Tutoring Partners’ Names: Laura Hughes and Stephen Hughes

Literacy Profile
Final Assessments and Reflection

Tutee’s Age: 8 Tutee’s Current Instructional Level: 2nd

Tutee’s Grade: 3rd

Using a strength-based (asset) model, instead of a deficit-based model, what are two or more
strengths your tutee brings to his or her educational experience that helps him or her excel?

Strength # 1: Our tutee is good at tapping out sounds as she writes her words for maximum success.

Example of that strength in action:

When our tutee is given a word to write, like “patch”, she will tap her fingers for each sound in the
word. Then she will tap her fingers while writing each letter or letters of the word. She was very
successful using this strategy. It really helped her break down words and hear all the sounds.

Strength # 2: Our tutee has a love of writing.

Example of that strength in action:

Each time that we worked with our tutee, we started with a 2 minute write. We always let her pick
the topic of discussion. She chose different topics that she enjoyed like the beach, Easter, and books
that we like to read. When the two minute timer went off, she was still finishing a thought. Her
pencil never stopped during the two minutes.

When reflecting upon your initial assessments and five tutoring sessions, what was the area you
felt your tutee needed the most support/help in (word learning, vocabulary/comprehension, or
writing) and why? (Share at least three support statements to justify the area you named. For these
support statements, you can pull from pre-assessment results and tutoring experiences.)

Selected Area (word learning, vocabulary/comprehension, or writing): word learning

Support statement # 1: Our tutee had some deficits in phonological awareness according to the
PAST assessment. She scored 9/12 on levels D and E combined which was basic syllable levels.
Levels D and E equate to preschool to the end of kindergarten levels. Included in that was deletion of
syllables.

Support statement # 2: In Phonics Core Assessment, our tutee read 14 of 24 words from the 3
columns of multisyllabic words. She missed 5 words with closed-closed, open-closed, or
closed-silente syllable types. This showed that she needed work on open and closed syllables when
working to decode words.

Support statement # 3: Our tutee worked hard to spell words, but scored within word on the
original DSA assessment. She scored high on the letter name list (23 stage score, 25 feature score),
so we also gave the within word list (8 stage score, 8 feature score). We were able to see that long
vowel combinations and trigraphs were among the deficits.

Based on the area you named above (word learning, vocabulary/comprehension, or writing),
give at least two post-assessments to measure growth. You can pull from the assessments you
used for the pre-assessments or use another measure you are familiar with. Below, share the
names of the two assessments you used and details of the results.

Assessment # 1: PAST (Form A)

Detailed Results: Our tutee showed growth. On levels D and E which are basic syllable levels. She
got 100%. On level H (early to late first grade) she had 4 out of 10 at the beginning and after tutoring
she showed significant growth with 9 out of 10 correct with 8 out of 10 automatic. In the advanced
phoneme level, in level K with deletion and substitution she started with 1 out of 5. At the end, she
scored 4 out of 5 showing growth in this area. Level L, substitution with ending sounds, went from 1
out of 5 to 2 out of 5, so there was a small increase in that area. Level M with substitution and
deletion of medial consonant sounds, went from 0 out of 5 to 1 out of 5. Overall the Advanced
phonemes went from 7 out of 20 and increased to 12 out of 20 showing growth in this area.

Assessment # 2: DSA

Detailed Results: Our tutee showed growth in the original DSA. In the first five words, she went
from spelling 3 to 5 words correctly. In the second five words she went from spelling 1 to 3 words
correctly. Our tutee also showed growth on the within words list. She went from a stage score of 8 to
10 and a feature score of 8 to 10. Feature F score (VCe long vowels) went from 4 to 5. Feature G
score (r-control) went from 3 to 2. Feature I score (complex consonants) went from 1 to 3. She was
able to spell patch, featuring -tch, as an important growth…since that was 2 of the lessons we did
with her!

Based on the results of the two post-assessments you gave and your overall tutoring session
experiences, write a two-paragraph reflection on the child’s growth.

The first paragraph should focus on the target area you selected (word learning,
vocabulary/comprehension, or writing).
Our tutee showed growth in word learning. She really seemed to focus in on some of the small
details of open and closed syllables, phonological awareness, and word reading. Most of the time she
knew when a word (or answer) didn’t sound right or look right. While she was really thinking about
her answers, she took an appropriate amount of time to share answers. As she grew and gained skills,
you could see her confidence grow.
The second paragraph should reflect on the child’s growth overall. Remember, you only
tutored a short amount of time, so don’t feel discouraged if the growth is minimal. The
important thing is you got the ball rolling and sparked the child’s interest in reading and
writing.

Our tutee was always happy to see us even under the crazy circumstances that were going on in her
life. Having us work with her on her reading and writing gave her a sense of normalcy and security.
She didn’t feel like she was missing out on her reading,writing, and content area when she got to
work with us after school. She continued to use her strategies for reading and learning more about
her content area in science with the vocabulary and comprehension work.

Share two instructional suggestions for your tutee’s teacher, interventionist, and
family/guardian that will help your tutee be successful on grade level and beyond.

Teacher:
1. Continue UFLI lessons starting at 71 -tch, -dge review

2. Use Heggerty to continue substitutions and deletion in words.

Interventionist:
1. Work on phonological awareness activities at the advanced level.

2. Work on fluency with decodables.

Family/Guardian:
1. Read books out loud to each other every night.

2. Play word games like boggle, scrabble, or hangman.

What worked well for you during your tutoring experiences? To answer this question, you can
think about the dynamic you had with your partner, the relationship you had with the tutee,
the tutoring schedule, the tutoring lesson plan, and what actually transpired during tutoring
lessons. (5-10 sentences).

This was our favorite tutoring session because it was in-person! Having that in-person connection
was a big deal for us and we’re sure for our tutee as well. Having an experienced partner was
important for the success we had with our tutee, too. Together we were very knowledgeable about
reading K-4. There were pieces of K-4 literacy that we needed to address with our tutee so we were
able to share our expertise with each other. The fact that we got to choose our tutee based on reading
level and that this particular child was in the desirable range for this class was a blessing. Our tutee is
a smart, hard-working, and super sweet child. She was delightful to work with!
What did you find challenging during your tutoring experiences? To answer this question, you
can think about the dynamic you had with your partner, the relationship you had with the
tutee, the tutoring schedule, the tutoring lesson plan, and what actually transpired during
tutoring lessons. (5-10 sentences).

The timeframe that we were tutoring was packed full of events, meetings, and graduate class
assignments. Finding a day of the week to work with our tutee was adventurous. Then when she
moved for a short period of time, we didn’t know what we were going to do. Luckily, we were able
to meet our tutee and her family at a park/library to work with her for one session. Then, the place
they were moving to didn’t work out, so we got her back at school, but we had to get caught up on
our lessons. That was a stressful time! Thankfully everything worked out!

Optional: Share any additional thoughts.

Thank you for allowing us to pick our partners, and our tutees. Thank you for getting Cumberland
involved with the program, which allowed us to work with our tutee in-person.