Incorporating ten strategies to achieve a balanced approach to tutoring
Abstract
The Tutoring Toolkit for AmeriCorps Program Applicants suggests that programs adopt an integrated and balanced approach to tutoring, including planning sessions that include a variety of strategies that support the five components of reading identified by the National Reading Panel. This effective practice is excerpted from the LEARNS toolkit and identifies ten strategies and the accompanying reading components.
Issue
Although the Corporation asks for performance measurement that is scientifically proven, there is little available research to validate specific tutoring strategies.
Action
The LEARNS Tutoring Toolkit for AmeriCorps Program Applicants suggests that programs adopt an integrated and balanced approach to tutoring. Plan sessions that consist of a variety of strategies that support the five components of reading identified by the National Reading Panel. Effective practices comprise the following ten methods (corresponding literacy components are given in parenthesis):
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- Reading children's literature and stories aloud to students (comprehension/vocabulary)
- Students reading and practicing leveled texts (all skills)
- Talking about stories, experience, and meaning (comprehension/vocabulary)
- Writing and journaling (comprehension/vocabulary/phonics)
- Students re-reading familiar texts for speed, accuracy, and expression (fluency/comprehension)
- Learning high frequency words (vocabulary/phonics)
- Hearing/repeating word and letter sounds (phonemic awareness)
- Doing letter-sound games and activities (phonics)
- Making music and rhymes (phonological awareness/vocabulary/fluency)
- Engaging in dramatic play (comprehension/vocabulary/fluency)
Context
In 1997, Congress asked the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and the U.S. Department of Education to convene a panel of experts to systematically review existing reading research to determine what children need to know in order to be able to read. In 2002, the National Reading Panel (NRP) issued the results of their research review in the National Reading Panel Report: Teaching Children to Read.
Outcome
For examples of how these tutoring strategies and reading components might look in a tutoring session, view Sample Session Plans at: http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/files/legacy/filemanager/download/learns/SampleSession.pdf
Posted On
April 13, 2003For More Information
Resources
To find out more about the components of reading and explore the implications of National Reading Panel findings for tutoring programs, see "Frequently Asked Questions about the National Reading Panel" at http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/FAQ/faq.htm.
