I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?

Hi!

I am looking to supplement some income and posted an ad regarding tutoring services. Although I am not a certified teacher yet, I hope to be someday and I do have some limited experience teaching reading/english to middle school children (it was a summer program I did during college years).

My question is this....a mom wrote to me regarding tutoring her 5 year old son who is struggling with reading. Do you have recommendations as to workbooks/lessons I can start with? I want to go into this as prepared as possible and really help this child. I found it easy to do reading lessons with 7th graders but 5 years old are sort of unfamiliar territory.

Thanks so much!!!

(Carol if you read this, please FM me with any info )

Re: I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?

a 5 year old with reading issues probably struggles with phonemic awareness (hearing the sounds in words). they probably also need help with phonetic rules and patterns... find books with predictable patterns and text. you will also need to work on building sight word vocabulary. let me know if you need some more ideas or resources.

but just a thought... usually parents that have concerns with a child NOT reading could have a child with a severe disability (i.e. speech-impariment, dyslexia, etc.) i would really look into their abilities and what they can do before i start--they may have issues you don't have the training to provide. i am a special ed. teacher and i still go to the reading specialist in my building--there is still sooo much i don't know and sometimes my kids see the Wilson reading teacher for the specialized program they need that i don't have the training to provide.

GOOD LUCK!

Re: I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?

I would see if you could contact the child's teacher to see what they're working on and so s/he can give you an objective point of view on the child's strengths and weaknesses.

As far as what to work on - I'd start with assessing the child's ability to identify letters (upper and lower case) and then also with letter sounds. (Of course, if you speak with the teacher, she may already know this -- but it's probably good for you to know this first hand as well). Where you go from there really depends on the results ... if the child doesn't know letters and sounds, that's what you should work on. If he/she does, move onto simple CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) and word families. I'd also work on story elements (from a story YOU read) - characters, setting, etc.

I think I could go on and on so if you would like some more advice/info, feel free to FM me. Hope you get the job!

Re: I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?

Thanks so much to both of you!!

I got a little more info from the mom...he is 5 years old but hasn't started kindergarten yet, rather they put him in a kindercare program. She said it has not given him the start they hoped for into the world of reading and she wants someone to provide phonics help for him. He does not have a learning disability and does great with math/science.

I am researching things you both mentioned now and developing a plan. I would love specific recommendations on workbooks if anyone has them! TIA!!!

Re: I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?

fundations is amazing... you can order the book online and its not that expensive.

Re: I may possibly be starting a tutoring job in reading...any pointers/help?