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Tutoring Report

Lydia DeFazio

Mount Aloysius College

EDUC 435: Assessment Strategies

November 30th, 2020

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 Tutoring Report

Part 1: Description of the child

I chose to tutor a student from Mr. Kulback’s kindergarten class at Forest Hills

Elementary School! Initially, I told Mr. Kulback that I wanted to tutor a student in his

class in either reading or math, and he gave me the names of a few students who needed

extra help. I told him I would only be able to help one student (unfortunately), so for

some reason I chose E.R. If I had all the tie in the world, I would have loved to tutor the

other students Mr. Kulback mentioned to me. I remember last semester when I had to

tutor a student, the teacher always gave me the name of a few students who I could work

with. This is a side note, but it has really opened my eyes to see that teachers will always

take extra help for their students! I randomly chose to work with E.R in Mr. Kulback’s

class, so I first had to observe her the morning of my first day before doing any sort of

pre assessment with her. E.R is at an average height for a 5 year old. She has straight and

short blonde hair, and brown eyes. Her shoes are always untied, and she never seems to

notice or be bothered by it. She is quiet in class when Mr. Kulback is teaching and is very

sensitive. If she has her hand raised to answer a question and Mr. Kulback calls on

someone else, she becomes very upset or even cries. She keeps to herself in class and is

not very chatty with the other students seated around her. Sometimes, she becomes

jealous of the other students in the class (for whatever reason) and complains to Mr.

Kulback as he just usually ignores her. E.R hates to be left out of anything! When some
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of the students were being pulled from class for speech or OT, she was upset and asked

Mr. Kulback asked why she could not go with them because she did not understand that it

was not personal. In school, E.R loves to go to music and gym specials. She is also good

at just getting work done when it needs to be done whether or not she completely

understands it or not. She needs a lot of help with letter awareness and letter sounds. I

will be specifically addressing letter sounds with E.R since that is where she needs the

most help in that category. E.R is in school almost everyday! Sometimes she comes into

school a little late because she claims she overslept. Other than that she only missed one

or two of the days I was there. Academically, I observed E.R during phonics and ELA

instruction, as well as math instruction. E.R seemed to follow along much easier with

math instruction than her ELA work, so that is where I decided to tutor her. As E.R

became used to me being in the classroom and working with her, she would begin to talk

to me or compliment my outfits. I always made sure to compliment her outfit as well. E.R

is good at understanding math at her own pace. In order to nurture E.R, I catered to her

sensitive nature, and used a lot of positive reinforcement and positive phrasing. As far as

E.R’s home life, Mr. Kulback informed me that her parents are split, and she lives mostly

with her father. I know she has an older sister who sometimes helps her with homework,

and that she has a cat and dog who she loves. Unfortunately, I did not get to have my last

tutoring session with E.R, so I was unable to get her self portrait.

Part 2: Determination for content studied

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In order to determine where E.R needed the most help in ELA, I had to observe her in

class with Mr. Kulback and with her classmates. Mr. Kulback suggested I tutor E.R

because she is one of the lower learners in his class. One of the first things that Mr.

Kulback does with his students is phonics work every single morning. He has letter

flashcards in both uppercase and lowercase letters that he uses with the students to

re-teach letter recognition and letter sounds. He will hold up one letter at a time and ask

the students what the name of the letter is, and what sound it makes. In the first week of

school, the students were honestly terrible at this. Almost every student was very

confused about letter sounds. I can almost assume that this knowledge was well engraved

into their heads in preschool, but after the beginning of covid cancelled the rest of their

preschool year, I am sure a lot of that knowledge was lost. Even though I noticed all the

students struggling with phonics, I continued to keep my focus on E.R. As Mr. Kulback

would go over the letter and the letter sounds with the class, I noticed E.R would

dissociate. She would stop participating shortly after Mr. Kulback began the activity, and

she would look at the ground, or look at her hands. Her eyes would stray from Mr.

Kulback and would stare at the wall or the pictures around the room. At first, without

even meeting one on one with E.R yet, I assumed she was losing focus because she

simply just did not want to pay attention. This theory certainly changed after getting a

chance to work with her in the coming tutoring sessions. After watching E.R during the

morning work, I would walk around the room but stay close to her desk during ELA

instruction. As Mr. Kulback was working through a worksheet in the front of the class,

E.R followed along normally. She would write her name at the top of the paper perfectly
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and would complete her simple letter worksheet as she was supposed to. This surprised

me at first, because after watching her in the morning with the letter flashcards, I

assumed she just struggled knowing all of the letters of the alphabet. This is when I began

realizing that E.R struggles the most with letter phonetics rather than letter knowledge. I

made the decision to do a pre assessment with E.R using the same letter cards that Mr.

Kulback uses with the entire class. After meeting E.R initially for the first time, and

talking to her, I knew that she could use extra help. Any time I tried to ask her a question

about letter sounds or letters she shrugged me off. It was probably a combination of me

being a stranger to her, and her now knowing letters or letter sounds. I was unable to have

a conversation with E.R’s parents unfortunately. I was not allowed to have that specific

information.

Part 3: Daily logs

August 31st, 2020

ELA lesson- 9:45-11:15

Today, I met the student I would be tutoring! She is a kindergarten student in Mr.

Kulback’s classroom! Her initials are E.R, and Mr. Kulback instructed me to help her

with some ELA. When I introduced myself to her I said, “Hi E.R, My name is Miss.

DeFzio, and I am learning how to be a teacher like Mr. Kulback. Would you be able to

help me learn?” Then I mentioned that I wanted to sit with her for the reading lesson. She

was excited that I wanted to be a teacher and moved over to make a spot for me on the
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carpet. Since today was the student’s second day of school, they were only working on

the letter B. I sat right next to her while Mr. Kulback worked with the class with letter

recognition and letter sounds. E.R was actively participating the entire time. She would

repeat and echo Mr. Kulback, and tried her best when doing the letter cards. The first

thing I noticed about E.R was that she seemed to be confident in her letter recognition.

