Chidua: Reading/Writing and Math for K-3rd (French/English)

Chidua U.

ADHD

I have worked with young people from K-6th for about 10 years and 2 of those years are with special needs students including those with ADD and autism. I understand that staying focused and being able to organize thoughts and accomplish tasks are some of the challenges that ADD students face so when I am working with a student with ADD, I adopt the following approaches: - Create a schedule that must be closely followed. - Make sure that I am specific and clear when giving instructions. For example, instead of telling the child not to sit on the table, I would ask him to sit on the chair. - Consistency is very important to avoid confusing the child. I make sure I follow the schedule and rules as closely as possible. Any pattern of instruction adopted will be strictly followed to enhance maximum engagement. This will help build structure into his daily routine. - For the child to stay focused and engaged, I will ensure that there are no distruptions during the time of tutoring. This may involve removing toys and any thing that may be distracting. - When a task is assigned, he will be given enough time to complete the task and the tasks will be monitored to make sure they are correctly completed. Rewarding the child is very vital to having a consistent growth in learning.

Dyslexia

I have worked with students with learning disabilities including Dyslexia for 2 years and helped them develop skills that improved their learning competence. Dyslexia is a language processing disorder that impairs a student's ability to read, write and spell. This often causes frustration and a lack of motivation to continue and overcome the challenges. The challenges are different for students (Pre K - 2nd) than they are for students 3rd grade and above. Even for the younger children, it varies from child to child. To effectively help a child overcome this hurdle, it is important to understand the child's unique personality and use it as a frame to develop an individualized plan that will lead to academic success. For students in this age bracket (Pre K -2nd) the problem is with recognizing letters, matching letters to sounds and using blends to form sounds in words. They also have difficulty learning numbers and days of the week. When working with a student in this category, it is important to: - Use of multi-sensory approach (sight, sound and touch) and this is how it works: - I will teach the student how to listen to words and break them into individual sounds and take individual sounds and blend them into a word. With this method, the student will learn how each syllable sounds alone and how they sound together. - Each rule that governs written words will be taught explicitly, one rule at a time and practiced until the student can automatically apply the rule when reading, writing and spelling before new rules are introduced. Previously learned rules will always be incorporated into current lessons to keep them fresh in the student's mind. For students in 3rd-6th whose challenges are more with learning the rules of spelling and following a sequence of directions, my strategy will focus on the problem areas. Overall, I will do a continuous assessment of the student's understanding and application of the rules while allowing the student to learn at his own pace.

Elementary (K-6th)

In my ten years of working with students (K-6th), I have gained the skills and experience needed to help a child struggling in an area or one who lacks motivation gain control of his studies and begin to excel academically, having worked as Assistant and Lead Teacher in Pre Schools as well as Education Director in a Youth Development Organization. I enjoy the challenges and the reward of being part of a child's academic success and so I always look for ways that will work for each child I work with and this sometimes means that I may have to adopt new strategies. I have worked with a child from Pre K who did not know the letters of the alphabet but now (4th grade) reads at a 5th grade level and when in 3rd grade, excelled in a 4th grade skills assessment test that was administered at his school. Tutoring/mentoring come naturally to me and I enjoy doing them. When I start tutoring a child, my first approach is to explain basic concepts and patterns where applicable and make sure the child understands the sequence. Next, I give the child a task and encourage him/her to figure things out independently. As the child's confidence level grows through accomplishing tasks independently, new concepts will be added and reinforcement activities will be used to ensure that previously learned concepts are not forgotten. This will apply to all subject areas. I have found this to be extremely effective in building confidence and developing an independent student who can think critically and be proactive.

English

The practical assignments and activities your child will receive in this subject will motivate him/her to practice constantly. These will enable him/her to understand and use new vocabulary and grammar while writing. Your child will get a firm foundation in English by: - Practicing grammar. - Learning, remembering and using everyday vocabulary. -Organizing and connecting ideas logically. Through regular tests, you can measure your child's progress.

Reading

I have helped many young people struggling with reading develop a passion for it by teaching them the strategies that enhance comprehension. Reading like many other subjects is an art and developing the right skills requires some effort and dedication. My way of tutoring the subject is an initial assessment of the student with a book at his grade level. The assessment will help me understand the student's reading and comprehension level as I will be asking questions while the reading is going on. Next, I will draw an outline for the student. This will teach the student what to look out for in a story: main character, story line, the setting and supporting characters. This is not a skill that will be developed over night so it is important that the student stays committed and follows through with all assignments. As the student starts developing confidence with his reading, more tasks will be added such as summarizing a page and then chapter. For a much younger reader (Pre K--1st), blends will be used and books with colors and pictures will help the child make easy and logical connections .

Spelling

Knowing that spelling is very vital to your child's literacy education, a "Word Study " approach will be used to make sure that your child has a rewarding learning experience and avoid unnecessary boring memorization of words. Your child will be provided with opportunities to understand word patterns so that through them, he/she can learn to spell, read, and write words which will in turn help develop your child's ability in phonics, word recognition, and vocabulary. Your child will learn to compare and contrast features in words by sorting. Reinforcement activities will be used to help your child relate a new pattern to a previously learned word. Random tests will be used to assess your child's pattern knowledge rather than his/her ability to memorize single words.

Study Skills

Having worked with youth K-6th for about 10 years, I have gained skills and the experience needed to help a child develop a healthy study habit that will help him/her succeed academically. Prior to starting a tutoring program with a child, I conduct an assessment which helps me understand the child's basic needs as well as study skills or lack of them. With this knowledge, I develop an Individualized Study Plan (ISP) which will include short/long term goals to target these needs. I will start by helping the child create binders for each subject and making sure all materials are available in each binder. This will help the child learn to be organized and focused when learning or doing homework. When all materials are available and visible, learning becomes less cumbersome. Once the binders are created, it becomes the child's sole responsibility to ensure that the binders stay up to date with tasks completed and put in the right place. This will be checked constantly. The child will learn to be responsible and accountable when things are not in place. By developing an individualized study habit, the child will: - Deveop self confidence. - Learn to prepare for tests. - Be more proactive, make better decisions and think critically and excel.