When a student is struggling with English and school in general it is often useful to go back to the very beginning to see if there are any fundamental gaps in their ability to recognise, name and say consonants, vowels, and two letter sounds.
Two letter sounds can be broken up into digraphs, diphthongs and blended sounds.
A digraph can be defined as two consonants together that make one sound. They can be both consonant digraphs such as sh, ph, ch, th, ng, wh, and ck. Digraph can also be a combination of two vowel sounds such as ee, ou, ea, oo, ie and ei. This is just the beginning of breaking down the English language using phonetics as a starting point to teach children how to read.
It is so easy for a student to miss some of the fundamental sounds in kindergarten. Perhaps they had a family holiday or were sick with Covid or a bad flew and missed a couple of weeks at school. The general classroom is such that teachers have very limited time to spend with every child individually to test their mastery of each sound at each stage of kindergarten. While children are often sent home with sight word lists with specific sound groups, parents are also incredibly busy and often this drill and practice of the basics can slip by the wayside in the busyness of the average school week. If not identified and addressed at this early stage, this gap can then be carried through with them into upper primary and high school. This gap can continue to have an impact on a student’s ability to break words down into their individual sounds, blending them together and hence, decoding complex subject related vocabulary. This can affect their ability to read subject related texts, their confidence in reading out loud and delivering speeches and their overall confidence at school. As students’ progress through the curriculum reading aloud and delivering speeches is an integral part of assessment in most syllabi, so the ability to decode and use subject based vocabulary is important.
So how does going back to the basics in English tutoring work?
This approach is crucial, particularly with high school students as your key as a tutor or support staff, is to not make the student feel like they are stupid. The first step is to connect with the student and build a rapport, let them know and feel that you are interested in them as a person. Ask lots of questions about what they like and dislike in and outside of school. Get to know them a little. Questions such as these are a good starting point;
I haven’t met you before, I’d like to find a bit about you so that I can tailor our English tutoring sessions to suit you and make it as interesting and useful as possible
Do you have any questions about me?
How do you feel about having an English tutor/individual in school support?
Was the English tutor/individual in school support your idea or your parents/schools?
How do you feel about English?
What do you find hard or easy?
What do you like or not like?
Here is a small notebook, as you think about them, write down any questions you would like to know about me and you can ask me during the next English tutoring session.
Establishing rapport and a good working relationship is crucial to successful support for students who need assistance with their reading.
Once a relationship is established, explain to the student that you want to start at the beginning to rule out any gaps in their ability to blend sounds and decode words when they are reading. Choose an age-appropriate piece of fiction or school related text and have them read a passage out loud to you. Ensure that you can also see the text and write down any words that the student stumbles over. This can be a really great clue as to the sounds they might be struggling with and sometimes there will be a clear pattern of sounds that is quickly identified. Note how fluently they read and whether they take note of the punctuation in the passage as they read. That is, do they pause at commas, full stops and change their tone with question marks and exclamation marks. These can all act as clues about where an English tutor needs to concentrate to improve a student’s ability to decode texts at school. This can then form the basis of future tutoring lessons.
After reading a passage out loud, ask the student to write a paragraph about a given topic. This may cause anxiety for some students who are hesitant writers. Some starter option approaches and strategies to get a student to write can include;
don’t ask them to write a paragraph up front
ask the student to write 2 sentences and then ask them to add one more sentence
base the writing task on a topic of the student’s choice, for example asking boys to describe their favourite computer game or television show.
Give the student a sentence starter such as, My favourite computer game is ……., I love this computer game because……. The graphics of my favourite computer game are awesome because …..
Have the starter sentences on laminated cards so that the student gets to choose the one they want to use – choice is very useful in creating commitment and ownership of a task
Make sure you have all the equipment required to complete the writing task at hand so that the student can’t use lack of equipment as an excuse to not engage (often they will have it in their bag but if they are a hesitant writer they will use all strategies to avoid engaging in the task. When a student knows there is an issue with their writing and reading, embarrassment can also kick in and hiding their need for help is not uncommon, particularly in self-conscious teenagers)
If the English tutoring and student support is happening at school, organise a location that the student’s peers cannot easily see. This ensures that if the student is embarrassed about being singled out for assistance that they will be willing to participate in support sessions outside the classroom.
Assessing the writing sample can help an English tutor to identify issues in a student’s ability to negotiate written text. It can make clear whether a student can use basic writing conventions such as simple punctuation, sentence structure and spell common words correctly. It can help to confirm patterns that were identified during the orally read passage or identify new issues that were not evident during the previous reading of the passage.
It can also be crucial to go through a phonics test. This asks students to read out all of the twenty-six consonants and five vowels and the range of sounds used in English words. These consonants, vowels and sounds are then used in a range of words that the student is required to read out. Again, this is an opportunity to identify sounds that the student isn’t able to identify, sound out and read.
Creating an English Tutoring basics plan
Once an English tutor or school support officer has collated this information a plan can be drafted. This plan will aim to address any gaps so that these can be addressed with the student over a series of lessons. Think back to the amount of time that was spent on each letter and sound in kindergarten. It’s not a quick process and the skills and knowledge that a student may have missed need to be covered over weeks and not skimmed over. Covering each sound or skill thoroughly before moving to the next is key to the student closing the gaps that have existed in their ability to decode texts they are required to use at each stage of their schooling.
Some approaches for tutors could include, covering one sound a week for ten to fifteen minutes at the start of each tutoring session. This might include explaining the sound, saying the sound with the student looking at your face as you say the sound, having the student repeat with you and then make the sound themselves. Look at words with that sound and read them together. These can be put on flashcards for use and review each lesson as you make your way through the sound gaps that the student has.
Building on these mini sound lessons, it is useful to address any grammar and punctuation issues identified in the writing sample. A useful strategy for an English tutor is to use the original piece of writing and not mark it but identify how many spelling errors there are, how many capital letters are missing, and any other punctuation anomalies that are present. Present the student with their piece of writing again and ask them to identify the errors – so in effect they are marking, editing and correcting their own work. The tutor and student would then go through the piece of writing and discuss the errors and any that have not been corrected. Misspelled words can also be looked up and written down for revision.
To extend this further a tutor can us this piece of writing by reviewing nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. Record the student reading their written passage as it was first written.
The tutor can review the meaning of nouns and verbs with the student. The student can then identify the nouns and verbs in their written passage by highlighting them each in a different colour. Cut up the writing and teach them how to use a thesaurus to locate descriptive words or alternate words with the same meaning to enhance their writing and improve its imaginativeness and richness in description. Add these into the passage and stick it back together with the added and improved adverbs and adjectives. Record the student again reading their new and improved written passage and ask them to compare and describe which sounds better. The obvious answer is going to be the second as it is now more descriptive, using a greater variety of vocabulary.
Tutors can use a range of approaches to help struggling readers. Going back to the start to rule out any phonic gaps is a great place to start. This gives a tutor the opportunity to reteach missed concepts so that a student can move ahead confidently in their approach to reading familiar texts and also decoding unfamiliar vocabulary. Having a good grasp of phonics and reading is the foundation for improving the quality of a student’s written work. Once they are reading with confidence a tutor can then start to work on expanding vocabulary.