Brittany Deal

Journal #1 of Tutoring
Design a way to enhance long term memory for students with whom you are
working or tutoring. Explain what information you are trying to get them to retain
in long-term memory. Then describe the specific steps you are taking to achieve
that goal.
1. In art class the students were weaving on pieces of cardboard and the goal was to
weave, with at least, five strands of yarn or until the short rectangular board was
completely full. A way that we choice to enhance the long term memory was for
the students to repeat, while they were doing it, over and under, over and under,
over and under, over and under until they needed a new string. Afterwards they
would continue repeating the same words.
2. Another way to enhance long-term memory was with the students spelling words.
The goal was for them to remember how to spell a list of 8 words. I had them say
the word out loud and then spell the same word out loud. Then they took a
practice test over the same 8 words.
3. For the students to store rhyming words into their long-term memory we came up
with a starting word like back and continued to brainstorm more words and wrote
them on the board. The goal was for them to be able to come up with similar
rhyming words on their own.
Reflection: Something that impressed me about this week was how quick the students
were to help each other out on their art projects. This is when they had to repeat the over
and under over and under. Some students were very quick at completing their work and
jumped at the chance to help the struggling students.
During your work with the student(s) in tutoring or Response to Intervention
(RTI) settings, think of a time when you needed to apply some form of positive
or negative reinforcement or punishment. From the ones described in Chapter
3, explain two different examples when you used some type of reinforcement or
punishment. Be specific by naming the type you employed as well as in your
description of it.
1. After a student, with an IEP, took a spelling test he began crying.
He told me so far he has gotten every answer on every spelling
test correct. Although, as he handed in the last spelling test he
remembered he forgot a letter on the end of a word. He began
crying hysterically. No one could get him to calm down. We
ended up using positive reinforcement and a concrete reinforcer.
We told the student if he stopped crying he could pass out the
coloring page to the class and reassured him there will be
multiple spelling tests that he can pass.
2. Another incident was when a girl forgot her book for three days
in a row now. The second day she forgot it the teacher told her

she would have to call home to dad and the student would get an
infraction. This would be considered a negative reinforcement,
because the student would increase the good behavior of
bringing her book to school like removing the stress of getting
another call home and an infraction.
Reflection: What really impressed me was how well the teacher and the
class calmly handled the student that got upset about his spelling test.
The students didnt make fun or him, laugh, are even complain about
this particular student. They handled in very well. Also the teacher was
very calm and made the situation into a positive experience.
How would you categorize many of the students in terms of goals (mastery or performance)
in the tutoring or RTI setting that you regularly visit? What caused you to reach this
conclusion? How might you encourage students to engage in mastery goals? Did you see
any signs of anxiety or other forms of affect in students in the tutoring or RTI setting of
your school experience? Revisit p. 217 and explain your response.
1. In the regular tutoring classroom the students were well
advanced and would categorize them as mastery. The students
were in an advanced classroom and whatever we worked on they
would catch on quickly and want to move on to the next step. To
encourage them to engage in the mastery goals I would continue
to challenge them and break the problems down into smaller
steps so mastery would become easier.
2. I did see signs of a student being overwhelmed and frustrated
when he cried over his spelling test, but that was quickly
resolved.
3. Another student got frustrated in math when he was learning
about carrying over the ones placement to the tens spot. To help
that situation we just took a break from it and worked on
something else.
4. In the Special Education setting, during an alphabet sound test, a
student was looking off of another students paper and the
student started having an anxiety attacked and started crying
and yelling that the another student was looking off his paper. To
get him to calm down a made him give me eye contact and I
kept repeating to him to take a deep breath and say out loud
that its no problem.
Reflection: I was very impressed with how the Special Education
teacher got the overwhelmed student to self-regulate and talk himself
out of being frustrated with the situation he was placed in.

Explain which of the suggestions on p. 347 in your textbook for addressing

undesirable classroom behaviors you utilized in the tutoring or RTI setting of your
school experience.
1. One of the undesirable classroom behaviors that I addressed in
my tutoring experience was ignoring the behavior. It was the day
before Indian and Pilgrim day at school and the students were
working on their Indian costumes and getting a little rowdy. I
reminded them of inside voices, but didnt stress to keep them
from talking to one another.
Reflection: I was impressed on how well behaved the students were for
what type of week it was. It was an overwhelming week with
Thanksgiving being right around the corner and even though the
students were a little loud I was impressed on how well they handled
the overall excited of the week.
What types of assessments did you employ with the student(s)? Did you choose to
use different types of assessments? If you did use a variety of assessment tools,
explain why different assessments were necessary?
1. The assessments we used with the students were both
Performance and Traditional. For the spelling tests and written
tests, traditional assessments was used, because it was the
easiest and the fastest way to get a lot of information out of each
student in a short amount of time. It was the most effective for
what they were learning. The performance assessment was used
when selective students read a book out loud and they were
tested on time, clarity, pronunciation, etc.
Reflection: I was impressed with how they students reacted when told
they were supposed to get ready to take an assessment. They knew
exactly what to do, what to get out, and sit patiently while the exam
was taken or given out.