Using Tutoring to Continue Progress

East Nashville Hope Exchange is thrilled to offer tutoring as part of continued literacy support to our families throughout this school year. Families and staff worked hard all summer to support these young readers and saw great gains. To continue this momentum, several families committed to bringing their children to tutoring twice a week.

These sessions are rigorous, individualized, and fun. Upon arrival each student gets some screen time -- to read, of course! They grab an iPad and headphones, find a cozy spot, and get to work using Razkids, a dynamic instructional tool which provides students with a wide selection of leveled e-books. Our students begin each session by listening to an audio recording of their assigned text and then create a recording of their own reading. This allows teachers to monitor progress and pinpoint areas for improvement.

This week I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Mariah, an enthusiastic third grader who is eager to improve her reading. Mariah often rushes past unfamiliar words -- a common challenge for struggling readers. Mariah and I reviewed the following strategies to figure out on which word she is stuck:  
*Use initial sound cues
*Use picture cues
*Use context clues from the sentence as a whole

We also discussed how good readers monitor as they go, to ensure what they’ve read makes sense. After some prompting, Mariah began to utilize these strategies on her own  to figure out some tough words. I praised her efforts and beamed! I look forward to seeing her continued progress and we at Hope Exchange look forward to the weeks and months ahead of working with Mariah and her peers knowing they will accomplish great things! Stay tuned to our blog for more updates on tutoring and other school year program activity. Thanks for your support of our mission!

written by Rose Palley, ENHE teacher