I think that we should be conscious that these students that we will be tutoring have had teachers try to teach them to read. Not every student learns in the same way. Some learn visually, some oraly, etc. It might be necessary to approaching reading instruction from different angles (not just phonics, whole language, or language experience) but a combination so that the student is recieving input from various angles.

My thoughts over the past few days is that as tutors we need to be very careful not to be negative about the students we are tutoring. Although these students are struggling with reading, that does not mean that they have failed in any way or that they don't have any knowledge to bring to school or to the conversation. No child is an empty container that we as tutors/teachers pump information into. The have skills and knowledge to contribute.

While reading and discussing the Shark Attack book I was impressed by the content level. I like the idea that although the book is aimed at early readers, the content is not dumbed down to compensate for a lack of reading skills. As an ESL teacher we are very conscious not to demean the children we are working with. Just because they are not good readers does not mean that they are less intelligent than the other students. I also think that the vocabulary in Shark Attack would be too challenging for early readers but possibly level 1 or 2 books in this series would work well...

The Myers Briggs Test stated that I am ENFJ. I never would have considered myself to be extroverted in any way although those close to me might argue that I am. The Multiple Intelligence Assessment test stated that my strengths are in word smarts, logic smarts and self smarts. My weakest area was musical which is not a surprise at all.