Spelling and Reading Tutor

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

What are any suggestions for once a week tutoring a 14 year old ps student in Spelling and Reading?

 

I cannot disclose information about this student. 

 

No "known" learning disability, although ps told them : 4th grade reading level and have a remedial class that is not helping.  

The problem for me is not knowing what is going on.  Should I ask to speak to his reading teacher?

 

I want to help and really don't know how to get started.  Too many programs for "phonics" are too babyish.  

 

I have used Earobics with my own dd10 and many other books and games.

 

Since this is only 1 day per week it iimits the choices.

 

So far, I have only used Spelling Power as an assessment and plan on a reading assessment this week.  I hope this will shed some more light.

 

Also, Political Science is what the student needs help in studying and I hope to have some time to read and use some DVD's to supplement and discuss.

 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Bumping this.

 

You might read the following books to see if any of them might help you help him:

 

The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan by Ben Foss

Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide

 

Even if a program seems "babyish" going back to basics may be his best chance to actually learn to read effectively.  

 

Hopefully, someone else has a suggestion for specific things you might try for helping him.

[Plink]

This student needs a qualified dyslexia tutor. Normal reading programs will only hinder his development, and 1day a week isn't going to be nearly enough to help him.

 

Wilson, Barton and other Orton-Gillingham programs are written with older students as their target audience. Subjects like the prom are in even their most basic readers using only short vowels.

 

Please refer this child to someone who has the training to help him.

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

  https://www.logicofenglish.com/struggling-readers

 

I watched Denise's videos last year and have them saved on my hard drive.

 

I will buy the LOE Spelling games with cards to use and see if they help.  They are straighforward and we can use them at home too. 

 

I can go to his house twice a week and may have to ask his dad to work with him some when he is home.  

 

I had no idea what I was walking into with a Spelling Tutor requested. 

 

Sequential Spelling was the breakthrough 6 years ago with my LD son.  He has had several bumps with learning to read and I started him on Phonics at 3 and back then with the HOP cd-rom he had to complete each level to move on.

100 EZ lessons did help him, but still he struggled with sounding out words. 

 

Sustained Silent Reading time also helped him.  Nintendo magazines, Game Informer, and now World Magazine along with Halo books are increasing my own son's confidence.

 

I know he has a Remedial class at school, but from what I understand, all they teach are vocabulary words and they listen to audio books.  Obviously PS has failed him and he has no clear diagnosis. 

 

I will suggest testing, but it is doubtful they will find the right person in our location.  I could not find anyone near us at all.  The closest Sylvan Center closed down, and I talked to 2 mom's with Severely Dyslexic children who had spent thousands of dollars at Sylvan with no success.  And another friend had to drive several hours to get her dd help with blue glasses.  She was hush hush at the time about how expensive it was and it did not help much.

 

I was thinking about taking my son at that time, and grateful I did not.

 

[Plink]

Sylvan does not offer dyslexia testing or remediation.  I can't even say how disparate they are from dyslexia specialists.  What this child needs is a neuro-psychological evaluation.  The schools may do some testing, but very few of them have staff qualified to give anyone a true dyslexia diagnosis.  Have the dad speak with the kid's doctor for a referral.  

 

Be careful not to use standard materials - they are designed for young neurotypical students.  Things like HOP, or 100EZ will make this poor kid's head spin.  They will be both to immature, and too difficult because they move so fast, and you will wind up with a resistant student.   

 

You will need to be super careful that the basics are completely cemented before moving on.  Something like LiPS is going to be your best bet if he isn't completely solid on the basic phonemes.  If he passes their post-test, then consider investing in the Barton system which comes with instructor DVDs.  It is absolutely worth the expense if your area doesn't have many dyslexia tutors available.  You could create a niche business for yourself.

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

I am looking into Barton now.  I looked at it before and realize that we do not have any Neurologists close by at all.

     I would not use typical programs with this boy after meeting him.  

That is why I was asking on here after our first visit.  He did hit a wall around 4th grade, but had to move to a new school and had NO records on his LD.  Now he is moved back to this same district and in 9th grade.

There are kids I know who make fun of his reading in class.  I really do want to help him, but he is very resistant to any tutoring  and I have talked to his dad about needing more testing, but I will tell him he may need to get a referral from his family Dr.  It may or may not be covered under his insurance ( I have read that many of these tests are NOT covered)  I tried to find a Neurologist for our DD when she was 8 and STRUGGLING, and none are available for that through our insurance.  Is it a Psychiatrist or a Neurologist?  I was unsure of what to ask for.

