EDU 345 SFA Tutoring Final Exam (Summative Report)

2nd Semester

Mark Fioramonti
 Introduction of the Tutee:

Wilashia is an African-American kindergartener student at East Garfield Elementary School in

downtown Steubenville. She is one of two kids in her family and her brother also attends East as
a first grader. Wilashia lives with her mother across the street from the school in the projects.
As far as I have gathered, her father does not live at the house but is around. She is a very
bubbly, energetic personality and is motivated to learn. She loves to learn new activities and
catches on to concepts very quickly.

Pre-Assessment and Formative Results:

1. Pre-assessment:

Wilashia definitely does struggle with many different aspects of the English language. She
struggles a little with speaking and pronouncing specific words. In my first session with her, I
asked her to identify some letters I showed her. She was absolutely lost and was not even sure
what I meant. She did not know how to identify the letter I showed her or the sound the letter
made. When it comes to singing her ABC’s, she can do them all the way through but for the
most part she bunches up a majority of the letters at different points in the song. When I ask her
to follow the letters along while she is singing, she tries but does not understand the concept.

I wanted to try to see if she could identify specific letters within words or just within a bunch of
letters, but she also struggled with this. I also wanted to see if she could identify the difference
between capital letters and lower-case letters, but she did not understand the difference.

When I read her books to practice concepts of print, she does not understand things such as
periods, commas, or where sentences begin. Along with these books, I checked for
understanding for comprehension. Wilashia could remember things right after I read a page but
if I asked a question about something that happened a few pages back she would not understand
or would take a guess. I also wanted to see if Wilashia knew anything about rhyming. I read a
book about rhyming and she seemed to understand, and I even gave her a set of words to see if
she knew if they rhymed and she did relatively well. But it seemed as if she were guessing and
so I tried again. I quickly found out she was guessing and that she needed work in this area.

Goals:

My goal for the remaining weeks is very basic but is a great starting point. This goal is
to get Wilashia proficient with her letters. This includes her being able to sing her ABC’s
completely, identifying letters in words and on their own, and identifying letters and the sounds
they make. I think many of the other aspects such as concepts of print and rhyming will all
evolve and improve as well once her letters are mastered. Already this past week we have
worked on the letter “a” and the sound it makes, and she has begun to understand it better. I also
want her to be able to write letters without a prompt. She has already shown she can write letters
with help and just needs more practice. I believe that is where a lot of this boils down to. She
needs lots of repetition and practice. In the few weeks I have been with her, she has displayed
many moments of promise and improvement. With extra help a couple days a week and lots of
repetition presented in fun and engaging activities, I believe Wilashia can make strides in
kindergarten so that she is proficient with her letters and can move on to first grade.

2. Formative Report #1:

Assessment Results: The particular assessment I tried to use one that was given to us by our
cooperating teacher. This was a two-part assessment that was comprised of comprehension and
phonemic awareness. She did not do too well on comprehension but would occasionally get a
couple right in a row when asked questions about a story we read. For phonemic awareness she
struggled just as much if not more, as she was not even able to finish the assessment. It quickly
occurred to me that she needed to start from square one. Through a lot of research and
connecting with my peers I was able to find multiple activities that would suite Wilashia’s goals.
The two main goals I had set for her are to become proficient with her letters as well as concepts
of print as these were two things I knew she struggled with and that were on the assessment. I
quickly realized this was a lofty goal but, at the same time, something achievable for her. These
two goals I broke down into two parts of the tutoring lesson; letter skills and concepts of
print/comprehension. For 10 minutes, every lesson, we would work on letter skills and for the
other 10 minutes we would work on concepts of print/comprehension. The tutoring plans are
broken down below, but assessment was not administered after 4 lessons because of how far
behind Wilashia is.

Goals:
Letter Skills:

Letter Recognition: Letter Sounds:

Wring the first three letters of the Knowing the name/sound of the first three
Alphabet. This included capital and letters of the alphabet. Lots of flash cards
lower-case letters and would be done by were used for repetition and practice of
tracing, finger tracing, and with the help this skill.
of physical prompts.
Singing ABC’s while moving her finger Matching letter sounds with the beginning
across the letter that she sings of word sounds. Picture cards were used
for this.
Recognizing the letters “A,” “B,” and
“C,” apart from other letters
Recognizing the difference between
capital and lower-case letters (flash
cards).

