I now tutor a ten year old student entering fifth grade. His good manners make me think he probably gets lost in a classroom of rowdy ten year olds.
As a teacher I often had to work with the kids who caused disturbances while the good kids were quiet. Quiet doesn't always mean a student is working or that he comprehends.
Practice is important. Because our children work with computers and computer games early, they write a lot less than they need to.
1. Have your child write his spelling words or any other words or facts he needs to learn on cards. If each card contains one word or one fact, learning can be focused on small bits. Make your own "flash cards" and use them for review, even after you think that information has been learned. If the child writes the word carefully and neatly, he'll remember it better. Have him say the letters as he writes them.
2. If a child has poor handwriting, stress that there are times when neatness is important and remind him he isn't racing. Today journals allow a student a place to write without worrying about neatness or spelling. That can reduce pressure and encourage a student to write more, but there are times when neatness and correct spelling and grammar count.
3. Always allow a child to do a rough draft to get his ideas together, then have him do a neater draft with correct spelling and neat writing. Teach students that drafting is good.
4. If you want to help a child improve his handwriting, let him practice with the paper he used in first grade or pretend regular ruled paper is old practice paper. Have him use three lines as two. This can help him remember to keep the letters in proportion.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Grab Your Young Student's Attention part 1
One way to grab a youngster's attention is by making up stories with him or her as the main character. For my first grade student, I work on a story no more than 500 words long, usually fewer words.
I asked him what kind of stories he would like about himself. He made a list - with my help - of the things he wanted in his story. His list included do magic, a magic hat, rabbits, a magic wand, and a magic cape. Magic stories I can do, piece of cake. How hard could it be, since I made up stories and characters for my daughter when she was young?
I double space each story and use a nice large font and wide margins at the top and bottom. The more white space the better for a young reader.
When I bought the first story for the next lesson, he read about himself. He learned he could fly to the top of a tree and that he could understand what a kitten was telling him. We were building up to super powers, kid style. Since I tutor him for an hour after he has been in school all day, we take turns reading aloud. He likes that.
When he asked how many stories I could make up for him, I told him as many as he wanted. He liked that a lot!
This time he wanted space aliens and guns and swords and guns that shot swords and a space ship bigger that ten houses, and cannons. Hmmm, not so easy.
I created Fitzu, a space alien.
More on Fitzu later.
I asked him what kind of stories he would like about himself. He made a list - with my help - of the things he wanted in his story. His list included do magic, a magic hat, rabbits, a magic wand, and a magic cape. Magic stories I can do, piece of cake. How hard could it be, since I made up stories and characters for my daughter when she was young?
I double space each story and use a nice large font and wide margins at the top and bottom. The more white space the better for a young reader.
When I bought the first story for the next lesson, he read about himself. He learned he could fly to the top of a tree and that he could understand what a kitten was telling him. We were building up to super powers, kid style. Since I tutor him for an hour after he has been in school all day, we take turns reading aloud. He likes that.
When he asked how many stories I could make up for him, I told him as many as he wanted. He liked that a lot!
This time he wanted space aliens and guns and swords and guns that shot swords and a space ship bigger that ten houses, and cannons. Hmmm, not so easy.
I created Fitzu, a space alien.
More on Fitzu later.
Lesson One, Nouns and Verbs
Starting simple is always good, even if your writing is complex. If you already know this material, read over it anyway and feel smart.
My student's writing is complex and he uses a lot of complicated concepts, so we needed time to identify the concept nouns by their uses in his sentences. Concrete or tangible nouns are easier to pin down than intangible ones.
FIRST LESSON
In order to work on sentence structure and effectiveness, I’d like to make sure you and I have the proper building blocks to speak the same language. Those building blocks are called the parts of speech.
The first two parts of speech we’ll identify are nouns and verbs.
Part 1
Nouns name persons, places, things, ideas, concepts, creeds, etc.
