Too Late to Hire a Reading Tutor?

The Average Student?

Many  students muddle through their middle and high school  year with modest success in reading-intensive courses –  language arts, social studies/history as well as science.  Such students dread homework assignments and studying for tests; they do the minimum of work and their grades (Cs and Bs) reflect this reality.    For too many students, this is the norm, a level of performance that they’ve already resigned themselves to for many years.    Why fight an uphill battle?   It can’t get any better, they think.    They are, of course, wrong.

Give Your Child Choices

Unfortunately, many parents, through inaction, tacitly agree to this absurd notion.     

• Absurd because this suggest that for something that is so important, mediocrity is acceptable.
• Absurd because such an attitude allows a child to admit defeat. 
• Absurd because it’s never too late to learn.  Never.

Regrettably, many parents are unaware that perpetual struggles in school are the result of deficient reading comprehension, study and organizational skills – deficiencies that can and should be remediated at any age.

Not every student is going to Harvard or Princeton.  Not every student is even going to college. But every child should, at minimum, view college as a viable option, and not just something that “the smart kids” go to.   Give your child this option by making her a better reader.

Become a Better Reader Now

Although numerous studies have demonstrated that the most critical learning years end at 3rd grade, for the slightly older student, parents shouldn't despair.   Learning is a lifelong process, and for the student who has not reached his potential, this just means that the acquisition of new and improved reading skills, for example, may take a bit longer and may require more effort.   

Extra effort, however, is no excuse for inaction.  If your child struggles with reading-intensive subjects in school, have him tested to learn precisely which areas of reading comprehension (main idea, cause and effect, inferencing, vocabulary) need attention.   With this knowledge in hand, take the appropriate action:  work with him at home, arrange for extra help at school, or hire a private reading tutor.    

It is the Size of One's Will That Determines Success

Don’t give up.  Give your child every advantage to chart his future with all options on the table.  Think positively.  And remember:

“I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ”

Inspiring Your Child to Read: Remember the Bookmobile?

Some memoir and a poem from Guest Blogger, Rex Batson

I believe you have to be of a certain age to appreciate it.  The bookmobile is all but a forgotten chapter in the history of reading, and it was a beautiful thing.  There was no library or, as it is often called now. “media center.”  I am no Luddite. Hence, this blog post. But there was great joy when  the routine of school was broken and we would stand in line, class by class, to checkout our two-book allotment. 

There was a peculiar smell to the bookmobile.  Soured paper.  Fluorescent lights gave an eerie glow. Entering the front, we passed, as we knew we should the “adult” sections.  What did those adults read that we could not?  Romance novels?  And at the end was a tiny man who would process our books.  He, himself, was an avid reader.  He focused on his book with a cellophane cover that enveloped the paper cover, and after stamping the due date, would return to his book. 

There was a similar excitement when, if I am not mistaken, the bi-annual Scholastic Book order forms arrived.  Books were from a quarter to a dollar.  They were cheap.  But they were new.  They were mine.  And my parents extravagantly gave me two or three dollars.  I remember Blaze and the Indian Cave, and Enemies of the Secret Hideout (I possess both to this day). 

These two books both had boys who were independent and had lives outside of their parents.   The boy in Blaze, lived on a ranch, and he and his horse Blaze rode out and explored a cave, cooked hot dogs, slept by the fire, and listened to Timber Wolves with a bit of fear.  Enemies.... was a book of boys who had their own tree house and club.  They, too, slept one summer night away from their parents, had their own secret code, and each nabbed food from home.  Little, self-imposed castaways—Robinson Crusoe types. 

We had books in my house.  My parents encouraged us to read.   But in some ways, the bookmobile and the Scholastic Books were a kind of autonomous act in which, consciously or not, I was forging an identity.  Does my son feel the same way when purchasing an app for his i-Phone?   Maybe, but it seems fleeting.

Bookmobile by Joyce Sutphen

I spend part of my childhood waiting
for the Sterns County Bookmobile.
When it comes to town, it makes a
U-turn in front of the grade school and
glides into its place under the elms.