With all of the kids having masks on, it was hard to really see if she was participating

with the rest of the students. Then, I sat with E.R and helped her with her letter B paper

that the rest of the students were working on. She did well following along with the class

when writing the B’s, but she needed more help when she had to circle things that started

with the letter B sound. Moving forward, I will assess her prior knowledge before making

a decision on what she needs extra help with.

Tutoring 1-1:30

Before I began tutoring E.R, I wanted to see what she already knew, and what she needed

to know. In order to assess this, I used the same letter flashcards that Mr. Kulback uses in

the morning with the entire class to see what letters of the alphabet she knows or does not

know. E.R absolutely flew through the uppercase letter evaluation. She knew all 26 letters

without missing a beat. She had almost the same knowledge with the lowercase letters.

She missed three lowercase letters in total. After seeing that E.R knew her letters

confidently, I decided to see how well she knew letter sounds by using the same

uppercase letter cards from before. As soon as I began this assessment, I could see where

she needed the most work. All I said was, “Okay E.R, what letter is this”. She said “B”. I

replied with “Great! What sound does B make”. There was a long pause of silence and a
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discouraged look to the ground before she mumbled, “I don’t know”. I told her the

answer and moved on to the next letter. It was evident from there on that E.R does not

know any of her letter sounds at all. Not even the E that is the start of her name. For the

first 10 letters I went through she would say, “Um I don’t know” or “I am not sure” when

I asked her what sound a particular letter made. I stopped assessing her after about 10

letters because I understood that she just had no idea about phonemic awareness. From

here, I will work with E.R strictly on phonemic awareness. I will also make it very

important that the activities we do are within her interests so she finds purpose behind the

teaching.

September 14th, 2020

ELA lesson 9:45-11:15

Today with E.R, I began by just sitting with her again on the carpet while Mr. Kulback

went through letter sounds and phonics work. From what I could hear her saying, E.R

was participating as usual and trying her best to get the letter sounds correct. When Mr.

Kulback got to the part where the students had to segment words he was saying to the

students, I noticed E.R was nervously looking around at her classmates to see if she was

doing it correctly. I noticed her interest in what Mr. Kulback declines anytime she begins

to struggle. She looks down often, or at her surroundings and loses focus. I corrected her

anytime she began to lose focus by telling her I would do the repetition work with her.

This seemed to help some as she was trying to follow along more with me.

Tutoring 1:00-1:30
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Today, going into tutoring E.R, I was aware that I would really need to focus on

phonemic awareness with her. To do this, I decided to use some of the same hand motion

activities Mr. Kulback does in the beginning of every ELA lesson they do. I pulled E.R

aside while the rest of the class was working on a name activity. I started by having E.R

segment her own name into individual sounds to hear what each letter sounds like. We

went through the letters at a slow pace and made repetitive sounds for each letter. She

would repeat after me. We did this two times before moving on. I started with her own

name so she could see that her name is valuable and those letters have meaning. Next, I

had E.R get her personal playdough from her desk, as well as the laminated name tag she

has on her desk. I made 5 balls of playdough and put one under each letter of her name.

As we sounded out her name, she smashed the playdough ball with her finger. We did this

two times as well. E.R was very interested in this as I am learning that she is a kinesthetic

and visual learner. After we sounded out her name, I did the same playdough sound

smashing activity with smaller words that I had written out for her. She “sound smashed”

the words cat, dog, play, mat and hat. Overall I think E.R really enjoyed this activity, and

I plan to do more hands on activities in the future. Below is an example of the playdough

activity, since I was unable to get a picture of her doing it.

September 21st, 2020

ELA Lesson 9:45-11:15

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Today I sat next to E.R on the rug for the morning meeting. Mr. Kulback went through

the routine of the morning as usual. When it became time to go through the alphabet and

the letter sounds I was anxious to see (or hear because of masks) how E.R would do, or

how much she would participate. To my surprise, she participated through most of the

activity. She would repeat the letter that Mr. Kulback would show to the rest of the class.

Sometimes I noticed her getting distracted and looking around the room. This happened a

few times, and I think it is because she would not know the letter sounds as quickly as the

rest of the class was saying them. Since she did not have much time to think about the

letter sounds, she was prone to giving up and getting distracted by something else in the

room.

Tutoring 1:00-1:30

Before I sat down with E.R today, Mr. Kulback gave me some foam letters to use with

her for extra practice recognizing upper and lowercase letters. The rest of the class was

working on this as well, and he did not want her to miss what they were doing. I sat down

with E.R and helped her as she worked through recognizing the letters. First, she had to

recognize the uppercase letters and place them in the correct order. Then, she had to

recognize the lowercase letters and place them in the right order. One thing I noticed

about E.R when she was doing this activity was that she works well on her own. She is

able to hold her own focus when an activity is individual based. As soon as the activity

becomes a group lesson, she loses focus. As E.R was looking for the capital letters, she

would sometimes get confused if one of the foam letters was upside down or sideways.

Letter orientation is a struggle for her sometimes, but nothing too concerning. When this
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happened, I would encourage her to try to rearrange the letters and see if that helps her

find the correct one. I also noticed that E.R took a little bit longer to put the lowercase

letters in order. Sometimes she would ask me questions about what letter comes next.

When this happened, I would refer her to her name tag on the desk which has a number

line, and the alphabet on it.

September 30th, 2020

ELA Lesson 9:45-11:15

Today for the ELA lesson, Mr. Kulback was out for a meeting in the morning, so I

actually taught the beginning of the lesson along with the morning meeting. I was able to

do the letter recognition activity as well. Even though I was watching all the students to

make sure they were saying the right letter and letter sounds, I was still closely watching

E.R to make sure she was saying the correct letters and sounds. From what I could tell

she was participating. Of course, with a mask on and the other students talking, it was

hard to see if she was saying the correct letters. When Mr. Kulback came back from his

meeting, he took over with the lesson. I sat next to E.R as she worked on her letter D

worksheet. I really wish Mr. Kulback would do something different other than

worksheets with the students. I feel like half of the students fly through it and work

ahead, and the other half of the class is distracted by other things. I notice that sometimes

E.R is very distracted. Sitting with her helps to keep her focused, but on the days I am not

there, I wonder how focused she is.

