Helping tutors empathize with new readers
Abstract
When tutors understand the frustration new readers experience, it is easier for them to empathize with students and have more patience during tutoring sessions. Tutors should also be aware of the basic techniques children use to discern meaning from reading materials. This practice, submitted by an AmeriCorps*VISTA alumnus, outlines a reading exercise that can be used to illustrate these concepts to tutors.
Issue
Realizing that readers can comprehend meaning by using a variety of techniques and understanding their frustrations in learning to read can help tutors to be more successful with students.
Action
During training, tell tutors that they will be given children's books and will have two minutes to read at least one whole page and skim the rest. They must figure out as much about the story as they can. Furthermore, they are told they are not expected to read everything in the book, that they may become a little frustrated, and that "I couldn't read any of it" is not an acceptable answer at the end of the exercise.
The "trick" of this exercise is that tutors are provided with children's books in foreign languages, making sure no one gets a book in a language in which they are fluent. The books can be borrowed from a local library that has a wide selection of languages such as Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and French.
At the end of the allotted time, tutors share what they were able to understand from the book they were reading.
Trainers should point out the following:
- A child trying to read may feel frustration on a level similar to what they felt when they realized their book was in a language they did not know.
- The techniques they used to understand the book such as looking at pictures, previous knowledge or experience, repetition of words or phrases, and educated guesses, are methods children use to read and are acceptable techniques.
- Techniques tutors should use with the children in the program.
Context
AmeriCorps tutoring programs do make a difference. According to an study by Abt Associates during the 1999-2000 school year, tutored students improved their reading performance from pre-test to post-test more than the gain expected for the typical child at their grade level. Reading comprehension and reading skills started out below grade-level; by year-end, students closed the gap and were reading at or near the grade-level expectation.
Outcome
This approach is great because it gets everyone's attention. It also demonstrates that making educated guesses to discern meaning is a valid technique even when the guesses are wrong. The only failure is when someone doesn't even try.
