In grades one through three – the primary grades – children learn about language and literacy through exploration.
Within this age group, children's reading and writing skills vary greatly. A few children will enter first grade able to read with considerable fluency. Some children will learn to read and write with ease. Others need the one-on-one attention of a tutor to develop an understanding of basic concepts, build specific skills, gain confidence, and become motivated to read and write.
Below are tutoring strategies for working with children in the primary grades, including:
Reading together
Many tutoring programs use a scaffolding strategy that calls for tutors and children to read together. This does not replace reading aloud and independent reading, instead it is an additional strategy for promoting reading skills. The following are strategies tutors can use when reading with a child.
Explicit modeling
This type of modeling helps children learn to think about what they already know while they are reading. Talk about your thinking process – what you do to get meaning from the words and understand the text. For example: "That's a new word. It begins with cl. I don't know how to pronounce the next part – ue. Harriet is a spy. It must be clue because spies look for clues."
Implicit modeling
This type of modeling also helps children think while they read. When a child is stuck on a word you can suggest strategies he or she can use to figure it out. The child can use these strategies immediately and when reading in the future. You might say, "Try reading the sentence again." "Try reading the next sentence." "Where did the boy go at the beginning of the story?" "Where do you think he might be going now?"
Choral reading
This strategy helps children become more fluent and confident readers. Hold the book together and ask the child to read along with you. Begin reading in a voice that is slightly louder and faster than the child's. As the child becomes more comfortable with reading the text, lower your voice and slow down your reading speed. If the child slows down, increase your volume and speed again.
Echo reading
This is another way to help a child develop confidence and fluency. Read aloud a line of text. Ask the child to read the same line. Continue taking turns reading and rereading the same lines. When the child begins to read with more expression and fluency, suggest that he read aloud on his own.
Paired Reading
Paired reading is a technique that allows tutors to vary the amount of support they provide to a child while reading aloud together. Explain to the child that sometimes you will read aloud together – duet reading – and sometimes he or she will read alone – solo reading. Agree on two signals the child can use to switch back and forth from solo to duet reading. When the child gives you the duet signal, you will begin reading together. When the child feels ready for solo reading, she will give the solo signal and you will stop reading.
Helping children develop decoding strategies
Engaged readers automatically use decoding, or cueing, strategies to figure out new words in text. Marie Clay, developer of the Reading Recovery program, encourages teachers and tutors to help children learn at least four approaches to decoding. These approaches include:
• focusing on the meaning – semantics
• relating sounds to letters – phonics
• looking at how words and phrases are formed – syntax
• recognizing sight words – visual
Some children develop decoding strategies over time with little direct instruction. Other children need one-on-one instruction to help them learn decoding strategies. Here are some tutoring strategies for decoding.
Helping children understand what they read
Reading involves making sense of the written word, or, in today's popular phrase, making meaning. Some children pronounce words correctly and read with apparent ease, but don't know the meaning of what they have read. As children increase their vocabularies, they begin to take more meaning from text.
Helping children become engaged writers
Many reading and tutoring programs include writing as a part of each session because these two language skills are closely connected. As children become more skilled readers, they also improve their writing skills. The opposite is also true – writing contributes to growth in phonics, spelling, word recognition, memory, and reading comprehension. Keeping a reading journal together is one way to encourage writing.
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