Tutoring 1:00-1:30
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Today for tutoring with E.R, I wanted to do something that was very engaging. I started

with a Sesame Street video about the alphabet. It was just a fun song to get her engaged

in the next few activities I was going to do with her. E.R said she loved the video so

much! After the video, I went through the same letter flashcards that I used the first time I

sat down with E.R. We went through with letter recognition as usual. She did well on

that! She absolutely shocked me with the letter sound recognition. I fully expected her to

stutter her way through the letter sounds or say “I don’t know” like she has said to me the

previous times. Instead, she was proficient in 75% of the letter sounds! I was so pleased

to see this improvement. I think that most of her improvement comes from Mr. Kulback

does the letter names and sound recognition with the students everyday. On the other

hand, E.R and I have been focusing a lot on letter sounds, so I am sure the extra practice

has helped her a little bit. Now that E.R is doing so much better with letter sound

recognition, I can’t wait to do more engaging activities with her so she can begin to blend

small words. After the letter sounds with the letter flashcards, I did a wipe board letter

sound activity using playdough so she could continue practicing in a way that was

involving kinesthetic learning instead of verbal instruction. We did the playdough activity

with the entire alphabet. E.R would say the letter, then squish the playdough as she said

the sound. She was so excited to do this activity because she told me how much she loves

playdough. Next time I work with E.R I will do more kinesthetic and stimulating

activities that appeal to her interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvBAQf7v8g
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October 5th, 2020

ELA Lesson 9:45-11:15

Today, E.R was late to school and she looked as though she had a rough morning. She

told us that she overslept and missed the bus, so dad had to bring her to school. She was

very quiet and tired looking when she came into the classroom but joined the rest of the

students on the carpet for the morning meeting as usual. Mr. Kulback went over some

sight words about colors. While he was doing this, E.R did not know the words, but was

repeating them as he said the word. She did perk up more when Mr. Kulback was reading

the students a story about beginning Kindergarten. When the students were working on

their letter Q worksheet, she completed it accurately. Sometime I noticed she would get

stuck or confused and look for me to help her. I would walk over to her and try to

encourage her that she could do it on her own because she is smart! As soon as I said that

to her she was able to get the correct answer. I think sometimes E.R gets nervous to work

on her own when she begins to get frustrated. I always reassure her that I know she can

do it! When Mr. Kulback was doing ECRI instruction with the class, she refused to pay

attention and had her head down on the desk.

Tutoring 1:00-1:30

Today for tutoring I wanted to challenge E.R a little more since she has been showing

improvement. I used the wipe board to write a bunch of different letters down. I wrote

both upper and lowercase letters to mix it up a little bit. I had E.R go through the letters

and identify them first, then I would simply say a letter and she would have to identify

and circle that letter. Then, I would say a letter sound and E.R would have to circle the
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letter that made that sound. We did this with three different groups of letters on the wipe

board. Lastly, I had E.R take her foam letters and match them to letters I would write on

the board. She did this with both uppercase and lowercase letters. Before moving on to

the next set of letters, E.R had to say the letter sounds of each match successfully. E.R did

great with me, except for when she started crying right after our lesson because she did

not get to spend time sorting her foam letters with her friends in the class. I tried calming

her down by explaining that she got to spend more time with me, and that her friends

were only sorting the foam letters, they were not doing everything we were doing. Well,

this did not work, and she went back into class still crying. Luckily, this is not abnormal

for E.R, as she is quite emotional and cries often in class with Mr. Kulback.

October 6th, 2020

ELA Lesson 9:45-11:15

Today, I sat next to E.R on the carpet for the morning meeting. She seemed to be having

much better of a day than she had yesterday, so I was happy to see that. Mr. Kulback

started by doing the letter flashcards with the class and E.R was actively participating in

the activity. Not only was she participating, but I noticed that her excitement level and

knowledge level for the letter cards was improved greatly from how it was just a few

weeks ago. I was really trying to listen to her as she was saying the letters and the letter

sounds, and I think she was doing a great job accuracy wise. Even when she made a

mistake and did not get the letter sound correct, she would repeat the correct letter sound

after Mr. Kulback said it to the class. I was so happy to see this from her because she
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used to simply shut down when she did not know the letter or letter sound. To see E.R

actively participating and trying was great to see! After the letter cards, Mr. Kulback went

through the rest of the activities with the class like the rhyming words and changing the

ending of words. E.R participated in this as well, and she continued to have a great

attitude. Mr. Kulback read a short story to the students about fall, and she lost some

attention partway through the story, but stayed focused for the majority of it. She even

raised her hand to answer questions about the story after Mr. Kulback was done reading.

Tutoring 1-1:30

For today’s tutoring, I wanted to keep it lighthearted and easy for E.R since she had a

rough day yesterday. I am also learning that she does not have the greatest home life. Her

parents are separated, ‘and she does not get to see her mother very much. She lives with

her dad and sister, and I think she is not getting enough sleep at home which is why she

comes into school late. Sometimes when she comes into school late, she also looks like

she literally rolled out of bed too. These are just some other observations I have gathered.

I decided to work with E.R in the class today since she kind of threw a fit yesterday after

I had pulled her. I wanted to keep her stress and anxiety way down since she seemed to

have a bad day yesterday. Some of the students were being pulled for assisted reading,

and others were pulled for OT, so Mr. Kulback instructed all of the students to get out

their foam letters and work by themselves to put the letters in order. The students had to

first put the uppercase letters in order, and then they had to put the lowercase letters in

order. I sat right with E.R the entire time she was doing this activity. Sometimes it was

just silent as she was working, and other times she was chatting with me as I helped her
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find an uppercase C. After she had placed the uppercase letters in the correct order

(which took way longer than I expected it to), I asked her to name the letter sounds in

each letter. She did really well with this, and only struggled on the sounds for F and G

and then X. I thought of this tutoring session as a relaxing way to review letter sounds for

E.R.