John, America, Duluth, Ford, Catholic or Catholicism, University of Georgia Bill of Rights are all proper names.
Carriage, car, man, boy, religion, city, school, university, gym, church are common names. They don’t name a specific person, place or thing.
Many words can be used in different ways in different sentences.
Part 2
Verbs show action or state of being.
Jump, sing, read, throw, study, practice, run, find, exercise, and shoot are action verbs. Verbs have tenses you use automatically, like jumped, sang, threw, studied, practiced, ran, shot.
Have, has, and had are helping verbs or show possession when they appear without an action verb. May, might, can, could, should, would, will, and shall are all helping verbs.
Is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being are all being verbs since they show no action. Seem, appear, and felt are verbs also.
If you want to do something with this knowledge, select a page you have written or a page in a book. Copy that page so you can mark it up.
On the same page, find the verbs and color them blue, nice bright, easy to spot blue. Include verbs of being and helping verbs listed above. Now mark the nouns with red.
What happens in your sentence? At least one word in a sentence tells you that. Then find the word that tells who or what did the action. That will be a noun or a pronoun.
Want to try this on your own? Send me your answers and I'll grade you. Copy a page and paste in into a document. Highlight your nouns and verbs in color.
Make a comment or ask a question.
My student's writing is complex and he uses a lot of complicated concepts, so we needed time to identify the concept nouns by their uses in his sentences. Concrete or tangible nouns are easier to pin down than intangible ones.
FIRST LESSON
In order to work on sentence structure and effectiveness, I’d like to make sure you and I have the proper building blocks to speak the same language. Those building blocks are called the parts of speech.
The first two parts of speech we’ll identify are nouns and verbs.
Part 1
Nouns name persons, places, things, ideas, concepts, creeds, etc.
John, America, Duluth, Ford, Catholic or Catholicism, University of Georgia Bill of Rights are all proper names.
Carriage, car, man, boy, religion, city, school, university, gym, church are common names. They don’t name a specific person, place or thing.
Many words can be used in different ways in different sentences.
Part 2
Verbs show action or state of being.
Jump, sing, read, throw, study, practice, run, find, exercise, and shoot are action verbs. Verbs have tenses you use automatically, like jumped, sang, threw, studied, practiced, ran, shot.
Have, has, and had are helping verbs or show possession when they appear without an action verb. May, might, can, could, should, would, will, and shall are all helping verbs.
Is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being are all being verbs since they show no action. Seem, appear, and felt are verbs also.
If you want to do something with this knowledge, select a page you have written or a page in a book. Copy that page so you can mark it up.
On the same page, find the verbs and color them blue, nice bright, easy to spot blue. Include verbs of being and helping verbs listed above. Now mark the nouns with red.
What happens in your sentence? At least one word in a sentence tells you that. Then find the word that tells who or what did the action. That will be a noun or a pronoun.
Want to try this on your own? Send me your answers and I'll grade you. Copy a page and paste in into a document. Highlight your nouns and verbs in color.
Make a comment or ask a question.
Tutoring a Graduate Student in Grammar
Tutoring my someone like my graduate student is the kind of experience every teacher should have. This man WANTS to learn grammar. Yep, grammar. He writes a lot now and wants to be able to proof and edit his own papers.
An intelligent and educated man, he missed or forgot the grammar rules. Listening to news reporters and anchors makes me believe a lot of people in his generation missed out on the basics. As a retired military man he knows about rules and structure.
What's the big deal with the grammar rules? There are rules to allow you to communicate in an effective manner with anyone who speaks your language. Even now people have their children study Latin or a different language because studying those languages involves learning grammar rules. Why not learn the rules of your own language?
Some folks refuse to learn formal usage or correct sentence structure because they already know English. What if you learned the wrong structure, the wrong words for things you need?
Would you argue with a French teacher about learning the right words to use or the correct sentence structure? If you did you'd fail the class in French. That is true of any language. If you use the wrong French words around a Frenchman you might end up with your face rearranged or a bad stomach ache from eat the wrong dish.