Letter Sounds:
 Read Alouds: Comprehension:
Read alouds have been the main tool i. We would also work on
used for concepts of print. As we read comprehension during the read alouds as
the book, I would ask her questions well. This would mostly be done at the
about the print. This would include end of a page or after the end of the
things such as, the title, the author, book. I would ask her questions about
reading from left to right, how to hold the book, such as what happened, who
the book, where letters can be found, certain people were, why certain things
and where words can be found. Many happened, or sequences of events. This
other questions were asked but these are mostly involved her telling me back
just a couple examples. things that happened in the book.

3. Formative Report #2:

Assessment Results: Since the last formative report, Wilashia has made great strides in many
different aspects of her reading and writing skills but there are things Wilashia still needs help
with. In her initial assessment, Wilashia struggled in the two-part assessment which included
comprehension and phonemic awareness. She could not answer questions about text we would
read or know what words rhymed and which words did not. Recently, Wilashia tried to complete
some parts of the same assessment. She did much better on the comprehension aspect of the text
but still struggled with rhyming words and other parts of phonemic awareness. My goal for
Wilashia has been to get her proficient with her letter skills as well as her concepts of print. Both
of these areas Wilashia has improved in but still needs work in. My outline for how I would help
Wilashia become proficient was and still is to work with her for 10 minutes in each skill. I have
decided to continue with this method of instruction as it has worked very well for Wilashia and
she seems to have begun to see patterns in letter sounds and has also been able to pick up on
details within stories we have read. After reviewing my previous tutoring plan with a teacher, I
recognized I needed a greater emphasis on phonemic awareness. The teacher said that the plan I
had was great but recommended an emphasis put on phonemic awareness. Although the general
outline of each tutoring plan has not changed, I have tried some new and different activities that I
have researched and/or gotten from other teachers or my peers. Wilashia is a very energetic
students and needs to be constantly engaged and focused. Varying the activities has helped her
do this and have fun in the process. Below is a detailed outline of what we have been working
on.

Goals:
Letter Skills:

Letter Recognition: Letter Sounds:

Tracing letters with her finger with tactile Breaking apart words into each letters
letters sound
EG: “dog” d/o/g (picture cards)
Recognizing the difference between capital Segmenting a word (aloud) and she would
and lower-case letters (flash cards). have to blend it to discover what word it
was. She word was connected with an
action in which she would do once blended.
EG: Instructor: sss/ppp/iii/nnn
Wilashia: “spin!” - *spins in a circle next to
seat
Singing ABC’s while moving her finger Letter sounds using flash cards
across the letter that she sings EG: Display letter – she says the sound and
then practices writing the letter on the card
Recognizing the letters “A,” “B,” and “C,” Letter sounds identified in read alouds
apart from other letters

Giving two letters and asking her to identify Matching letter sounds with the beginning
the letter that comes in between the two of word sounds. Picture cards were used
for this.

Going through a sentence and picking out Counting sounds in words

specific letters in that sentence EG: Given a picture card with a word –
then counting how many sounds were in
that word.

Comprehension:

Read Alouds:

Asking questions about the text being read:

EG: The title, the author, reading from left to right, how to hold the book,
where letters can be found, where words can be found, where to start the
book?

Recognizing what was in the text and what was not

EG: Given pictures or words that were or were not in the text and she was
asked to identify if they were in the story or not.

Story outline: Mapping out the different parts of the story with a graphic
organizer.
 Relating aspects of the book to her own life – making the book we are
reading more relatable.
Predicting what will happen in the story next.
General comprehension questions
EG: what happened on this page, who certain characters were, why
certain things happened, or sequences of events.

Summative Assessment Results:

It has been very fulfilling and gratifying looking back and reflecting on where Wilashia started
and where she has come. At the beginning of the year, Wilashia could not identify a single letter
of the alphabet. Her ability to manipulate words was nonexistent and she struggled to write
letters. She also knew very little about concepts of print. Wilashia now has the ability to
manipulate 3 and 4 letter words and hear their beginning and ending sounds as well as segment
words. She is not perfect at this but given the opportunity she has the ability and motivation to
figure it out. Wilashia can now write any letter with the help of a visual or verbal prompt. These
prompts are sometimes not even needed. It amazes me because now she can even write letters
that are very large or small. If she were to be read a children’s book, she could identify the title,
the author, punctuation, and answer various questions about the text. At the beginning of our
tutoring sessions, she struggled to identify these at all but now has become somewhat proficient.
All these achievements are small and bonus accomplishments compared to the strides she has
made with her letters. As I previously stated, at the beginning of tutoring Wilashia could not
distinguish the difference between the letter’s “g” and “d.” Now, Wilashia can not only write out
these letters but she knows the sounds of each and every letter of the alphabet. It was especially
fulfilling, when, in our last lesson, we went through each letter of the alphabet with
manipulatives and she sorted them in the alphabet and identified their sound. I am extremely
proud of her for being able to do this and for all the work she has put in to get to this point.
Being able to recognize letter sounds is a huge stepping stone to learning how to read; especially
now as she is preparing to enter first grade next year. I attribute these accomplishments to two
things; preparedness and motivation. Being prepared for the days tutoring session directly
correlated with how much Wilashia learned that day. If I was prepared to teach, she was
prepared to learn. Wilashia’s motivation was also critical for her success. She was very
motivated and engaged in almost every lesson and this helped her achieve so much.