October 7th, 2020

ELA Lesson 9:45-11:15

This day ended up being my last day tutoring E.R. Due to cases increasing in the school,

the students were going to be transferred to online learning the next week, so I did not

end up meeting with E.R in my last tutoring time. On this day, I sat next to E.R as the

students were on the carpet in their morning meeting with Mr. Kulback. In the morning

meeting, Mr. Kulback actually skipped the letter flashcards with the group because he

read a story to them instead. The story was about friendship, and the students followed

along while Mr. Kulback read to them. E.R was actively participating and engaging in the

discussion about the story. During the class’s ELA time, Mr. Kulback went over the

wordless stories with the students. He handed the students their own copy of the story and

scaffolded the students to begin thinking about what might be going on in the story. E.R

definitely struggled to stay focused during this activity, as did most of the class. The

wordless story was printed in black and white which made the pictures really hard to see

(even for me). I think Mr. Kulback was just trying to introduce the students to something

new, but E.R was lost.

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Tutoring 1-1:30

I did end up pulling E.R out of the classroom for her tutoring on this day because she was

having a great day attitude-wise and was cooperating with Mr. Kulback all day. I told E.R

that I wanted to play a fun letter sound game with her on my laptop. I played the game

which I linked below. In the game, E.R had to listen to the sound played and circle the

letter that made that sound. When I asked E.R if she would want to play a letter sound

game with me, her face lit up! She was so excited! She also loved this activity because it

allowed her to play a game virtually with a touchscreen since my laptop can also be

touchscreen! During this game, E.R was very focused and participated wonderfully!

Besides the good attitude. E.R showed so much improvement with her letter sound

knowledge in the game! She still gets confused by the sound that X makes, but other than

that letter, she was able to correctly name the letter sounds in the game. The very last

thing I did with E.R was another quick whiteboard activity like the one I had done

previously. I wrote random letters down on the whiteboard and had E.R identify them.

Then I would model the letter sounds of the letters on the whiteboard in random order. I

would point to a letter on the board and she would tell me what the letter was and what

sound it made. I even took a video of her doing this as well!

Here is the game:

https://www.ixl.com/ela/kindergarten/which-letter-does-the-word-start-with

Here is the video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hgjWspCGr9zXFZq9A

Side note*****
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Unfortunately, this was my last tutoring session with E.R because the school went virtual

for the next two days of my field week! I was so sad because I really wanted to do my

post assessment with E.R and have her draw her own self portrait! Even though I did not

get to have my last day with E.R, she still displayed SO much growth in a short period of

time. It was just the second day of school for her when I sat down for the first time and

tested her phonics skills. I certainly do not take all the credit for her growth, as I was not

there every day, but I definitely think tutoring her helped so much!
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Part 4 Lesson plans:

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN- Lesson 1

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date_ August 31st, 2020__

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) To gain understanding of what reading knowledge E.R

already knows to make a plan for the future tutoring lessons.______

I. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R to get an understanding of what she already

knows in terms of letter sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.PREK.D

Develop beginning phonics and word skills. • Associates some letters with their names

and sounds.

II. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I will ask her how her summer was, if she did anything fun, or

what her favorite part of summer was. This will be my first tutoring session with her, so I

will try to gain an understanding of what her interests are and make her feel more

comfortable with me.

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III. Instruction

1. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness __To understand what E.R knew about letter sounds.

___________

b. Alphabet Awareness__To understand what letters (both uppercase and lowercase)

E.R already knows before any further instruction.

_______________________________________________

c.Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

1. Uppercase letter flashcards

2. Lowercase letter flashcards

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.
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I will ask E.R to look at the letter on the card and tell me what letter is shown on the card.

As I show her each letter she will tell me what she thinks it is. If she gets the letter

correct, it will go in one pile. If she gets the letter wrong, it will go in the other pile (I will

not tell her that part). Then I will give her the same instructions for the lowercase letters.

For the letter sounds analysis, I will show her one uppercase letter at a time and ask her to

tell me what sound that letter makes.

IV. Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using? Explain

this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R is to first make sure she is comfortable with me, and that

she is focused to begin the assessment. I will do this by asking her questions about her

summer, and what her favorite things are. Then, I will begin to assess E.R with the

uppercase letters on the flashcards. I will just show her the letter and she will tell me what

letter it is. This exercise seems fairly simple, but she is only in kindergarten, and I need to

assess what she already knows or does not know. After she goes through the upper and

lowercase letter flashcards, I will show her the same uppercase letter cards, and ask her to

tell me what sound that letter makes.

V. Assessment (3 minutes)

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or she

achieve the learning target?

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After assessing E.R’s work during her instruction time, I found that she knew her

uppercase letters perfectly. I also found that she knew all but three of her lowercase

letters. E.R does not know letter sounds hardly at all. She successfully made the sound of

three letters out of 26.

VI. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

I celebrated E.R’s work by telling her that she did awesome with me! I also reinstated

that what I was doing with her was not a test, and that she could take her time!

VII. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Like I mentioned above, E.R did a great job of recognizing and knowing her letters both

in uppercase and lowercase. She has very little knowledge of letter sounds and phonemic

awareness.

2. Does this learning target need further review?

E.R’s letter knowledge is fantastic for just starting kindergarten. She needs a substantial

amount of work with letter sounds and phonemic awareness.

3. What will you do next?

Next, I will gather some letter sound games she can play on my laptop, or create

an activity that introduces her to letter sounds. E.R has a hard time focusing when she

does not know the answer to something, so I will also create an activity that will interest

her and keep her entertained.

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Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

E.R is very smart and capable of learning a lot over out tutoring time together. She is very

active and loves to talk. I plan on creating activities around her interests to keep her

focused. She also gets frustrated very easily when she does not know the answer to a

question, and I can see that it overwhelms her.

 
 DeFazio 23

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN- Lesson 2

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__September 14th,

2020__

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School

Learning Target (Objective) _To build on what E.R already knows about phomenic

awareness and alphabet knowledge.______

VIII. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because most of what she needs assistance

with is phonemic awareness. It is important that E.R gets extra practice with phonemic

awareness because Mr. Kulback’s class is already working on sight words. In order for

her to understand those sight words she needs phonemic awareness.

