EDU 345

SFA Tutoring Final Exam

Fall 2016
Matthew DAgostino

Introduction of Tutee
****** is a male student in the first-grade. This student attends school in the Steubenville
city school district at East Garfield elementary school. He mentioned in one of his tutoring
sessions that he had an older brother but no additional information is known about his family.
****** is a very active first grader who enjoys talking and moving. This student struggles with
siting still and reading. Glasses should be worn by this student but ****** often leaves these at
home. Overall ****** is very friendly and although he struggles with both decoding and
comprehension he enjoys trying to spell and read.
Pre-assessment and Formative Results
Pre-assessment: In regards to phonemic awareness (PA) ****** had trouble blending
and breaking down words. According to the pre-assessment ****** mastered identifying initial
sounds but had some trouble braking down and combining words orally. ****** also mastered
all of the objectives relating to concepts of print (CP) during the first assessment. In the letter
skills (LS) section of the assessment the student performed fairly well reading all letter sounds in
set one and all letter sounds but one in set two. When writing letters for specific sounds he
completed writing all letters in set one and all but two letters in the second set. ****** the
student could also identify all letter names. Considering ****** struggled with many of these
sections I used tutoring plan one for the first five lessons.
Re-assessment/formative: During the first re-assessment the student showed
considerable improvement. When reassessed ****** had mastered all of the PA sections and
identified all letter sounds except four (aw, oi, ur, ir). The student was able to recall 8 out of 12
sight words in set one of the sight words (SW) section of the test. The student was only able to
master set one when reading words using blending during the word skills (WS) section of the test

during this assessment. Lastly when asked to spell a word by breaking it into separate sounds
during the WS section of the test he was unable to master any of the sections. The data made it
clear that the student should be placed on tutoring plan two.
Summative Assessment Results
As with the first re-assessment the student again showed remarkable progress. The
student was able to master sets one and two in the SW section of the test. The student was also
able to master sets 1-3 on the reading words using blending section of the WS portion of the
assessment. ****** was also able to spell all words from set one and two during the second
portion of the WS section of the assessment. Due to this progress ****** was able to move on to
the third part of the assessment. During this portion of the test ****** could master the first set
of words on the first portion of the Word skills section, reading words with base words. ******
was also able to complete some portions of the tracking and comprehension sections but made no
considerable advances during this portion.
Overall by the end of tutoring ****** excelled in PA, CP, and LS. ****** became
proficient in identifying sight words and became more comfortable reading words using
blending. The student however struggled with spelling words and fluent reading. The student
was also unable to read multi-syllable words. The student also had trouble comprehending texts
that were not familiar.
Final Recommendation for Tutee
Based on both the formative and summative assessment results I do not believe that this
student needs additional services or testing. I believe that the one on one tutoring is very
effective for the student. The student should be able to reach grade level with the current
supports that are in place. This student should continue tutoring until the grade level objectives

are met completely. The student does not seem to show any developmental delays. The students
significant progress showed that the student can learn with minimal supports such as
reinforcement provided by Success For All tutoring in addition to good classroom instruction.
Ideas Learned from this Experience
One overarching theme that I learned from this tutoring experience was that successful
tutoring combined with a good relationship between the tutor and student can lead to student
success. After creating a positive relationship with the student a teacher can begin to help the
student fully. By creating a positive rapport with the student, a teacher can clearly outline goals
and expectations and freely give suggestions or corrections to, or receive corrections from the
student. This positive learning environment best helps the student learn. If the teacher knows the
student well and the student knows the expectations of the teacher fruitful learning can occur.
Twenty-minute tutoring sessions can be very impactful to a students learning if they are
conducted well.
Secondly a teacher/tutor must understand how a student learns or the students learning
style. It is important to understand how development and student needs play a part in student
learning. The student that I was working with was a very active first grader who loved to move.
Consequently, learning that involved movement was very effective. The student also learned best
when he was standing. This allowed the student to move freely when needed. By incorporating
activities that involved movement, or allowing the student to play an active game as a reward for
completing an activity I could motivate the student and keep him on task. I found that by
determining this students learning style I could most fully help this student. Activities that
involved tapping, clapping, throwing or other kinesthetic activities were more effective then oral
or visual activities. Overall a teacher should make a serious effort to understand how their

students learn and use both the universal design for learning and practices that meets the diverse
needs of their students in the classroom.