Bobby_TP_#13

Last Monday I went over another reading test with P.J. All of his reading tests follow the same format. There are two short texts with accompanying relative questions and a final essay question for the students to answer based on those two texts. After the last tutoring session when I had my heart to heart with P.J. I was determined to make a breakthrough this time. I had the test and some reading material to cover, but I really wanted to focus on the test since P.J. always makes the same mistakes. I started by going through and getting him to answer the questions that didn't require another reading of the texts right away. We went through some vocabulary questions and some questions dealing with prefixes and suffixes before getting into the reading comprehension. The two questions that both texts have in common are something along the lines of, “Which sentence best summarizes the author’s opinion?” and “Based on the text, the author would most likely agree that”. It’s clear that P.J. isn't really soaking in what he’s reading because he misses these two types of question and leaves the essay portion almost blank on every test. After having him read the texts again and going through the rest of the questions he’d missed, I really tried to focus in on these two questions and the essay portion. I’d hoped that by examining those two aspects of the test with him I’d be able to make some ground. He did a little better, and seemed to take a few baby steps in the right direction. I gave P.J. a little more wiggle room for conversation and tangents this time so he wouldn't get so burnt out and frustrated with tutoring as he’d seemed to be getting, but by the end he was over it anyway and all he wanted to do was talk. This session I learned that it’s important to give the tutee a voice, even if they are a child, because if you can't see where they’re coming from it's a lot harder to get them where they need to go.