Standard - CC.1.1.PREK.D

Develop beginning phonics and word skills. • Associates some letters with their names

and sounds

IX. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I will ask her to bring her personal playdough over to me so we

can work together. Hopefully, she will see that I do not have a stack of worksheets in my
 DeFazio 24

hands, and she will realize I am not going to quiz her or test her. Also, I will allow E.R to

play with the playdough for a minute or two before beginning.

X. Instruction

4. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness __To build knowledge on the phonemic awareness of her

own name so that she understands that letter sounds have meaning and value.

___________

b. Alphabet Awareness _______________________________________________

c.Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

5. What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

3. E.R’s personal playdough

4. E.R’s laminated name mat

 DeFazio 25

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.

I will ask E.R to make her playdough line up with the letters of her name. While she is

doing this, I will just talk to her and keep her interested in the activity. When she is done

with that, I will ask her what letters are in her name one at a time. I will do this twice.

Then, I will emphasize that her name is very important, and that the letters in her name

matter which is why we need to know them. Lastly, I will have E.R make small balls of

playdough and play one under each letter of her name. I will tell her that I am going to

say the letter, and when I say the sound of the letter she is going to “smash” the ball of

playdough. I will do it for her one time, and then I will have her work through it with me.

XI. Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using? Explain

this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

I am doing this activity with E.R because she needs more assistance with phonemic

awareness. When Mr. Kulback goes over the letter sounds in the morning meeting, she

looks completely lost during the letters sound portion. The last time I did a miniature

assessment with E.R, she showed me that she was very unsure of letter sounds. I am

using playdough because E.R fidgets a bit. This activity will allow her to use her hands as

she is learning.

XII. Assessment (3 minutes)

 DeFazio 26

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

I was assessing E.R as she was doing the playdough smashing on her own. She did not

automatically understand all the letter sounds of her name, but after a few tries she was

getting the hang of it more and more. I told her that these letters are just the ones in her

name, and that there are a lot more to learn that are in the alphabet.

XIII. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

I celebrated E.R’s work by telling her that know she knows the letters to her own name,

and that I was so proud of her! I used a lot of positive reinforcement through the activities

as well.

XIV. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes, E.R hit the learning target because she was beginning to understand the letter sounds

from the letters in her own name.

2. Does this learning target need further review?

Yes, E.R’s phonemic awareness still needs a lot more work.

3. What will you do next?

Next, I will ask Mr. Kulback what he wants me to do with E.R and see what he suggests

to do. I will probably still do the playdough smashing activity again either with the letters

in her name, or the letters of the alphabet.

 DeFazio 27

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

E.R is a great listener in a one on one setting. When I watch her with Mr. Kulback and the

rest of her class I notice that it is so much more difficult for her to pay attention amidst all

the distractions. I also noticed that E.R is fully capable of thinking through a question or

in her case a letter sounds. She needs slightly more time that her classmates to answer a

question. I am curious that this is why she has a harder time following along with the

class when Mr. Kulback is teaching.

 DeFazio 28

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN- Lesson 3

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__September 21st,

2020___

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) _To build on what E.R already knows about phonemic

awareness and alphabet knowledge._____

I. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because she needs extra practice with letter

sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.D

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. •

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound

II. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I sat with her for the end of the class’s ELA lesson and made sure

she understood what she was doing. As she was done with her worksheet, I told her what

a great job she was doing! I also asked her if she wanted to work on her foam letter
 DeFazio 29

activity with just me! I always try to convey my tutoring to her as something that is

special and not a punishment because she tends to be so sensitive and emotional.

III. Instruction

1. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness: E.R will be able to make a connection from recognizing a

letter to the sound that letter makes.

b. Alphabet Awareness: ER will be able to put the foam letters in the correct order.

c.

Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

I will be using the foam letters that each individual student has a set of!

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.
 DeFazio 30

I will show E.R how she has to find all of the uppercase letters of the alphabet and put

them in order first. Then, she will have to find the lowercase letters of the alphabet and

put them in order. When she has successfully completed both steps, I will ask her to name

the letter and we will practice the sound that letter makes together. After doing this once

or twice together, I will ask her to say the letter sounds again, but this time more on her

own!

IV. Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using?

Explain this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R is to keep her calm and not in an anxious state. When E.R

becomes overwhelmed, she breaks down and looses all focus. I plan on keeping her calm

and focused on her work with me. I am finding that every time I tell E.R we are going to

work together I try to make it as exciting as possible so she does not think she is missing

anything that the other students are working on. I will help E.R achieve the learning

target by scaffolding her to find the correct letter in the right order. I do not want to give

her the answer or do the work for her, but I will nudge her in the right direction. When

reviewing the letter sounds with her I will say the letter sound and have her repeat it after

me since she is not as fluent with that skill as she is with letter knowledge.

V. Assessment (3 minutes)
 DeFazio 31

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

During the time that E.R was working, much of it was independent work where she could

work at her own pace. I used this time to silently assess E.R and how she worked on this

independent activity, even though I was right there with her! She did achieve the learning

target because she was able to put the letters in the correct order (with very little

correction or help). She also achieved the learning target of reviewing letter sounds while

I was assisting her. She is still learning this skill, but continues to make great progress.

VI. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

I celebrated her work by telling her that she did a great job with me, and I also

reassured her that she is learning so fast!

VII. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes! The student hit both learning targets with me while I was sitting with her in the

classroom!

2. Does this learning target need further review

Yes, this learning target needs a lot further of a review, especially letter phonics! E.R has

so much potential and does very well absorbing instruction when it is in a way that she

understands it most.

3. What will you do next?

 DeFazio 32

Next, I will have E.R focus more intently on letter sounds probably using a whiteboard

and an expo marker. I will also try to incorporate some kind of song or video for her to

watch to get her excited about letter sounds.

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

I am understanding that E.R sometimes works better independently if I stand or sit near

her. I think just knowing I’m close to her if she needs help is very comforting to her.

