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Chris Racchini
ED306 Diagnostic Teaching of Reading
April 23, 2015
Reflective Essay of Tutoring Experience
Student C Tutoring
Tutoring student "C" is in fourth grade. He is a male that comes from a two-parent
family and has two sisters. He is the youngest child and seems to have a good home life.
He came to tutoring sessions in a good mood, ready to talk and joke. He frequently got
off task but would always return to the task when instructed. He particularly enjoyed
playing basketball after the work was done. "C" wants to be an engineer when he is an
adult. He likes animals and has two dogs and two cats. He plays with his friends, watches
TV, and engages in video games. He likes math, dislikes science and social studies, and
wishes he was better in reading. When he does read, he prefers academic reading to
recreational reading. However, "C" has stated that he is getting a little more interested in
reading than previously and has shown that he understands reading is important and
makes a person smarter.
Initial assessments for "C" involved the Dolch word list (sight words), the
Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST), and the Quick Phonics Screener (QPS). He
was given an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) more towards the middle of the semester.
"C" was quite adept at the sight words and had no problems with them. He did quite well
on the initial PAST, but it the assessment was guided and thus the score is not an effective
indicator of his skill. Suffice it to say, with minimal hints he did well and should be able
to do still well with no help at all. A pre- and post- QPS were given. "C" had some areas

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of struggle in the initial test as well as in the post test, but those areas were fewer and a
definite improvement in score could be seen. His first score was 203 and his second was
245. One of the contributing factors to that was he did a lot more self-correction the
second time around.
The areas of challenge on his pre-test were: Skill sets 3, 4, 6, 9, and 12. These
were non-sense words, blends, silent e words, vowels, and three-syllable words.
Sometimes he substituted words or struggled with phonics. He reached frustration level
on Skill 12 (3 syllables). The areas of challenge on his post-test were: Skill sets 8 and 13.
8 is advanced consonant sounds, silent consonants, and consonant digraphs. 13 is four
syllable words. He definitely reached frustration level here.
As much as he disliked the IRI, he did well enough on it. It was at least a couple
levels below his grade level. He made few mistakes and did not have to self-correct
much. However, "C" needed some guidance when answering the comprehension
questions. When reminded of story events he was able to answer well. The mistakes he
did make in the reading were concerning words like hunt, lie, hunting, them, and, those,
rough, Im, your, club, all.
Based on assessment data, one of the goals that was set early in the tutoring
session was to help him better understand silent e and how it changes the other vowel
sound. He particularly struggled with silent e words on the QPS test.
"C" had a different book every few weeks. He started reading a Hardy Boys book
and we used Dr. Seuss books (Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks, The Lorax, There's a
Wocket in My Pocket). We ended with a few pages from How to be Cool in the Third
Grade. There was a mini-lesson concerning reading Hardy Boys where "C" did oral

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retelling of story and then wrote out a summary. We went through his writings word by
word to correct spelling, syntax, etc. I added a silent e lesson using QPS nonsense words.
We came up with a few of our own words for it. We went over sight words a second time
and through the QPS skills sets 3-5 again. After his silent reading for a couple pages in
Hardy Boys, I read aloud to "C" to see if he preferred it over reading by himself.
Additional lessons included reading a few Mother Goose nursery rhymes on
en.childrenslibrary.org. He played a game at funbrain.com where he had to choose the
misspelled word in a group of four words and spell it correctly. Before actually reading
The Lorax, "C" went through the book looking at the pictures and guessing what was
happening or what would happen. He was told to pick a sticker from a sticker sheet and
write a brief story about it. We went through his story and corrected it. He worked
through a set of Dr. Seuss rhyming word flash cards and even some multiplication flash
cards. In addition to vocal and silent reading with following retellings of How to be Cool
in the Third Grade, he completed a Motivation to Read profile and a Metacognitive
Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory.
In conclusion, the tutoring data shows that "C" improved in almost all skill sets of
the QPS. One thing not noted previously was that his last writing assessment showed
improved legibility in handwriting over the assessments given at the beginning of the
semester. "C" is strong in multiplication, but more relevantly, his predominant literacy
skills are reading lower level books and in recalling what he just read. He can also pick
out misspelled words well, he just needs more confidence in choosing the right one.
Additional goals based on the other challenges that he faces are properly enunciating "r"
sounds and decoding larger (four-syllable) words. All in all, based on the work done with

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him, it seems he will be able to handle these challenges and will continue improving,
especially with more focused tutoring.