
Mary M. answered 07/27/19
Lifetime Experience Working with All Ages' Reading & Writing Needs
I encourage all my tutored students to use kinesthetic learning as a top priority when reading, graphic-organizing, and writing. Touch is so important to registering thoughts and ideas in your cognitive mind, the process of 'thinking about thinking.' When we read in-tandem or independently, I ask the readers from second grade through adult to use a graphic organizer, if needed, to consult the book Index and Table of Contents when verifying facts, to determine author intent by revisiting the Author's Notes, and to look for new vocabulary words to study for future test-taking reasons. Also, we revisit past chapters sporadically when I ask them to pick pertinent quotes from the material, whether nonfiction or fiction. I have helped all levels of readers, including Pre-AP and AP people. We work together to make connections to something these readers have experienced personally (no family secrets, of course) in a diplomatic way, including national and world events (elaborative reading). The book we are reading is the core text. When they insist on reading the material in a Kindle between sessions, I will ask a question about previous vocabulary, author intent, or specific details as found in the Contents or Index; and they hesitate to find that material, mainly because they have not used kinesthetic techniques to record their thoughts as they read and write on paper or in their notebook computers, etc. I like them to create folders (on their personal disks) in which to store their different readings in order to compare/contrast future reads and develop their writing acumen.