It is a natural wonder of late
afternoon. I try to imagine Dante,
William Faulkner, and Emily Dickinson
traveling down a double lane highway
together, country-western on the radio.

Even when it arrives, I have to wait.
The librarian is busy, getting out
the inky pad and the lined cards.
I pace back and forth in the line,
hungry for the fresh bread of the page,

because I need something that will tell me
what I am; I want to catch a book,
clear as a one-way ticket, to Paris,
to London, to anywhere. 

Rex Batson is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Polytech University in Georgia.  He enjoys reading, writing, walking, drawing, and gardening.  He prefers to write most early drafts with a dark, soft-leaded pencil or a fountain pen.  He cannot read without writing notes in the margin.

SAT Prep: Start Early by Challenging Your Child to Read

In an interesting article in the Huffington Post, Meg Campbell, Founder and Executive Director of Codman Academy Charter Public School, recommends that students prepare for the SAT by reading the New Yorker magazine.   Although this advice need not be taken literally, her approach underscores a more fundamental challenge for the next generation of college students:  to become better readers.

As we’ve noted many times in this blog, too often students reach their junior year of high school, take the PSAT and/or SAT only to be disappointed and discouraged when reading scores fall below the national average of 500 points.   More so than the other sections of the test (math and writing), low reading scores are harder to fix in a relatively short period of time; good reading skills develop over time.

Ms. Campbell argues that while tutoring and coaching may have their place,  parents should encourage their children to take advantage of adult-level non-fiction reading sources that are similar in nature to passages found on the SAT.   As she notes about the New Yorker:

The writing has versatility and breadth. It's well-written, long, challenging non-fiction and that is precisely the kind of writing that builds background knowledge and vocabulary. Becoming a New Yorker reader builds advantage, as in having an advantaged education. It requires engagement of the mind for comprehension.

What’s a Parent To Do?

The key, of course, is to start early.  Getting a subscription to the New Yorker (or other adult-targeted publications) at the beginning of junior year may not be practical, or perhaps just too little, too late. 

You know your child best.  Consider his interests and find non-fiction reading materials that both challenge and interest him.  Browse your local newsstand, and thumb through the table of contents of magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, The New Yorker,  or even less intimidating publications such as Time and Newsweek.  Chances are that you will find something that can pique his interest.  

Sending links to on-line publications is even easier.  Is your family planning a trip to a national park such as Yellowstone, Acadia or Yosemite?  Give your children some background by reading up on the current challenges facing our National Park System in National Geographic.

The earlier you introduce your children to more challenging non-fiction, the better their comprehension and vocabulary will be for high school, SATs and the college years immediately beyond.

Study Skills and SAT Prep: Perfect Together

Here at Think Tutoring, we know the importance of Lon Watters’ assertion: “School is a building with four walls and tomorrow inside.” Developing good study skills early will lead to learning efficiencies later on.

At www.soarstudyskills.com, for example, it’s noted that improving performance on school subjects helps prepare students for “high-stakes tests and exams.” And while the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) may be years away from your child’s current level in school, what he learns now will serve him well when he begins studying for those tests.

Our tutors work to develop good study skills in order to optimize the investment you, your child, your child’s tutor, and your child’s school are making in education. Here are Grecian Formulas you can do at home.

Steal a Memory from the Ancient Greeks

For thousands of years, people have used this room-of-the-house tool for recalling important information. Help your child to visualize your own house or apartment. Jot down the rooms you would encounter as you go through the house.

Example: Foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, bathroom, first bedroom, second bedroom, third bedroom. The example has nine separate locations. Using this number, you and your young scholar would divide the material he has been studying into nine main points, trying to capture each point with a single word or short phrase. Then, ask your child to think about going through the house, using each word in its own location. Make an association—the weirder, the better, between the words and the places.

