Five Keys to Successful Tutoring with Vowel Clustering: Part 1

by Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph. D

Tutoring doesn’t end with summer. As school resumes, many of the children entering the classroom are still struggling to learn to read. Tutoring can be the key to helping a child or teen have a successful year. I present the following suggestions:

1. Focus on the student:  Before you can help a student improve, you must understand what the student needs to learn in order to improve.  You must learn as much as possible about the student you are working with.  What does this student need to be successful in the classroom?  What has caused this student to fail to learn and why?  The “why” is very important.  Then, establish tutoring goals based on the student’s needs.  I taught a 15-year-old, who had failed for 9 years, to read. I was successful because I first tried to understand exactly what the student did and did not know about letter sounds.  Then, I used vowel clustering and taught the student to read.  What works with one student, may not work with another student.  You must individualize your instruction to fit the needs of each student.

2. Select a teaching curriculum that fits the student’s specific needs.  Select your tutoring curriculum carefully.  I have used vowel clustering for the past 24 years in my work with all ages.  I have worked in both inner city and rural locations.   I have worked with students diagnosed with dyslexia, ADHD, Aspergers, autism, and an array of cognitive processing problems.  Vowel clustering allows me to adjust my tutoring lessons to the specific needs of each student.  This is very important.  Oftentimes, we expect students to adjust to the curriculum.  Instead, we should

be selecting a curriculum that will adjust to the student.  I worked with a young student one year who had been held back in kindergarten. Unfortunately, the student was unable to memorize the required number of words to be promoted to first grade.  With vowel clustering, there is no memorization.  By the end of the year, the student was reading above his age level.  In the tutoring book pictured, I give several examples showing how I adapted vowel clustering to meet the needs of each individual student.

For more information on how to adapt vowel clustering to meet the needs of individual students, see: https://www.groupcentered.com/ reading-blog/a-hands-on-project-helps-create-apositive-learning-environment-to-help-studentscorrect-learning-losses-part-5-of-a-series

3. Create a positive learning environment even if you are tutoring online.  A positive learning environment is more than just pretty pictures or motivating quotes.  A positive learning environment is how you teach.  A positive learning environment includes the words you speak, how you talk with your student.  Notice, I did not say how you talk “to” your student.  There is a difference.  Many students do not know how to communicate and interact with others, especially with a tutor.  Communication means trying to understand how and why a person feels as they do.  Intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic.  Intrinsic is driven by an internal desire to learn.  You want to tap into this internal desire to learn, to improve, to start over.  Offering a candy bar is extrinsic.  It may seem to work at first, but it soon fades, and you are left with failure.  “Do it or else” demands do not work either.  Strive for intrinsic motivators.  I use hands-on learning techniques.

For more on using intrinsic motivators, read: Chapter 3, Motivation: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic in Group Interventions in Schools: Promoting Mental Health for At-Risk Children and Youth. I even include a hands-on project that works with tutoring.

For more information on intrinsic hands-on motivators (pattern included), see: https://www. groupcentered.com/reading-blog/tutoring-hint7-intrinsic-motivation-is-better-than-extrinsicrewards

Part 2, continued next month.

If you have questions or need help, please contact me at clantonharpine@hotmail.com

Have a great school year.

Dr. Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph. D.