Outsourcing defiects to learning center?

[workingmom]

Has anyone used tutoring centers specifically Huntington learning center to help with reading comprehension. We used them over the summer and felt there was progress and dd did go up in reading compression and vocab but start of year STAR reading comprehension in her school showed she went down. Also we did not make as much gains in terms of finishing up  3rd grade and starting 4th grade to be confident at the start of the year. The center is recommending adding more hours and including study skills. I'm wondering what if I just continue those specific workbooks from the center at home?

Edited October 1, 2018 by workingmom

[SKL]

I sent my kid to Sylvan with questionable results.  On one hand, it was some practice and I didn't have to fight about it over the summer.  On the other hand, the effectiveness really depended on the individual teacher each hour.  At least half of the time, she was with a teacher who didn't really support / teach her the way I was promised.  Between the low effectiveness, the commute time, and the lack of control over what was being studied, I can't say we got back our investment.

I am going back to trying to do it myself at home.  I will get some resistance, but ultimately my kid wants to do well, so we just have to be strong.  ?

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, workingmom said:

 We used them over the summer and felt there was progress and dd did go up in reading compression and vocab but start of year STAR reading comprehension in her school showed she went down.

 

Reading detective has been useful in 2nd/3rd grade for my kids to learn reading comprehension test prep skills. We started wifh the A1 book. https://www.criticalthinking.com/reading-detective-a1.html

We did not try Huntington but Sylvan was quoting us for three students to one tutor. My DS12 is easily distracted and needs one to one so I might as well do it myself or hire an english tutor.

[workingmom]

8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

 

Reading detective has been useful in 2nd/3rd grade for my kids to learn reading comprehension test prep skills. We started wifh the A1 book. https://www.criticalthinking.com/reading-detective-a1.html

Thanks for the rec. I'm going to try Reading for Comprehension since that's what she ended on there. I also will try to put together some exercises to help with study skills I just bookmarked this site.

https://www.brighthubeducation.com/lesson-plans-grades-3-5/110832-improving-study-skills-in-elementary-students/

 

 

[workingmom]

heighho,

I didn't get the link to come through can you repost?

[underthebridge]

On 10/1/2018 at 2:57 PM, Arcadia said:

 

Reading detective has been useful in 2nd/3rd grade for my kids to learn reading comprehension test prep skills. We started wifh the A1 book. https://www.criticalthinking.com/reading-detective-a1.html

We did not try Huntington but Sylvan was quoting us for three students to one tutor. My DS12 is easily distracted and needs one to one so I might as well do it myself or hire an english tutor.

I also like Reading Detective for reading comprehension. We have never tried a learning center, so I'm not sure how they structure their sessions. Do they discuss the answers or just engage with the teacher when they have a question? I think discussion is vital to reading comprehension. We discuss every question and the reasoning behind the answer to make sure there is no reliance on gut feelings, conjectures, or knowledge from outside the passage.

[Arcadia]

24 minutes ago, underthebridge said:

We have never tried a learning center, so I'm not sure how they structure their sessions. Do they discuss the answers or just engage with the teacher when they have a question? 

 

The three kids to a tutor are not doing the same thing. So it’s not like a group tuition class. It’s more round robin style where the tutor pays attention to each kid in turn. If all three are doing seat work, then whoever needs help just ask. It’s more like one to one tuition but your child gets the tutor’s attention approximately one third of the time.  One of the center did quote us for two kids to a tutor since we have two kids. They also offer one to one service. The two to one rate was already high to us so we didn’t ask about individual tuition.

[RenaInTexas]

For that 3rd grade level, I found HeadSprout by Reading A to Z very helpful in teaching reading comprehension strategies for testing. It teaches that there are four types of questions and teaches how to identify the type. Then it teaches strategies for each type of question.

Just be aware that there are content skills and then there are test-taking skills. Often the tests are written such that some level of test-taking skills are required even when you have solid content skills. Unfortunately, they are also written such that you can pass the test with great test-taking skills and lacking content skills. Headsprout will sure up test-taking skills, but you'll likely have to work on content skills at home.

Just to give an example for clarity. Summarizing a passage as a test-taking skill teaches you how to recognize which of the choices gives the best summary, following certain rules. However, summarizing as a content skill means teaching the student how to write a good summary, what components it should contain, how to identify the main points of a passage, separate the main idea from the supporting details, etc... So you can see how you can pass an exam question regarding summary without developing any content skills like knowing the main idea and its supporting details,

Thus, it is possible that your child's reading comprehension did improve, but their test-taking skills did not. You want to be sure that both are improved.