If you wanted to build a boat, you'd need to know about carpentry and the structure of boats. You'd need to know the rules before you could break them, unless you wanted to launch your boat into the water and see it sink or enter it in a race and lose because you didn't learn about shape and design for speed. Are their different designs for a motor boat or a sail boat? I would need to find out if I planned to build either kind of boat.
Many people can't perform simple repairs on their homes because they don't have the right tools or don't know how to use them. What's the difference between a nail and a screw? Would you use a sledge hammer to hammer a nail? Would you use a nail file as a screw driver? (Some of us have, but it doesn't always work. You can't always pick a lock with a hair pin, either.)
I plan to present the tools for anyone to improve his or her grammar. Check back often and feel free to ask questions.
An intelligent and educated man, he missed or forgot the grammar rules. Listening to news reporters and anchors makes me believe a lot of people in his generation missed out on the basics. As a retired military man he knows about rules and structure.
What's the big deal with the grammar rules? There are rules to allow you to communicate in an effective manner with anyone who speaks your language. Even now people have their children study Latin or a different language because studying those languages involves learning grammar rules. Why not learn the rules of your own language?
Some folks refuse to learn formal usage or correct sentence structure because they already know English. What if you learned the wrong structure, the wrong words for things you need?
Would you argue with a French teacher about learning the right words to use or the correct sentence structure? If you did you'd fail the class in French. That is true of any language. If you use the wrong French words around a Frenchman you might end up with your face rearranged or a bad stomach ache from eat the wrong dish.
If you wanted to build a boat, you'd need to know about carpentry and the structure of boats. You'd need to know the rules before you could break them, unless you wanted to launch your boat into the water and see it sink or enter it in a race and lose because you didn't learn about shape and design for speed. Are their different designs for a motor boat or a sail boat? I would need to find out if I planned to build either kind of boat.
Many people can't perform simple repairs on their homes because they don't have the right tools or don't know how to use them. What's the difference between a nail and a screw? Would you use a sledge hammer to hammer a nail? Would you use a nail file as a screw driver? (Some of us have, but it doesn't always work. You can't always pick a lock with a hair pin, either.)
I plan to present the tools for anyone to improve his or her grammar. Check back often and feel free to ask questions.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Johnny Can't Read
The author of today's article has earned a B.A.in Learning Disabilities. She has 16 years experience working with LD/BD/OHI students.
Johnny Can’t Read
by MJ Flournoy-Moon
Having a child with a learning disability can be a heartbreaking thing. Often our children are so adept at hiding their difficulty behind disruptive behavior that we don’t realize there is a problem. If your child is having difficulty learning to read the first thing you should do is go for a vision test. I’ve done that you say, yes, but there is more to consider than whether your child has 20/20 vision. It could be a muscle control or tracking issue. Ask your child if the letters or words ever dance or jump on the page. If the answer is yes, that’s a good indication of a vision problem that should be referred to a specialist.
When your child has difficulty learning to read, the sooner you become pro-active in the process the better. Don’t leave it up to your child’s teacher to solve the problem. There are several things you can do to help. The most important thing you can do is read with your child. Don’t just have him sit quietly at the table reading silently.
Guess what? If little Johnny is sitting at the table quietly reading his reader, he isn’t really. Does that come as a surprise? Well it shouldn’t. Children are very good at entertaining themselves within their own little world. He sits there, book open, head pointed in the right direction and his eyes are open, but where is his mind? It’s outside playing ball, in his room playing his new video game, anywhere but on the book he’s supposed to be reading. The easiest way to get around this is to have him read aloud to you. Pay close attention as he reads. If you have a copy of the text so you can follow along that’s even better. But if not, stand behind him or sit next to him and listen to him read.
