-DAY ONE FUN-

-SESSION ONE-

     

     I was really nervous as I prepared for my first tutoring session for the Diagnostics class. I felt like I knew what I was doing, but I began to second guess myself, and I did not want to make any mistakes infront of my student. I walked into Ms. Tates classroom, and that is when I met my new friend Jaslene. She was super friendly and excited, that made me feel comfortable. She showed me where the library was so that we could begin our session. I began the session by asking a few questions to Jaslene, she was more than eager to answer them and that made everything easier for me. I wanted to figure out who she was, and how I could best help her. She told me she is the oldest of three children and her parents work a lot. She enjoys playing basketball and cannot wait until 5th grade when she can actually play basketball games for her school. Although she does not read for pleasure, she will read when she has nothing else to do. Jaslene perfers Math and Science, and often struggles with Reading and English. I asked Jaslene what interests her when it comes to finding a book to read and she said her favorite kinds of books are books she can personally relate to, like Diary of a Whimpy Kid. She said that one way I can help her is by helping her understand the content of whatever she is reading, she says she sometimes struggles with understanding some things.

  

      After getting to know my student, I moved on to having her read a couple sentences so that I can see where she is at on a reading and retaining level. I began her on level four and moved her on to level five and six. She presented many diffuculties in level six, so I ended up keeping her in level five. I had her read the level five narrative passage to herself, and once she was finished I had her answer some questions that related to the passage. She successfully answered all questions correctly, I was very proud. She did struggle on the last question, "What was the purpose of this story?" but with a few different explanations and an example, she understood. Once she was finished reading the passage, I read her a passage and asker her to pay close attention to the story. As I was reading Jaslene seemed as though she was really distracted, and I became worried. After I finished reading the new passage to her, I asker her some questions to see if she comprehended it. She started off answering the questions very good, but as the questions went on, she couldn't answer as many correctly. Next week, I plan to work with Jaslene on her retention skills so that she can better succeed in comprehending the information in a text. She did very well in all of the other areas. 

    

    Overall, it was a very successful session and I feel like I learned a lot. We ended a bit early, so I took the opportunity to get to know her some more. Her passion for basketball was great to see, I really enjoyed getting to understand what her passion is. Jaslene asked why I was here, and wanted to know a little about what this is for. I told her that it was for my college class to become a teacher, and I was tutoring her so that I can understand how to help struggling readers. I told Jaslene that she was teaching me while I was teaching her, and she thought that was cool. She is a very smart student, and I think that this tutoring journey will be great for us both. I am really glad that I get to work with a student as bright as Jaslene.