The entire tutoring program (the program) is broken down into two major steps:
The program is designed for one-on-one tutoring. I’ve adapted the suggested session outline to our needs. I have two “students” (my daughter and my nephew), and both are preschool age – they’re not reading anything yet. I’ll include the classifications, but my focus is on the lowest one – Alphabet Students.
The manual also includes a chapter on working with the student and another one on the program’s policies and procedures. I don’t plan to cover those here.
Both of my students fall under the first level classification – Alphabet Students.
Alphabet Students “know less than 90% of letter names and sounds.”
Word Family Students “have learned letter names and the sounds represented by single letters and simple letter combinations.”
Reading-Ready Students are those who “are able to sound out phonetically regular words” but need to learn “skills such as: identifying patterns in the text, using context clues, re-reading for meaning, and self-correction.”
The program suggests a four-part lesson plan:
Because my students are preschoolers (instead of middle-schoolers) I modified this significantly. You can find my General Daily Outline here.
A little more detail on each part of the daily lesson plan follows.
This is pretty much what it sounds like. There are four suggested methods for reviewing:
In each case, it’s important that the student tell you both the letter and the sounds. If they can’t, set that letter aside to use in Part 2.
If there are any letters or sounds that the student couldn’t remember during the review, reteach them during Part 2, but don’t combine letters. Follow all the steps for each letter individually. Combining letters or step one for all of the letters can be confusing for the student.
The program says the alphabet should be taught in a specific order. This was the part I remembered most about using this program. It worked with every kid I worked with. The order can be found just to the right.
The process goes something like this:
If the student doesn’t have any reading ability, you would read to them, stopping along the way to ask questions, and using your finger to track as you read. Have the student follow along and pick out familiar letters (or words if they’re doing that yet).
If the student has some reading ability, have them try reading a very simple book. (The program had books with it too, or a book list (?), I can’t remember exactly.) Stop frequently to ask questions like “What do you think is going to happen?” or “Why did she do that?”
Give them a topic to write on. It can be based on the story you read or on something interesting to the student. Give them a writing prompt of some kind – a question they can answer.
If the student can write, just help with spelling. If they can’t write, have them dictate the story to you, but have them write the letters they’ve already learned.
When the story is complete, help the student read the finished product. When you’re done reading it, ask the student if anything needs to be removed, added, or corrected. If the student doesn’t find anything, help them identify a few and make the edits together.
Read the final product together, one last time.
At the beginning of every fifth session, the student should be reassessed to make sure they’re retaining the information they’re learning. Once the student is meeting the classification requirements, they get to move up to the next one.
If I end up teaching my daughter for more than just one year of preschool and we need to move up to Word Families, I’ll add more info.
Copyright Notes:
The Tutor Manual I used to help develop my curriculum is officially called, “Reading One-One; The UTD Structured Tutoring Program.” The manual’s copyright is owned by George Farkas, Mary Warren, and the University of Texas at Dallas and is dated July 1996. Because of the copyright, I will not be posting scanned pages of the documents or anything like that. I will share their theories, processes, and such, but not the entire manual.
Whenever something on this page is quoted, it’s coming from the manual, unless otherwise noted.
I’ve used Google to try and find an updated version of the program and can’t even find the original version. I’ve gone to UTD’s website. The manual I have was published by the School of Social Sciences – they don’t even have that school at UTD anymore (it’s now called the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences).
If I’m ever able to find this program online, I’ll update this page with that information.
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