.
 DeFazio 33

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN- Lesson 4

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__September 30th,

2020___

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) _To build on what E.R already knows about phonemic

awareness and alphabet knowledge._____

VIII. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because she needs extra practice with letter

sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.D

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. •

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound

IX. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I showed her a fun alphabet song video from Sesame Street! I

figured this was a fun and new way to get her motivated to learn with me. I asked her if

she ever has watched Sesame Street before, and she said she had so I was excited to show

her the video! She was smiling while watching the video, which made me feel as though

she was in a good (and comfortable) mental space to learn.

 DeFazio 34

X. Instruction

4. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness: E.R will be able to make a connection from recognizing a

letter to the sound that letter makes.

b. Alphabet Awareness: E.R will be able to recognize the letters on the letter cards.

c.

Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

I will be using the music video (linked in the daily log above), the letter flashcards, and a

whiteboard and expo marker. I will also use E.R’s personal set of playdough.

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.

After the video, I will quickly flip through the letter cards with E.R to get her thinking

about letter sounds again as an introductory activity. Then, I will use the whiteboard, an
 DeFazio 35

expo marker and playdough to write the first half of the alphabet on the board. Under

each letter I will have E.R make a small playdough ball and place in on the board under

each letter. I will show E.R that as she identifies the letter on the board, she will say the

sound that letter makes as she squishes the playdough ball at the same time. I will model

this for her and then allow her to do this on her own.

Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using?

Explain this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R is to keep her entertained as well as motivated. I am

learning that E.R loves using her playdough and the expo marker as she learns. By doing

this activity, it allows E.R to make a kinesthetic connection between the sound a letter

makes and squishing the playdough. The review of the letter cards in the beginning of the

activity will help her review letter sounds with me so that her memory can be refreshed.

XI. Assessment (3 minutes)

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

I decided to use the playdough squishing activity as my assessment for E.R for today. I

modeled how she should complete the playdough activity, and she was able to do it

herself. If she got a letter sound wrong, I would tell her the correct letter sound and then

retest that letter after a few minutes.

 DeFazio 36

XII. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

I celebrated her work by congratulating her on working so hard today! I also told

her that we would be using more playdough in the future to keep up the good

work.

XIII. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes! The student hit both learning targets with me while I was sitting with her in the

classroom! In a few weeks she is already drastically improving with her letter sight

knowledge and the letter cards. She is also getting better at recognizing letter sounds as

well.

2. Does this learning target need further review?

Yes, this learning target needs further review. Her letter sound recognition is improving,

but she still needs a lot of work in this subject area.

3. What will you do next?

Next, I will challenge E.R by doing more with the whiteboard, and by pushing her to

remember the letter sounds in a game like format.

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

I was so proud of E.R today because she showed me how determined she really is, and

that she cares about learning her letter sound when she is motivated correctly. I also
 DeFazio 37

learned that varying the activity and the level of difficulty in the activities for E.R was

beneficial to her.
 DeFazio 38

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN-Lesson 5

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__October 5th, 2020___

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) To build on what E.R already knows about phonemic

awareness and alphabet knowledge._____

XIV. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because she needs extra practice with letter

sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.D

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. •

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound

XV. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, asked her if she liked using the whiteboard in the previous

tutoring session. She said yes, and how much she loves whiteboards, so I told her we

would be using them today! She was so excited and even said, “yay”! I also reminded her

that we are still going to be learning about letter sounds, but that I am so proud of her and

how much she is growing!

 DeFazio 39

XVI. Instruction

6. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness: E.R will be able to make a connection from recognizing a

letter to the sound that letter makes.

b. Alphabet Awareness: ER will be able to match the foam letters to the letters on

the whiteboard.

c.Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

I will be using the foam letters and a whiteboard/expo marker.

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.

I will write down a few letters in uppercase letters on the whiteboard. I will tell E.R that I

will point to a letter and she will tell me what the letter is, and what sound it makes. I will

do this with her a few times. After this, I will mix in uppercase and lowercase letters on

the board and do the same thing with her. I will even give her the marker and allow her to
 DeFazio 40

circle or put an X over a letter when she correctly identifies the letter and says the right

sound for it. Lastly, I will write another set of random letters down on the whiteboard,

and E.R will have to find the matching foam letter and place it next to the letter on the

board.

XVII. Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using?

Explain this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R was to challenge her with this activity because it forces

her to hear the letter sound from me and recognize it on the board. Using a variety of

materials and methods helped her achieve the learning target because it kept her

interested in what we were doing.

XVIII. Assessment (3 minutes)

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

I assessed E.R while she was listening to me and circling or putting an X over the letter

that I was giving the sound of. I assessed her during this activity and found that she has

been immensely improving since the beginning of our tutoring together. She is so much

more confident when recognizing letter sounds. Even if she makes a mistake, I guide her

through it and she is receptive to correction.

 DeFazio 41

XIX. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

I celebrated her work by telling her that this was the hardest activity we have done

so far and that I was so proud of her for how well she did!

XX. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes! The student hit both learning targets with me while I was working with her outside

of the classroom.

2. Does this learning target need further review?

Yes, this learning target does need more review, but she is learning so much and growing

in her phonics knowledge! I am most amazed at how quickly she is learning as well!

3. What will you do next?

Next, I plan on playing some letter sound games with E.R to review what she has learned

so far and focus on the letter sounds she does not know.

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

E.R had a rough day today. She completely broke down crying twice in class, and one

was because she was upset with me for “pulling her away from the class”. I think she was

having a rough day to begin with being that she came to school very late and looked

exhausted. I know her home life is not the best, and Mr. Kulback said not to take it

personally because she often cries during the day.

 DeFazio 42

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN-Lesson 6

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__October 6th, 2020___

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) _To build on what E.R already knows about phonemic

awareness and alphabet knowledge.______

XXI. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because she needs extra practice with letter

sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.D

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. •

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound

XXII. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I talked to her and told her that we would stay in the class today

and work on the same thing the other students were working on. I wanted her to be open

and willing to work with me after she had gotten so upset yesterday. I realize that E.R and

I have done the foam letters together already, but I added a spin to it this time, plus it

never hurts to play the same game a few times.