The important thing here is to have him read aloud to you or another member of the family on a consistent daily basis. It doesn’t matter to whom he reads, as long as he reads. It doesn’t matter what he reads, as long as it is at his comfort reading level. If he struggles with it, it’s above his level. This isn’t the time to reach for a higher level, but the time to build confidence and fluency. It doesn’t matter if the child has read the material before. In fact, reading a story he is familiar with will increase his confidence and fluency.
News flash—the best way to teach your child to read is to make him read aloud everyday. Invest fifteen minutes a day, everyday, even if it is five minutes three times or ten minutes twice a day. Be lavish with praise and gentle corrections for mistakes. Don’t make him labor at sounding it out, count to three silently and give him the word and move on. Provide reading material at his comfort level in topic areas he finds interesting. Try reading with your child and see his reading level climb!
Feel free to ask questions.
Johnny Can’t Read
by MJ Flournoy-Moon
Having a child with a learning disability can be a heartbreaking thing. Often our children are so adept at hiding their difficulty behind disruptive behavior that we don’t realize there is a problem. If your child is having difficulty learning to read the first thing you should do is go for a vision test. I’ve done that you say, yes, but there is more to consider than whether your child has 20/20 vision. It could be a muscle control or tracking issue. Ask your child if the letters or words ever dance or jump on the page. If the answer is yes, that’s a good indication of a vision problem that should be referred to a specialist.
When your child has difficulty learning to read, the sooner you become pro-active in the process the better. Don’t leave it up to your child’s teacher to solve the problem. There are several things you can do to help. The most important thing you can do is read with your child. Don’t just have him sit quietly at the table reading silently.
Guess what? If little Johnny is sitting at the table quietly reading his reader, he isn’t really. Does that come as a surprise? Well it shouldn’t. Children are very good at entertaining themselves within their own little world. He sits there, book open, head pointed in the right direction and his eyes are open, but where is his mind? It’s outside playing ball, in his room playing his new video game, anywhere but on the book he’s supposed to be reading. The easiest way to get around this is to have him read aloud to you. Pay close attention as he reads. If you have a copy of the text so you can follow along that’s even better. But if not, stand behind him or sit next to him and listen to him read.
The important thing here is to have him read aloud to you or another member of the family on a consistent daily basis. It doesn’t matter to whom he reads, as long as he reads. It doesn’t matter what he reads, as long as it is at his comfort reading level. If he struggles with it, it’s above his level. This isn’t the time to reach for a higher level, but the time to build confidence and fluency. It doesn’t matter if the child has read the material before. In fact, reading a story he is familiar with will increase his confidence and fluency.
News flash—the best way to teach your child to read is to make him read aloud everyday. Invest fifteen minutes a day, everyday, even if it is five minutes three times or ten minutes twice a day. Be lavish with praise and gentle corrections for mistakes. Don’t make him labor at sounding it out, count to three silently and give him the word and move on. Provide reading material at his comfort level in topic areas he finds interesting. Try reading with your child and see his reading level climb!
Feel free to ask questions.
Tutoring a First Grader, an introduction.
Tutoring a first grade boy can be interesting. My student Jackie is cute as a button. He begins with a taciturn attitude, all quiet and serious. Soon he becomes quite entertaining.
The first time we met I used sight word cards and a story for us to read aloud. When he got all but two of them on the first pass, I put several cards in a pile and had him choose some to make a sentence. Then I added more cards to his choices and he added them to the sentences, then he made a new sentences.
That showed me he knew the meaning of the words he could pronounce.
The first time we met I used sight word cards and a story for us to read aloud. When he got all but two of them on the first pass, I put several cards in a pile and had him choose some to make a sentence. Then I added more cards to his choices and he added them to the sentences, then he made a new sentences.
That showed me he knew the meaning of the words he could pronounce.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Yes, a new tutoring site.
Follow Ms. Mary's adventures in tutoring.
See lessons created for my tutoring students and feel free to ask questions.
See lessons created for my tutoring students and feel free to ask questions.
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