 

He is doing well so far on the ABCedarian tests which I just started to see if he has the basic phonemes down.  He was not read to very much as a child, and never read any Dr. Suess or rhyming books, but he does recognize rhyming.  I feel like I have been walking on glass just to get 20 minutes of (First : Spelling test and then A Quick Reading test from Elizabeth's site, and last week I started the AbCedarian testing.

 

I will look into the LIPS program again.  I researched these a few years ago for my own daughter, it was just too expensive. Earobics did help her but she could still use some more help too.   I am pretty sure I have 2 dyslexic children. DS16 and DD10 and IDK about our 3 youngest yet either. 

 

I assumed that Sylvan was not equipped for dyslexia after talking to some of the parents of dyslexic girls who went there and wasted alot of money and time. 

 

[ElizabethB]

Before spending money on an expensive OG program, make sure it is not problems from sight word teaching at school. This mimics the symptoms of dyslexia, but students will remediate quickly with nonsense words if it is problems from incomplete phonics teaching and whole word induced guessing habits. My students also remediate quicker if they limit outside reading and just work on word lists, no sentences or stories for the beginning of remediation.

 

I would give all of the assessments on my testing page to start.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

 

The things I use with many of my remedial students are linked at the end of my how to tutor page:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

[ElizabethB]

:grouphug:

 

14 is a tough age, younger or older are easier. A bit older and they are mature enough to understand and accept that they need help, younger and they are not as embarrassed, the early teen years they are feeling too cool for young stuff and trying to assert their independence.

 

I would tell your student that I have had multiple students his age and older do really well with my online lessons, and that I have 20 years experience working with older remedial students for whom regular remediation did not work well. I get 1 to 2 grade levels improvement on average, the record so far is 6 grade levels for an 18 year old. Maybe this will motive your 14 year old to work through them at home on his own. (In private without pressure.) Most libraries have computers with headphones if they do not have access at home.

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

Before spending money on an expensive OG program, make sure it is not problems from sight word teaching at school. This mimics the symptoms of dyslexia, but students will remediate quickly with nonsense words if it is problems from incomplete phonics teaching and whole word induced guessing habits. My students also remediate quicker if they limit outside reading and just work on word lists, no sentences or stories for the beginning of remediation.

 

I would give all of the assessments on my testing page to start.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

 

The things I use with many of my remedial students are linked at the end of my how to tutor page:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

 

Thank you! That is exactly what I am doing :)  I am hoping he is not dyslexic.

 

I was asked to help with Spelling first. I had not met them before and took Sequential Spelling and Spelling Power to see what he needed.  He got half of the test right and is at level 5.5 in Spelling Power.  His dad looked over the Sequential Spelling books I had and wasn't sure how to use it even 2 times a week.  Also, there are no rules in it.  I like LOE since rules are listed. 

We have to read his history book and take notes so I will ask about 2 sessions now which is what they wanted but I thought that was only Spelling then.  I have to drive to to their home (about 20 min. each way) and it will be difficult to coordinate our schedule but I will try.

 

UPDATE: He only wants me to be there on Monday's.  I have asked him to request permission from the History teacher to purchase a Study Guide with Vocabulary for the student to Highlight and Study.  Right now he is failing and part of his grade is a notebook that is checked during the week and he takes a long time to write.  I did not even know what the teacher required the first 2 visits and this week we had 3 inches of sleet so I offered to make it up tonight.  The student is so resistant to any help at all.  I think he is embarrassed and feels like he can't learn.  I am going to PRINT on Cardstock the Phonics Game and try my best to give him all of your remedial work.  I will also print out the Word Mastery Book for him and get his dad to help him as much as possible through the week.  Thank you Elizabeth for your help!

 

 

[OneStepAtATime]

I truly feel for you in trying to help this student.  He needs a full diagnosis and the parents need to do a lot of research and reading up on learning differences.  Do you think that there is any way you could recommend they read The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide?  In reading that book they might see things that speak to them.  It might encourage them to really work to seek a clearer picture of what is happening and how to address it.