XXIII. Instruction
 DeFazio 43

8. Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:

a. Phonemic Awareness: E.R will be able to make a connection from recognizing a

letter to the sound that letter makes.

b. Alphabet Awareness: ER will be able to put the foam letters in the correct order.

c.Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

I will be using the foam letters that each individual student has a set of!

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.

I decided to follow Mr. Kulback’s directions to the rest of the class. He told the class to

put both the uppercase and lowercase letters in the correct order. This sounds like a

simple task, but for 5 year olds, it can take a long time. With E.R I had her basically do

the same thing, except I wanted her to find both the uppercase and the lowercase letters at

the same time. This challenged her a bit, because she is way more comfortable with
 DeFazio 44

uppercase letters than she is with lowercase letters. After the would find each set of

letters, I would ask her what sound the letters made.

XXIV.Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using?

Explain this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R is to let her work independently while I sit there with her.

E.R likes company and works better when she is reassured and isn’t lonely. Also, I will

help scaffold E.R when she can’t find a letter, or forgets what sound it makes.

XXV. Assessment (3 minutes)

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

During the time that E.R was working on finding the set of letters, I was assessing her

thinking patterns and strategies. I also assessed her letter sound knowledge as she was

working through the alphabet. Sometimes she would have to start at A and work her way

to the letter she was on to remember the letter sound. I was perfectly fine with this! I do

think she achieved the learning target!

XXVI. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

 DeFazio 45

I celebrated her work by telling her that she did a great job putting her letters in

alphabetical order! I told her that she is so smart and I always try to reassure her to keep

her motivated!

XXVII. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes! The student hit both learning targets with me while I was sitting with her in the

classroom!

2. Does this learning target need further review?

Yes, there is always room for improvement, but she is doing an amazing job! I can tell

that she is learning so much!

3. What will you do next?

Next, I will have E.R play a phonics game since today did not go as I had planned it to. I

will also do more whiteboard work with her.

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

E.R was having a much better day today, and I was happy to see some of her thinking

processes through this activity.

 DeFazio 46

READING TUTORING LESSON PLAN-Lesson 7

Student’s Initials __E.R____________________________ Date__October 7th, 2020___

Class _Kindergarten (Mr. Kulback)_____ Grade __K_____School _Forest Hills

Elementary School _________

Learning Target (Objective) To build on what E.R already knows about phonemic

awareness and alphabet knowledge. _____

XXVIII. Rationale: Why are you pursuing this learning target with the child?

I am pursuing this learning target with E.R because she needs extra practice with letter

sounds and letter recognition.

Standard - CC.1.1.K.D

Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. •

Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound

XXIX. Attention Grabber (Motivation) Describe a 2 –3-minute activity to grab a

student’s attention relating to today’s learning target or a quick review of a previous

session). Be very specific and this should vary from one lesson to the next.

To grab E.R’s attention, I praised how far she has come in such a short amount of time. I

told her that I was so proud of how well she had learned her letter sounds. I also told her

that we would be doing a letter sound game where she could use my laptop!

XXX. Instruction

Lesson goal – include your learning target in one of the following ELA areas:
 DeFazio 47

a. Phonemic Awareness: E.R will be able to make a connection from recognizing a

letter to the sound that letter makes.

b. Alphabet Awareness: ER will be able to put the foam letters in the correct order.

____

c.Fluency______________________________________________________________

d. Vocabulary

_________________________________________________________________

e. Reading Comprehension

________________________________________________________________

f. Print Awareness/book knowledge ____________________________________

g. Other ______________________________________________________

What materials are you using to help you achieve the above learning target?

I will be using the foam letters that each individual student has a set of!

Model – Show the student what she or he is expected to do. Explain your

procedures here.

I will show E.R how to play the game on my laptop! It is super simple so I think she will

understand it fine! After the game, I will remind E.R of the whiteboard activity we did in

prior tutoring sessions where she had to circle the letter that matches the letter sound, I

would say to her. By this time, she should be comfortable with using the whiteboard with

me.
 DeFazio 48

XXXI. Practice/Collaboration

Explain your plan for working with the student. What activity are you using?

Explain this in detail. How will it help to achieve the learning target?

My plan for working with E.R is to review letter sounds of the entire alphabet since we

have worked on it together in every tutoring session. I will also introduce her to the game

we will play together! By playing the game, and reviewing the letters on the whiteboard,

E.R will get an ample review of letter sounds that will give me an idea of how far she has

come with understanding letter sounds.

XXXII. Assessment (3 minutes)

Plan an independent work time to assess what the student has learned. Did he or

she achieve the learning target?

During the time that E.R was playing the game on my laptop she was doing a great job!

She would say the sounds out loud to herself before selecting an answer. Sometimes

when she would get stuck, she would look at me for help. In this instance, I would ask

her to say the name of the object on the screen to herself so she could hear the beginning

sound as she says it. When she was doing the whiteboard activity, she did a great job at

naming the letter on the board and the letter sound as well. Sometimes I told her to see

how fast she could cross out the correct letter to make it into more of a game.

XXXIII. CELEBRATE! Plan a way to celebrate the student’s work!

 DeFazio 49

Today, I made sure to really congratulate her on doing so well with me! I told her

that I am so proud of how far she has come so far and that she is learning so much

in a short amount of time!

XXXIV. Progress Notes

1. Did the student(s) hit the learning target?

Yes! The student hit both learning targets with me as I helped her play the game and with

the whiteboard.

2. Does this learning target need further review?

The learning targets have improved so much! She could always use a little extra work in

this area, but she has improved so much even from a few weeks ago.

3. What will you do next?

Next, E.R will do a final assessment with me, and I will get to congratulate her on

learning so much and doing so well with learning letter phonics!

Notes and or comments about the student during this session that helps you

understand his or her learning needs better.

E.R had a great attitude today with me and with playing the game. I made sure to keep

praising E.R as she worked with me for working so hard! I can’t wait for my final

assessment with her tomorrow!

