Make the Most of Summer Tutoring with Structured Literacy Lessons

Summer is right around the corner and if you are looking to streamline your approach as a reading tutor, structured literacy is the way to go! Summer is short and there is no time to waste. We’ve use the structured literacy format with emergent and struggling readers and it works like a charm!

Who Your Clients Are Likely to Be

Most of the students you will be working with this summer have had a challenging year. Their parents are seeking summer tutoring for one or more of the following reasons:

• The student has not met end-of-year benchmarks.
• The student has struggled with reading throughout the year.
• The student is either identified with a learning deficit or teachers and/or parents suspect a learning deficit.
• The student is demonstrating signs of frustration or resistance to reading.
• The parent is worried about summer reading loss.

What You Need to Know First

The profiles mentioned above are indicative of a need for a Structured Literacy Format that adheres to the Science of Reading. Our intervention process does both. We are here to make your tutoring life easier. Read on to discover this effective technique that includes all the components of structured literacy.

Step 1 – Assessments

It is important that you know where to begin with your students. You could find this by reviewing current school data. This can be supplied by the parent/guardian.

Conducting your own assessments will help fill in any missing information. The cornerstone of reading is phonemic awareness. Without mastery of phonemic awareness, reading will always be a struggle. For our Kindergarten, First, and some Second Grade students we like to begin with our Phonological Skills Assessment.

Alphabetic knowledge is also a prerequisite for reading. Our Letter Name, Letter Sound Assessment provides great baseline data for emerging and struggling readers.

Another assessment that we like to begin with is the DIBELS 8th. These include benchmark and progress monitoring assessments for each grade level.

Starting with a few critical assessments will help you successfully navigate your summer tutoring. Furthermore, when you reassess at the end of the summer, it will provide data as to student progress and the effectiveness of your tutoring.

Step 2 – Alphabetic Principle

We begin our structured literacy lessons with a quick drill warm-up. Using the alphabet cards, we start by showing the student a letter card. The student must then recall the sound. We choose about 10 cards so as to keep the lesson moving. For most struggling of readers we begin with the letter cards that include the picture as well. We ask the student to tell the ‘whole story’ of the letter. (i.e. letter, picture/keyword and sound – a…apple…/a/.) As the students enunciate the letter sound remind them to ‘clip the sound’, meaning the student should not add an /u/ to the end of the sound. (/d/ not /duh/)

Step 3 – Phonics

Applying letter/sound knowledge to decode words (phonics) is a key step in structured literacy. It is likely that your struggling readers have taken to guessing. For more information, read our post on why guessing is detrimental.

In order to break the habit of guessing, students must successfully apply the phonetic pattern and use that pattern to decode.

We use a technique known as tapping. When given the word cat, the student taps each sound: /c/…/a/…/t/. Please check out our YouTube video for a demonstration on tapping.

The earliest readers, or those who have a weakness in phonemic memory often have trouble sequencing sounds (/c/…/a/…/t/, tac rather than cat), inserting sounds (/c/…/a/…/t/, clat), changing a sound (/c/…/a/…/t/, cap), or deleting a sound (/c/…/a/…/t/, at). These students require a process known as successive or continuous blending. Please see our YouTube video for a demonstration on successive blending.

Step 4 – Applying Phonics to Reading

The next step is applying this letter sound knowledge to decodable texts. The use of decodable texts helps students solidify their understanding of syllable patterns. As students read decodable texts they learn and apply the code of reading and are no longer compelled to guess.

Step 5 – Spelling

Spelling is an important part of a structured literacy lesson. Reading and Spelling are reciprocal skills. Spelling phonetically regular or decodable words is addressed in the same manner as reading phonetically regular words and is referred to as sound to letter matching.

Irregular or trick words require a different approach for accurate spelling.

If you are using our decodable books to teach reading this summer, all you have to do is refer to the back of the book and/or the lesson plans to locate decodable and irregular ‘star’ words for the spelling portion of your lesson.

Step 5 – Vocabulary

Vocabulary and comprehension are essential for successful reading. Students with limited reading experience may have a narrow vocabulary so it’s important to include vocabulary as part of a structured literacy lesson. Vocabulary instruction is essential for English learners too.

Step 6 – Comprehension

The end game in reading is comprehension so be sure to weave in comprehension questions throughout your lessons.

Step 7 – Fluency

Trouble with fluency is an indication that the syllable pattern is not yet mastered. Therefore, opportunities to reread phonetically regular words in isolation and rereading of a familiar text are invaluable for developing fluency. Repeated readings can be assigned for homework practice to help reinforce the phonetic pattern.

With thoughtful planning, your student is likely to have a successful summer reading experience.

As we like to say…

“Every child deserves reading success.”

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