 

If you were seeing him more often I might suggest at least the first three levels of Barton to work on reading and spelling issues.  But with only seeing him once a week and having to deal with the current school work that just seems impossible.  If he has underlying LD's (and it certainly seems a possibility) and those are not being directly addressed then once a week tutoring of specific classes seems like putting a tiny band-aid on a gaping wound.  And a tremendous amount of work for you and for him while facing the possibility of little true gain.  Honestly, I did that with poor DD for years.  Just kept getting her tutoring or trying to reteach all the material myself that she wasn't learning at school.  And it was the most ineffective path I could have picked, short of not teaching her anything at all.  The tutors were trying their best and so was I.  And so was DD, for that matter.  But none of us was addressing the real issues, we were just trying to get her through the school material.  It wasn't until we got an assessment and actually started targeting the true weak areas while also working with the underlying strengths that were also discovered in the assessment that things finally started to turn around.  

 

Can the school assess him?  I realize that school assessments may not do any good, but if there were some sort of official diagnosis from the school system he might get more accommodations in class.  Is there any chance you could see him twice a week during the summer to try to solidify some of his week areas without having all the school work to deal with?

[FO4UR]

http://www.prometheantrust.org/usshop.htm

 

 

 

I would take him through Dancing Bears Fast Track for reading and Apples & Pears Spelling.  Actually, I would teach his parents how to do this or offer to tutor him 5-6 days a week b/c that's what is needed.  Both of these programs are scripted and clear cut so a parent with no previous experience in teaching can pick them up and use them.  Dancing Bears is 10min daily.  Apples & Pears takes longer if you do a whole lesson each day, and at 14yo I'd strive for a whole lesson each day.  It would probably take 30-40min for *both* DB and A&P daily.

 

 

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

Thanks for all of the advice.  His parent's are divorced so I only talk to "dad".  Honestly I have felt like quitting but don't want him to fail his history class! 

I know it is like a band aid and they first asked me to come 2 times a week.  I came the first night to "check" and see what they wanted.  

This has been so difficult seeing this person struggling.  I have been looking for something they could use at home ( software or online), but it would be difficult to get them to work on it I am quite sure.

I plan to have another "talk" tomorrow night about the need for more time on the reading lessons.  

 

  From what I have heard so far the PS has failed this child, and it has been the big pink elephant!

All they had tried this school year was looking at some all in one hs software a family member is using and they did not like the "spelling" component which was for a younger child.

 

I saw embarrassment last time I was there with the History lesson.  He has to copy the vocabulary words and short definitions.  He struggled to read them to me and could not read several of the words.  

He is definitely guessing and replacing words.

[OneStepAtATime]

Thanks for all of the advice.  His parent's are divorced so I only talk to "dad".  Honestly I have felt like quitting but don't want him to fail his history class! 

I know it is like a band aid and they first asked me to come 2 times a week.  I came the first night to "check" and see what they wanted.  

This has been so difficult seeing this person struggling.  I have been looking for something they could use at home ( software or online), but it would be difficult to get them to work on it I am quite sure.

I plan to have another "talk" tomorrow night about the need for more time on the reading lessons.  

 

  From what I have heard so far the PS has failed this child, and it has been the big pink elephant!

All they had tried this school year was looking at some all in one hs software a family member is using and they did not like the "spelling" component which was for a younger child.

 

I saw embarrassment last time I was there with the History lesson.  He has to copy the vocabulary words and short definitions.  He struggled to read them to me and could not read several of the words.  

He is definitely guessing and replacing words.

This is such a difficult position for you to be in.  I wish I had better suggestions.  You are really up against a rock and a hard place and I admire you for still wanting to try.  The poor kid...he sounds like he really needs intense one on one tutoring, and at least 3 preferably 4-5 days a week.  He ought to just be pulled out of school for the rest of the year, and just really work on remediation and boosting his confidence.  I realize that isn't going to happen.  But it might give him a fighting chance long-term.

 

 In the meantime, since that isn't a choice, and you are the tutor, not the parent, I guess your situation is terribly limiting.  Maybe 4blessinmom might be right.  See if the Dad would be willing to help him with remediation using Dancing Bears and Apples and Pears (or All About Reading/All About Spelling?) while you work on specific items each week for school assignments.  Or ElizabethB's program.  I realize that you don't think the parent will be able to do anything.  But I guess you could try to get Dad to see how critical it is for him to be getting help daily.  Of course, only a formal assessment could give you a clue what exactly he is struggling with so any program used may not actually help much.  At least its a shot....

 

:grouphug: