Section 3 – Opening Activities

Opening Activities: 3 minutes

During the Opening Activities, you will:

Connect with the students so they feel welcome and happy to be spending time with you in order to become better readers.

• Start positive!
  i. “You look like you’ve had a great day.”
  ii. “I am so glad you’re here.”
• Follow up on comments made by students previously.
  i. “How did your test go?”
  ii. “Can you tell me one thing you did while visiting your grandparents last weekend?”
• Have students briefly share out.
  > Acknowledge, keep it positive and keep it short.
  

Set expectations so that students know what they’ll be doing during the session.

• Remind students of the session structure.
  i. “We’ll be playing reading games, then talking about how that went, and then I will read to you!”
• Remind students of rules they have established, such as paying attention, focusing on reading and being respectful.
  i. “Please help me do my job by paying attention and focusing on reading.”
• For small groups, remind them to read silently, following along with their bookmarks when other students are reading.
• Remember to be positive about the fun that everyone will have playing reading games.
  

*Note: It’s important to continue to remind students of expectations and the goal of reading that sounds like talking. After the first month or so, once students become familiar with the session structure and expectations, you can review goals and expectations each time a new book is started.

Set goals by showing students the pages they will be practicing during the session.

• The goal is not to get through the pages, but to read the pages fluently.
• Remind students that fluency is reading that sounds like talking.
  i. “Remember, we are working on sounding like we are talking. By the end of this session, we want to be reading these two pages like we are telling a story.”
  

Have students get ready by doing a brief (less than 30 seconds), consistent routine before beginning the skill-building activities. This may include:

• Stretching and sitting up straight like “scholars” to allow good breathing for good reading.
• Focusing on you, the tutor.
• Making sure all of their materials are ready (bookmark and book if applicable for session activities).
  

Engage in Quality Talk

Quality Talk is an approach based on the belief that talk is a tool for thinking, and that certain kinds of talk can contribute to high-level thinking. You will learn Quality Talk techniques specifically to aid comprehension of the text students are reading or the stories you are reading to them. However, these techniques can also apply to your interactions with students throughout the session. Take opportunities to have short, meaningful dialogue with students during the session. Review the Quality Talk Bookmark resource as a guide.

High Level Conversation

Engage: Engage students in a verbal interaction in general conversations, or around the fluency text or read aloud.

• Sample prompts:
  ○ What are you thinking about?
  ○ What was your favorite part?
  ○ How did you accomplish that?
• Repeat: what the student says in your response. (Do not repeat a mistake)
• Expand: As you repeat, expand with additional vocabulary words, phrases or ideas.
• Begin the process again by engaging the student with another question.
  

Section 3 – Skill-Building Activities, Part 1: Fluency Practice