Tutoring Case Studies

ABSTRACT

The following case study involves a second grader who has trouble with reading so he has to attend a Title I tutoring session each morning for 30 minutes with four other students from various classes. Joe' teacher set the following goals for Joe during the nine-week period
• Increase the number of Joe’s written responses to reading,
• Increase Joe’s confidence in his writing, and
• Increase Joe’s ability to read his writing aloud (Evertson & Poole, 2003),
but is concerned his tutoring sessions may alter his motivation and concentration to continue working on those particular goals.
In Case Study Level B Case 2 from "Fostering Student Accountability for Classroom Work" (Evertson & Poole, 2003), there are five key components that

can be used to help promote student accountability for their classwork: providing content instruction, creating supportive settings, modeling desired outcomes, assigning appropriate tasks, and offering timely feedback. Providing content instruction is teaching students why they have to complete certain assignments or tasks and what content they are to understand and learn from it rather than just giving directions on how to complete it (Doyle, 1983); creating supportive settings involves the instruction, the assignment, and the organization of the classroom to help the students and develop a more effective learning environment; Modeling desired outcomes involves teachers demonstrating what the final outcome is of the assignment at hand is supposed to look like, from examples to a grading rubric explaining in depth what is to be accomplished (Evertson and Poole, 2003); assigning appropriate tasks is when teachers assign tasks for their students that is age appropriate and the time provided for completing the task is suitable (Evertson and Poole, 2003); and offering timely feedback is important because it "helps students build understanding of the content as well as allowing them to be independent (Evertson and Poole, 2003). To be effective, teachers have to develop a system that will maximize the ability for students to achieve accountability for completing their academic work. In the following essay, I will select a recommendation that I believe is the best method of adapting the assignment for Joe and which of the five strategies suggested by Evertson and Poole that explains my reasoning for choosing that particular recommendation.

SETTING

Joe attends a Title 1 tutoring session that causes him to miss the last 10 minutes of reading instruction every day and even though both his teacher and tutor have been working together to ensure Joe doesn't miss anything from reading instruction, the following week's reading assignment about friendship may cause Joe some problems if the teacher does not "allow Joe to participate with his class in this set of lessons and miss half of his tutoring sessions for a week, even if it disrupts the session for the other four students” (Evertson & Poole, 2003, p. 9). If Joe is allowed to remain in his class during the last 10 minutes of reading, he will be able to join in with the class participation throughout the week of brainstorming and thinking of words for the board, as well as being able to review and get help where needed. Joe's involvement with the class for this paragraph writing lesson meets the goals that Joe's teacher set because his ability to read his writing aloud to the class becomes more effective if Joe remains in the classroom.
Increase the Number of Joe’s Written Responses to Reading
In order to increase the number of written responses to reading Joe completes, a great start would be for him to participate in the entire reading instruction class to increase writing fluency and engage in writing activities that will help him achieve this goal. The strategies I would use to help him with this particular goal is providing content instruction and offering timely feedback (Evertson & Poole, 2003). Research shows that if a teacher only provide students with the directions on how to complete a certain assignment, they tend to struggle (Doyle, 1983). This is why teachers have to provide specific instruction in order for students to “what they are to learn, how to learn it, how to demonstrate what they have learned, and how the quality of their learning will be evaluated” (Wong & Wong, 1998, p. 233). According to Anderson, if students are actively engaged in classwork, the content they learn can help them build flexible understanding of the content (1995). If Joe has had trouble in the past completing reading assignments, it may have been a result of his focus being solely on doing the work, even if he has trouble understanding any of it (Anderson, Brubaker, Alleman-Brooks, & Duffy, 1985; Wells, Hirshberg, Lipton, & Oakes, 1995). This result may cause him to feel like"his classwork did not have to make sense to him, only that it needed to be completed" (Anderson et al., 1985). I believe his lack of completing many of gis assignments is based on his tutoring sessions disrupting the class he may need the full time to understand reading and writing more effectively and lack of oral participation in class like his peers. Also, I feel like the idea of the assignment is an excellent example of "connecting the content of friendship to his personal life, which is a key criterion for effective seatwork” (Osborn, 1984). This will also allow his teacher to monitor his progress and correct any errors or answer any questions he may have that cannot be answered if he continues his tutoring sessions. Providing content instruction may especially be helpful to someone like Joe, because he may feel rushed to complete assignments and confused on what exactly he has to complete, causing it to go undone. If gis teacher(s) help him by coordinating their instruction, assignments, and assessments. This will help him work towards his goal because the assignment on friendship includes precise instructions from the teacher and remaining in class can enhance his understanding of those specific directions.
Also, providing timely feedback to Joe while he is in class working on his assignments can help his understanding of the "connection between effort and achievement" (Evertson & Harris, 2003). Feedback from Joe's teacher while he is working on his workand when he is done completing it can help Joe tremendously in his efforts of achieving his goal of completing writing assignments in reading. Especially if is unmotivated for whatever reason, "extrinsic motivation can help build intrinsic motivation academically” (Hidi & Harackiewicz, 2000). According to Evertson and Poole, suggestions for Joe's teacher would be to offer feedback and reinforce it students in order to balance building their independent practice with learning the content once the content is taught and assignment is introduced and modeled and to give feedback to students to see how well they are meeting their expectations and what areas their work needs improvement in (2003). Receiving feedback that he is on the right track and completing his assignments accurately will help him achieve his goal of doing his assignments in a timely fashion, as well as increase his understanding of what he has completed.
Increase Joe’s Confidence in His Writing, and Increase Joe’s Ability to Read His Writing Aloud
For Joe to increase his confidence in his writing and his ability to read his writing aloud (Evertson and Poole, 2003), Joe's teacher may try Evertson and Poole's strategies of creating supportive settings and assigning appropriate tasks to help Joe meet these two goals.

