*Name of student has been changed due to privacy.

EDU 345 SFA Tutoring Final Exam

Fall 2016
Julie Gonzalez

*Name of student has been changed due to privacy.

Introduction of Tutee
Chris* is the tutee regarding the focus of this paper. He is a shy and quiet first grader who
had not been apart of the SFA (Success For All) tutoring program before. He has mentioned his
mother, father, brother and grandmother, all of whom he sounds very close to. He has many
interests such as animals, video games, food and outdoor activities. He does not like to read
primarily because he thinks he cannot; however he does like to write and has excellent
penmanship. After having friendly conversation to put him at ease and asking him a few
questions to get to know him a little better and to try to understand his interests, I began my
assessment.
Pre-Assessment and Formative Results
#1 Pre-Assessment
The first section of the pre-assessment was Phonemic Awareness (PA). I noticed that he
was proficient, did a very good job and had mastered 80% of the words in PA-1, 90% in PA-2
and 80% in PA-3. However, he kept interrupting and asking questions such as how many more,
do we have to do this and why is this so easy? The next section was Concepts About Print
(CP), which tested objectives as being able to identify the title, first page, hold the book properly
and recognize the words and spaces between the words. Chris* demonstrated a mastery of all of
these skills, except for getting the message from print rather than the pictures, a skill he is still
developing. Chris* continued to do very well in the Letter Skills (LS) section and mastered the
section easily with a 100% in LS-1 sets 1-2; an estimated 80% in LS-2 sets 1-2 and a 100% n
LS-3 set 1.
Part two of the pre-assessment began with Sight Words (SW) and Word Skills (WS) both
of which were difficult sections for Chris*. Sight Words caused the most frustration for him, as

*Name of student has been changed due to privacy.

he missed six sight words in the first set. This section also caused me to worry that he was
guessing when he saw a word he did not know because he would say word that either sounded
similar or had a similar spelling. For example, if he saw the word find, he sometimes said,
found or fine. Sometimes when I had him sound out the word, he would insert letters and
sounds that did not belong, but sounded similar. In order decrease the amount of frustration he
was experiencing, we moved on to the word skills section. In this section he struggled with being
able to read the words, which led to such an extreme amount of frustration that we had to take a
break. Word skills in general was difficult to finish because Chris* seemed to be frustrated over
all with the test and the difficulty he had completing it. However, when I told him that we had
finished Part 1 of the assessment he seemed exasperated at the fact that I had submitted him to
such a lengthy task even though it was very easy.
#2 Re-Assessment/Formative
After completing Tutoring Plan 2, I reassessed and began with Phonemic Awareness
(PA), again Chris* did not seem to have any trouble and was learning new phonemes and sound
combinations with the blending sounds activity. However, when I showed him higher-level
sight words he struggled because he could not connect the phonemes with the larger words. He
could identify the phoneme within the word and knew what sound it made but struggled to put it
all together. For this reason I focused on using the Finger Detective activity. This shows that I
combined phonemic awareness with word skills to give Chris* a variety of activities that would
target two areas, one where he had strength but needed extra support and the other he struggled
with immensely.
Chris* had such success with letter skills that I felt it was unnecessary to continue and
instead devoted that time towards other skills he was struggling with or I used them as a few

*Name of student has been changed due to privacy.

minutes of a break. Since I targeted his word skills with my phonemic awareness activities I tried
to incorporate Chriss* love of writing with Sight Words and Spelling. By doing this I was able
to change two areas in which he struggled in, into a fun activity. I was able to motivate Chris* by
rewarding him with a sticker for each word that he spelled correctly. I would then take the words
I asked him to spell, combined with sight words card available from the school, and hold them
up on flashcards to see if he could identify them. Chris* was starting to show progress and
enjoyed this activity the most.
Summative Assessment Results
Phonemic Awareness: Chris* had succeeded and was able to identify a multitude of
sounds.
Letter Skills: Chris* had mastered this after the first week and was able to recall and
recognize the letters as well as their sounds.
Sight Words: Chris* had shown the most improvement in this skill and was able to
identify the words without having to try to sound them out. As soon as I showed him the
flashcard with a word, he recognized it and said it properly.
Word Skills: With practice Chris* become more proficient when it came to word skills.
He was growing his vocabulary and learning how to figure out difficult words by sounding them
out, chunking and blending them.
Non-academic Factor: When we moved onto bigger words, Chris* began to struggle
however; he did not give up or lose hope like he would in the beginning. Instead, he just kept
trying and said, No, wait! when I tried to help him because he was insistent that he would be
able to read the word on his own. Overall the three lessons showed that he had an increase in
confidence with his sight words, vocabulary and spelling skills.

*Name of student has been changed due to privacy.

Final Recommendation for Tutee
I believe that with more one-on-one tutoring, Chris* can continue to grow in the areas of
strength and solidify the new knowledge he has gained when tackling harder and bigger words. I
do believe that if he were to be tutored again, he may struggle with sight words and word skills
due to a lack of practice, but that he would be able to move back into Tutoring Plan 3 without
any difficulty. All in all Chris* needs one-on-one assistance because it takes him a little longer
than most students to grasp the topics and he needs more practice, however I do not think that
any of these struggles are due to development challenges, nor would I recommend him for
testing.
Two Significant Ideas
The first item of significance that I learned from this experience is how to analyze the
OAE objectives for the Foundations of Reading test and apply all ten of them to my Education
classes at Franciscan. This is significant to me because Dr. McVey stressed that these would
make excellent interview points and allow us to showcase our knowledge and preparedness as
teachers.
The second item of significance was the experience. I am a middle childhood licensure
and do not have much experience with the younger grade levels. By taking this class I was able
to practice one-on-one tutoring with a younger child and alter my method of instruction to fit the
needs of my tutee. I believe that this will benefit me in the future because I now know that I am
comfortable with grade levels outside of my license but also know how to create a custom
instruction plan to better suit the needs of a student.