Tutoring Lesson 4

Objectives: Good readers can re-read the same text multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message. Good readers can recognize long vowel spelling patterns when playing “I’m Out,” a spelling game.

Assessment: Student writes on their copy of the poem; using underlines, boxes, notes, etc. and answering questions to demonstrate understanding. I will use observation during spelling game to check for recognition of spelling patterns.

Procedures

Opening: “Today we’re going to play a game called “I’m Out” to help us recognize the long vowel spelling patterns. We’re also going to read this poem called ‘Somebody’s Mother’ a few different times to see if we can understand the author’s message for the reader.” Rereading the same text multiple times helps us gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message.

Word Study –    

Student and I will play the “I’m Out” spelling game to work on identifying the long vowel patterns.

Reading 1 –

Purpose: What is this poem mainly about?

Questions:

1.      What did the schoolboy do differently than every other person who passed the old lady?

2.      Why did the school boy help the old lady?

Reading 2 –

Purpose: How is the poem structured or organized?

Questions:

1.      What words in the poem indicate the tone the author was trying to use?

2.      How does the tone when the author talks about the old lady differ from when the author talks about the schoolboys?

3.      What might have happened if the schoolboy had not helped the old lady cross the street?

Reading 3 –

Purpose: What does the text mean? What was the author’s purpose?

Questions:

1.      What lesson can you, as a young person, learn from the schoolboy’s actions?

2.      Have you ever witnessed or experienced a situation like the one in the poem?

Closing: What did you learn about re-reading the same text multiple times? Why did we play “I’m Out?”

Reflection on Student

            

            Margaret did a fabulous job for this lesson! My objectives were, “good readers can re-read the same text multiple times to gain a deeper understanding of the author’s message,” and “good readers can recognize long vowel spelling patterns when playing a spelling game.” She had no problems reaching this objective. We first played the spelling game, which was basically like Go Fish. This was a little trickier because the words weren’t right in front of her and she had to think of the way the words were spelled. She did a nice job of thinking of the spelling patterns on her own in order to make matches. Next we did the close reading of the poem. I was extremely pleased with how well Margaret did with this activity. At first she was wary about having to read the poem three times but I explained how she had a different purpose for each one and she ended up doing great answering the questions using the different parts of the poems. I believe that Margaret made some growth today with the literacy aspects she has been struggling with.

Margaret's finished notes are on the left and my example is on the right. She really  did a nice job of identifying the parts of the poem I was asking her to look for. 

Reflection on Self:

            

            I was surprised with my teaching abilities during this lesson. I had never done a close reading before and I’m not too confident teaching poetry but this lesson went very well. I was proud of myself for teaching well enough that at the end of the lesson Margaret was able to tell me why we did the activities that we did. I was very excited about this because that means she’s one step closer to grasping and maintaining the skills she’s been working on. It also means she was listening when I first started my lesson. This was my favorite lesson so far; all aspects of it were well put together and accomplished successfully. I must be having an impact on Margaret during our short 30 minute sessions because when time was up she was upset that I was leaving and we couldn’t have more time!