To build any students confidence in their ability to achieve something academically, many would say giving him praise or rewards (feedback) will help Joe more effectively here, but I feel like offering differentiated instruction and adaptable lessons and assessments for Joe is more effective to reaching his goals. When it comes to creating a supportive setting for Joe, research shows he can "learn best with cohesive and caring learning environments" (Brophy, 2000, page 9). Research also believes that if Joe's teacher coordinates his assignments with instructional objectives, state directions precisely, and focus on what he does accomplish, the amount of completed assignments is maximized" (Wong ,& Wong,

1998).
When Joe is included in the classroom activities, it creates a sense of positivity for him because he will feel as if he is an important part of the class. The assignment allows Joe's teacher the ability to monitor and evaluate his progress during the week, and the more his teacher believes in his work and tells him his progress is on the right track, his confidence will boost and his reading orally will follow as well. This helps make Joe more comfortable with his writing and that will lead to his confidence in reading what he writes to his class and teacher.
There are many ways to improve Joe's writing and reading capabilities, but to effectively do so is to continue to offer regular writing exercises that are brief and provide guidance throughout the process.

In order for Joe to increase his ability to read out loud, his teacher needs to give Joe the opportunities to hear other students read aloud and paired with other students who are more comfortable than him with reading aloud. This can be applied through teachers providing supportive settings. A way to do this is for his teacher to "structure assignments in a way to support the connection of students with the content and the positive, productive learning tone established in their classroom" (Evertson & Poole, 2003). Evertson and Poole also suggests that his teacher try to evaluate his progress and adjust the setting if needed to help aid in his successful learning (2003). I believe this is best achieved by altering the method of when the friendship lessons is taught. I would give Joe his optimal chance of successfully completing his goals by starting with covering the lessons on friendship writing for 30 minutes and the last 20 minutes being applied to reading lessons. This will allow his teacher to best create a supportive setting because of his chance to interact with peers during the brainstorming portion and provide him with the opportunity to read his assignment aloud on Friday in front of the

class.
Assigning appropriate tasks can allow Joe to "benefit from completing assignments that pose challenges he can solve with peer-, resource-, or teacher-provided support" (Anderson, 1995). Research states that"students need to be able to connect to the tasks they have to complete to their own experiences in learning- culturally, academically, and personally" (Good & Brophy, 2000; CTGV, 1997). The best way for Joe's teacher to implement the strategy of assigning appropriate tasks is by what she is already doing: giving Joe and other students checkpoint deadlines or completion timelines because the assignment is carried over an entire week.
It is always best to know when students like Joe are struggling because often times, the assignment or time of completion may be too difficult for him and may cause him not to reach his goals. In order for Joe to actually comprehend what it is he has to complete on a daily basis and is in a comfortable timeframe for him to finish his assignments, his confidence in what he does will have a lasting affect on him, which may lead to him taking accountability in his work and confidence to do anything he wants to achieve.