• Maintain confidentiality. You will get to know a lot about the children you tutor either through the child or school staff. It is imperative that what you learn and know stays with you and school personnel. You must not talk about these children outside of this setting except with your supervisor. If you mention to a friend some identifying information about one of the children you work with, they may know them or someone else who does. Confidentiality is not only limited to not using names but, stating anything about the child that may identify them (school and/or family situations, town they live in, school attended, etc.).

• More learning will occur when you devise games to teach words or a skill than when you develop a worksheet. This also helps build rapport. Kids love games.
• Word games are better than worksheets. Actually, almost anything related to reading is better than worksheets.

• Do not assume that your student understands with just one explanation. You need to develop the habit of overexplaining, saying things several different ways, and explaining again when your student does not understand. Remember, if your student could understand with one explanation, he probably would not be coming to you for tutoring. New teachers are often amazed that so much repetition is needed with young children.

• Be respectful of your students and treat them as you would like to be treated. Some teachers write their students notes on the blackboard when they are absent. For example, in one teacher's room was a note telling her class that her daughter Chelsey was ill with a 103 degree fever and the teacher could not be at school that day. Besides being considerate of her students, she was giving purpose to reading and writing, a great thing to do.

• If your student asks you something you cannot answer, say that you are not sure but will find out. Not knowing something is nothing to be ashamed of. Failing to search out an answer for a question a student asks is something you should avoid.

• You will probably have few discipline problems in a one-on-one tutoring situation. Many of the causes of misbehavior do not exist in a tutoring situation. For example, children sometimes misbehave in an effort to gain attention. In tutoring they have the tutor's attention. Another source of bad behavior is when a child is frustrated. You will carefully monitor the difficulty of material so this will not be a factor either. These advantages vanish when your group of one, becomes larger.

• Enjoy your work with students and reading. If you can enjoy your tutoring, you will be an effective tutor and your students will learn. Your tutoring session should be a mutually beneficial situation.

The only place where success comes before

work is in the dictionary.

--Vidal Sassoon