Victoria Schwandt

EDU 4220
2/1/14
Peg Kulas

Tutoring Summary 1/27/2014

Pupil: Dylan Conner
Grade: Third
Instructional Reading Level: QRI 3

Interests and Attitudes:

The first tutoring session I shared with Dylan proved to be beneficial for me
as his tutor because I was not only able to gather information about his interests
and attitudes about reading, but was able to establish an environment with him
where he feels safe and comfortable showing his reading weaknesses, yet can also
feel confident about the reading skills he performs well at.
By asking Dylan questions from the Interest Inventory, Attitude Survey and
Motivation to Read Interview, it is clear that Dylan and I share an enthusiasm for
informational and expository texts, as opposed to narrative texts. Dylans favorite
subject in school is math, which does not require as much reading as other subjects
like social studies and science do. However, when Dylan does choose books on his
own, he prefers to read books that pertain to the subjects he is studying in school
such as Abraham Lincoln or the sinking of the Titanic. This will help direct my
instruction for future tutoring sessions, but influencing the types of literature that I
choose.
What I admired about my first conversation with Dylan is that he is very
aware of the importance of reading and writing, and mentioned how it is needed to
learn everything in school. Dylan recognizes that he is an average (okay) reader
and can get stuck on words very easily. Dylan mentioned that he really enjoys
playing board games with his best friend Braden, which is an indicator to me that
Dylan will not be opposed to reading actual books and not desire to read text off of a
tablet or computer.
Activating Prior Knowledge:
When choosing a story to conduct the running record, I had previously made
copies of 4 different stories that were the same grade level so that Dylan would be
able to read the titles and choose the story he wanted to read first. Dylan arranged
the stories in order, and was adamant about reading the story The Trip to the Zoo
first. I was not surprised by this choice because of how Dylan mentioned he loved
science earlier. I was very impressed with Dylans prior knowledge when answering
the concept questions, and was very specific in his responses. For example, when we
read the second story Where Do People Live?, Dylan was asked the question,
What do farm animals eat? and responded, They eat grass, wheat, hay and other
plants, which exhibits prior knowledge in the realm of science and social studies.
However, Dylans predictions about the stories didnt quite relate the concepts that
had just been previously asked.
Oral Reading and Miscue Analysis:
For both of the third grade level running records that I completed on Dylan,
he scored above 95% accuracy. However, what I noticed about both running records
is that Dylan hardly made any self-corrections. When an error was made, he was not
conscious of it and continued reading very fluently. Many of the errors that were
noted were proper nouns such as the names Carlos and Maria. The rest of the errors
Dylan made were insertions that did not change the meaning of the story and
similar letter and sound patterns.
Fluency, Retelling and Comprehension:
Dylan read with a tremendous amount of expression, yet had difficulty
stopping or pausing for punctuation. Dylan is not a word-by-word reader and reads
with emphasis. I believe that this is due to the fact that he is cognizant of what is
going on in the story. However, because this was only my first session with Dylan, it
is possible that my perception of comprehension could be blinded by the fact that
Dylan has a tremendous amount of prior knowledge with both subjects. For
upcoming lessons, I would like to also select texts that are outside of his comfort
zone, to see if Dylan is able to comprehend main ideas as easily. Dylan answered the
comprehension questions 100% accurately when asked, but had difficulty retelling
the events in order. It is possible that he felt nervous as he was watching me check
boxes on the test as he was retelling events.
After conducting the running records, Dylan chose to read the picture book
the Legend of Michigan and conversed with me his knowledge of the Great Lakes.
This led into him asking me how to spell the names of the lakes and I taught him the
acronym HOMES to remember the lakes. This was another example in which
Dylans prior knowledge piqued his interest in a certain text.