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Skill Building Activities, Part 2: Review/Reflect and Quality Talk (3 minutes)
During the Session
- Have the students reflect on successes and meeting (or not) of the fluency goal.
i. “Did we meet the goal of fluency — to read like we are talking?”
ii. “Did you try your best?”
- Provide encouragement and support for the students’ efforts!
i. “Your reading was much better the third time you read that section!”
ii. “You’ve learned a lot of new words. Wow!”
iii. “_______ was a word you struggled with but kept trying!”
iv. “You were really focused today and worked hard at your reading!”
- Be honest: If students do not do well or are distracted, discuss this and suggest a different approach for the next time (pay more attention, get more
rest, etc.).
- Record session information on EC Hub.
Comprehension Discussion
▸ Engage in comprehension discussion.
- Have each student summarize and/or talk about information from the reading section just completed. Use the Comprehension Discussion bookmark as a guide.
i. “What are two things you can tell me from what we just read?”
ii. “What was one main thing we read about?”
- The tutor may need to provide story details/examples as a model.
- Supply details and model critical thinking.
i. “I remember…”
ii. “One thing we just read was _________. Another was about ___________.”
- Use thinking out loud (“think-alouds”) to demonstrate how a good reading derives meaning from text. Ask the students similar questions so they can demonstrate their thinking.
i. “I think the main idea was ___________ *because*…”
▸ Keep it short! Help students focus on main idea and main details.
- Discuss one to two points.
- Students will have read only a few pages, so don’t expect a lengthy discussion.
▸ As students become more fluent readers, their ability to focus on comprehension will increase. As students’ fluency levels increase, you may want to ask them different questions, and start questions with different students, to ensure all students get an opportunity to participate.
Documenting Your Session on the EC Hub
The Experience Corps Volunteer Hub is a unified tutoring experience for volunteers, students and staff building upon current Foundation architecture and understandings of the Structured Tutoring Session model. The application intends to reduce volunteer data burden by decreasing the time spent manually logging student session time and activities; by combining video tutoring, session logs, direct messaging and scheduling into one platform.
Experience Corps tutors will receive training locally prior to the start of tutoring. For more information please contact your local training lead.
Section 5 – Skill Building Activities Part 3: Tutor Read-Aloud