With all these accomplishments, Wilashia does still need to work to improve and prepare
herself to get to first grade. Although she is proficient with letter sounds, letter names she
struggled with a little bit more. Wilashia also struggled with rhyming. She would often get the
concept of ending sounds but could rarely match two words that rhymed. In addition, Wilashia
still needs to work on blending and segmenting words. Being able to proficiently manipulate
verbal words can lead to phonemic awareness that will propel her to succeed.
 Final Recommendation:

As previously touched upon, Wilashia is a very quick learner. She catches on to concepts
quickly and with a little, focused practice she can have success with these topics. To help keep
Wilashia on track and on a path to success, I believe she needs help in three areas. The first is
keeping up with her letters. Having a focus, each week, on three specific letters will greatly help
her. This could be during general instruction and involve things such as letter names, sounds,
capital and lower-case letters, and being able to write letters. This will help Wilashia keep up
with her letter skills and not fall behind. The second aspect Wilashia would greatly benefit from
is read alouds. These could be daily read alouds that only last a couple minutes during general
instruction. The teacher can prompt student thinking by asking about concepts of print as well as
comprehension aspects of the book. This will enhance Wilashia’s vocabulary as well as
phonemic awareness. Lastly, Wilashia would most greatly benefit from one-on-one instruction.
This could be for only 20 minutes once a week, but it would allow the instructor to redirect
Wilashia where she was confused. It would also allow for the instructor to enhance her learning
experience and work on things Wilashia may be behind on compared to her class. I believe
Wilashia’s struggles originate mostly from confusion about specific concepts and a lack of
exposure. With focused and intentional help, I believe Wilashia will move on to first grade next
year.

Two Significant Ideas That You Learned In This Experience

One idea that I had during the tutoring process was an activity that involved letter sounds and
flash cards. I would show Wilashia a flash card with a letter on it and she would say the sound it
makes. Once she did that, she would practice writing the letter on a piece of paper. After she
wrote the letter, she would crunch up the paper and throw it into a trash can while saying the
letter sound. This activity I got from a past teacher I had, and it really helped Wilashia learn
multiple skills while also doing something that was fun and competitive. The second activity I
learned was also from a past teacher. This activity involved blending letter sounds to make a
word. I would segment a word out loud and she would have to put the letter sounds together to
figure out what word I was segmenting. The segmented word was always some sort of action
and once she figured out the action, she would do the action (Eg: t/w/i/r/l – “Twirl”– once
determined Wilashia would twirl next to her seat). This was another great activity where
Wilashia could be active and learn at the same time.

Two articles that I read really stuck out to me over the course of the semester. The first was the
article on homelessness. This article discussed the vast amount of homeless people out there and
the rising of this number. It really struck me how many homeless students there are in America’s
schools and also that being able to identify these students is not easy. I reflected on this and
realized that many students I interact with at East Elementary might be homeless and this can
greatly impact their learning. Being compassionate and empathetic to these students can give
them someone who they trust and can rely on. It also reminded me to not be judgmental and to
remember that unknown, poor behavior can be a result of this. The second article that I took a
lot away from was an article on opioids. Like homelessness, opioid addictions are becoming
more and more common. These addictions are not just affecting adults but children and more
specifically babies of these parents. Growing up, these children’s can have severe emotional and
behavioral issues that not only impact their home life but their school life. This article helped me
realize the many struggles that parents go through and how these struggles can be related to their
children.

Looking back on this semester, I am very grateful for the opportunity to have tutored. Although
it was not easy, learning to tutor and be an advocate for these students was a powerful experience
I will not forget.