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Part 5: Formative assessment used:

Most of the formative assessment I used when tutoring E.R was in the form of positive

reinforcement. Instead of saying simply, “good job” to E.R, I tried to focus on telling her

what she was doing right. I would tell her, “I really love how you are using the uppercase

letters to find the lowercase letters that might make a match”. Or sometimes I would say,

“You have really shown me that you are learning so much, I am so proud of you!”. In the

beginning of tutoring E.R, when she would say an incorrect letter sound, I would say,

“Hmm I do not think that is correct, lets go to another letter and come back to it.” I found

this to really help her stay motivated and not defeated because she was able to retrace her

steps and correct her error. I also used formative assessment in the form of pictures of her

work, and allowing E.R to check her work herself as well. This allowed her to really feel

as though she played a part in her learning.

Part 6 Summative assessment used:

Since I could not really assess E.R formally to track her growth, I used other methods that

worked just as well. When Mr. Kulback was doing the letter flashcards with the students,

I would sit close to E.R so that I could hear if the letters and sounds she was saying were

correct. This was a quick and easy way for me to tell how far she was coming along. In

the first week I tutored E.R, her participation in that activity was slim to none. In the last

week of my tutoring with E.R, she was saying every letter or letter sound along with the

class. I can’t say that it was always 100% correct, but it was far better than where she

started from. Another way I used summative assessment was by repeating some of the
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activities I did with her at the beginning of our tutoring sessions on the later half of my

tutoring with her. This helped me see if she did any better or worse on an activity based

upon her growth in letter and letter sound recognition.

Below is my reflection paper!

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Part 7: Reflection paper

Reflection Paper

This semester, I chose to tutor a kindergarten student who needed assistance in

recognizing her letters and letter sounds. This is obviously a vital skill that most

kindergarten students should be well versed in. Sometimes, a student walks

intoKindergarten doing these skills, and other times is something they have to learn and

grow through throughout the year. The issue with this year, is that these five and

six-year-old students were compromised half of their preschool year, that is if they even

went. This means that a lot of former instruction that would have been done in the

preschool classroom such as letter sounds, and letter recognition, has been fortified due to

the safety of the students and the staff. With E.R I found this to be true. She had very

little to no letter sound recognition skills. Her letter recognition was subpar for a

kindergarten student. I realized that I needed to help her with this if she was ever going to

learn how to read and recognize sight words. I spent 14 hours with E.R to help her grow

in this skill and become a better reader. Unfortunately, Forest Hills decided to go virtual

two days before my field week was to be over. This means that I was unable to get my

15th hour with E.R. Even though I did not get the full amount of time, I still witnessed an

exponential amount of growth in such a short amount of time from the student.

In those 14 hours, I spent a lot of time with her on recognizing uppercase and

lowercase letters of the alphabet. I also placed the majority of the tutoring focus on letter

sound recognition. Luckily, E.R had a prior knowledge of uppercase letters before
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beginning our tutoring sessions. This did make it slightly easier to introduce letter sounds

and phonics to her since she had that prior knowledge. After just one or two tutoring

sessions with E.R, I picked up on certain strategies and activities that would work best for

her and stuck to them. E.R became easily distracted, which is understandable considering

she's only 5 years old. To combat this, I used a lot of hands on manipulatives from the

classroom that she was already familiar with. There were definitely some strategies that

worked better than others. These included the use of whiteboards and playdough when

tutoring E.R. Like I had mentioned previously, anytime she used manipulatives worked

really well for her, and seemed to help her remember letter sounds faster than pencil and

paper strategies. The use of the whiteboard in the Expo marker allowed her to take

control of her own learning. When she had the Expo marker in her hand, you could see

her confidence was boosted immediately. When E.R’s confidence was high, so was her

learning. The foam letters and the playdough worked great with her because it allowed

her to see her own mistakes and correct them herself. Once again, this was another

strategy that helped her take control of her own learning. After the first tutoring session I

noticed that verbal instruction did not work with her at all. I tried asking her what sound

the letter B made, and she simply stared at me and shrugged her shoulders. After noticing

this, I vowed to find another strategy that worked better for her. I am not sure why verbal

instruction is not easy for E.R to remember or learn from, but all I know is that it simply

would be a waste of time to use. Luckily, I think the use of manipulatives, and kinesthetic

learning helped E.R grow exponentially.

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The biggest challenge I faced in tutoring E.R was being sensitive to her emotions.

Sometimes I forget that a five year old is a 5 year old. This means that I forget that

children can be emotional. E.R was definitely emotional, and I had to accommodate this

quite a few times. Mr. Kulback warned me that she cried often in class, and I certainly got

to witness it myself. The reason was never justified for crying from an adult's perspective,

but to a 5 year old, I can see how school can be stressful. To combat her emotional state

so I made sure to only pull her away from class for tutoring if she was in a good state of

mind and having a good day. There were plenty of days that I planned on pulling her for

tutoring where I couldn’t because she was an emotional mess all day. I never wanted to

worsen her stress, so many times I had to rearrange my schedule to tutor her when she

would be in a better state of mind. On the day that I tutored her when she started crying

and almost yelling at me for taking her away from the classroom, it really opened my

eyes. I had to step back and think of life in a 5 year old’s shoes, in the middle of a

pandemic. STRESSFUL!! I knew that her anger she had towards me was only the result

of the frustration she was feeling in school. I will always remember that moment though

because I pivoted my way of thinking as an educator. If I was still in the classroom with

her, I would continue to challenge her letter sound awareness. Since she had grown so

much in a short amount of time, I would use different or new strategies to challenge her

knowledge. I probably would have begun to let her write letters herself to begin making a

physical connection between letters and letter sounds. Also, I would speak to Mr.

Kulback to see if she had done any recent testing that would provide me with more

knowledge about how much she has grown so far. Since she really liked the game I
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played with her the last time I tutored, I would probably find more phonics games for her.

It was so exciting getting to watch E.R grow in such a short amount of time!

I'll admit that I was nervous to tutor her because I was not sure how well I would

do as her teacher. The thought of tutoring a student who isn't necessarily yours is kind of

daunting, but it taught me so much and provided me with so much experience! I am so

sad I did not get to tutor E.R on my last day, but I can't wait to see her again in the spring!