To illustrate: if your child has been studying the Civil War, she will recall the facts more easily if she imagines Abraham Lincoln in the foyer, juggling balls numbered 1, 8, 6, and 3 (the year of the Emancipation Proclamation). As your child moves into the living room, she would encounter the Confederacy President Jefferson Davis, doing some juggling of his own with photos of West Point, his alma mater.

Continue in this way with the other rooms, using distinct images align with knowledge-points.

Borrow from the Greeks Again - Go Mnemonic

ThinkTutoring SAT Prep tutors know that studying is only one part of the learning process. Learners have to recall what they have studied. And so, we use mnemonic devices—whether we are reinforcing basic skills or getting read for the SATs. You can do the same at home.

To illustrate, if your child has to learn the names of the states that make up New England, you might use this mnemonic: CRY, “M….M…New Ham in Vermont!”

The “C” represents Connecticut. The RY stands for Rhode Island. (This is a wee stretch, but remember that “Y” and “I” often have the same sound.) When you’re hungry and then spy a tempting ham sandwich sitting on the kitchen counter, you might say, “Mmmmm.” The next two “M’s” represent Maine and Massachusetts. And then, finally, this cry comes forth from the hungry person’s mouth, “New Ham in Vermont!” New Hampshire and, of course, Vermont constitute the final set of New England states.

Depending on the material your child has to study, you can make up the corresponding mnemonics. Just remember—the sillier they are, the easier they are to remember.

You’ll find additional ideas inside some e-walls, such as those at www.studygs.net. There, you’ll find study guides and other resources. But whether the learning walls are in cyberspace, or here at ThinkTutoring or in your child’s school or even in your own home, your child’s tomorrow will be brighter if she is honing her study skills today.

Private Tutoring vs. Tutoring Programs: Which is More Effective?

Parents often ask us “Why should I use your tutoring services rather than hire a private tutor to come to our home?”  Although the answer is typically multi-faceted, fundamentally, it comes down to both what your child needs and what’s the best approach to reach the desired goals.  One size doesn’t fit all.

The Struggling Student

For the child who perpetually struggles with math, reading or language arts, however, the answer is usually more clear-cut.   Countless parents we speak with tell us of the private tutors that they’ve hired – sometimes for long and expensive stints that reap only modest results.  The intention is good, but too frequently the approach is misdirected.   Such efforts often focus on the immediate need – a difficult homework assignment, a project or a big test.  Many tutors succeed, through brute force, in getting the student past the impending crisis but ignore the underlying struggle, whether it’s poor reading comprehension or lack of basic math skills.  

In our blog posting The Learning Process: Tips for Parents and Tutors, Marlene Caroselli, former high school teacher and author talked about the learning process and explored the theories of Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago.   She noted that Bloom believed that children should not move on to a second learning objective until they have demonstrated mastery of a first objective.  This learning philosophy mirrors our approach to many of the programs at Think Tutoring, including elementary and middle school level reading, language arts and math as well high school math offering of Algebra and Geometry.

Establishing Learning Objectives

Although, Bloom doesn’t mention explicitly these objectives are defined, clearly it depends on the student.  At Think Tutoring, we develop customized learning plans based upon comprehensive diagnostics so that we know, empirically, what goals to establish.  As an example, a student who struggles with reading may be able to easily recall facts from a story, but cannot piece them together to identify what the story is about.  Other students may have difficulties with inference -- that is, reading between the lines.  Once identified, goals are than addressed through a series of learning activities, explicitly sequenced to develop a child’s reading skills from the foundation up, brick by brick.  Further, using the Bloom philosophy, students only move on to additional skills or more challenging levels of material until they demonstrate mastery of the first objective or skill.

Tutoring Results

To be sure, many private tutors understand this and bring a carefully conceived program to the table.  Ultimately, however, parents who are shopping for a tutor or tutoring program and are ready to make a substantial investment in their child’s future shouldn’t be afraid to ask what results they can expect.  At Think Tutoring, we are proud of our math and reading tutoring results, but even happier about the heightened confidence our students bring to school each day.