Tutor Times

Tutor Profile - June Bell

Jessica, Melissa and Frida.

One of the sweetest letters I’ve ever received is written neatly in pencil. It reads: “I love you with all me hart.” It’s a thank-you note from Jessica Millan, who wrote it five years ago when she was a second grader at North Shoreview Montessori Elementary School in San Mateo.

As a JCL tutor, I read each week with her and other struggling young readers. I adore all “my” kids, but Jessica and I bonded big time. The next year, I added Jessica’s older sister, Melissa. Both girls made steady progress. When I realized that the girls had no easy access to books during the summer, we began making trips to the library (and, I admit, to the ice cream parlor).

Jessica, 14, has blossomed into a gregarious middle-schooler who lives for any kind of dance and reads for enjoyment. Melissa, 16, is a high school student with a wry sense of humor and a passion for soccer. Both are motivated achievers who will be the first in their family to earn high school diplomas - and, one day, college degrees. I’m so impressed by these amazing young women that I’ve started college funds for them.

Jessica, Melissa and I still spend the summers with books. We dive into whatever assignments they have from school, from Greek mythology to contemporary fiction. We also leave time for fun. Last summer we visited the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and saw a performance by the acclaimed Oberlin Dance Company in the Mission.

I feel so honored to be helping these girls reach their potential, and I’m grateful to JCL for helping us to connect and for opening the door for them to become lifelong readers and learners.

June D. Bell
Freelance Writer & Editor
JCL Tutor

Joan Green, JCL Reading Specialist, on Vocabulary Building

Greetings tutors!

The 2008–09 school year is well underway. I hope you’re all settled in with your students and enjoying your tutoring assignments.

In the last article I concentrated on issues of Comprehension. This time I’d like to focus on Vocabulary Building and Word Relationships. Along with reading to and with your students, it’s important to help them expand their vocabulary and learn to enjoy playing with words. English is such an elastic language. We expand and stretch both the meanings and uses of words. And we borrow shamelessly from other languages to enlarge our word banks even further!

There are many activities you can do to call attention to words and word parts.

Let’s start with the borrowed kind. Pick a category and work with your student to create lists of foreign words that have now become “good English words” like kibbitz. Look at foods, for example. We eat pizza, quiche, sorbet and any number of others—pronouncing in a way that’s close to the original and defying the rules of English pronunciation.

Or take some time to explore compound words. They are very commonplace and children often try to pronounce the whole entity without realizing that each part is a separate word combined with another to create a different meaning. It is important for children to examine the words, take them apart and begin to recognize how the new meaning is derived. Consider words like: playground, football, railroad, seashore, and classroom. It’s fun to discuss the compound words and try to figure out together why the two individual words were matched and what they mean, separately and joined. You can also ask the students to draw pictures of the parts or the whole word as they see it.

Then think a bit about words, which are combined not with other words, but with small meaningful parts of words. I’m referring now to affixes (those little bits that you can attach either in front of a word (a prefix) or at the end (a suffix). Your handbook has whole pages listing various examples of all of these. An important part of comprehension while reading is being able to recognize and get meaning from these little bits of language. Children must begin word study of this kind very early if they are to become proficient readers. Think of prefixes like:

• un- (not)
• re- (again or back)
• pre- (before or ahead)

and the words you can attach them to. Take the word cook for example. You can leave something uncooked, you can recook it and you can get it precooked. How many other words can you use that way?

Children must learn to make use of this information and adjust their understanding of words based on the meaning of the prefixes. You can examine and discuss the differences, play games to match a prefix with its meaning, do prefix action activities like: untie your shoe and/or make word puzzles to help a child become aware of prefix meanings such as:

• What does it mean to prepay?
• What do you do when you reread?
• Show me how you unwrap a package?

Prefixes are also attached to another group of forms, which are not full English words, but rather roots or bases of words derived primarily from Latin or Greek. English uses an enormous number of these words in everyday speech. They are also the words that show up on many tests, including the SATs! A list of the most common roots is included in your handbook. The roots are harder for young children to learn and are usually presented after children have mastered the basics of reading.

Let’s talk briefly about suffixes. Suffixes are added at the end of words or roots. Meaning derived from suffixes relates to English form rather than content: i.e. action in past time: -ed; creating an adverb -ly; a noun -tion, -ness; an adjective -ous, -ive. Suffixes are addressed more fully as the child progresses also.

For now, it is important to concentrate on helping the child recognize borrowed and compound words and prefixes that are used to change the meaning of real words.

Another way to build vocabulary is through word relationships. A child’s critical thinking capacity is enhanced when s/he can manipulate groups of words and find patterns or hierarchies. You can do all sorts of word game activities to help develop thinking skills. Make them up on the spot or create them ahead of time. For example:

Main Idea vs. Details - To understand the concept of whole vs. parts. Use a group of 3×5” cards to create words in a category. Place them on the table and ask the child to guess the common feature:

Run, Hop, Walk (things you do on your feet/standing up)

Sing, Eat, Yawn (things you do with your mouth)

Give Words in a Set - written or orally. Ask the child to name the category:

Baseball, Tennis, Football… __________(category)

Rose, Daisy, Carnation… __________

Dog, Cat, Horse… __________

Present a Series of Words - Ask child to identify the “outsider” and tell why:

Hand, Foot, Hat, Head

Gloves, Socks, Sweater, Stockings

Mouth, Nose, Eye, Shoe

Simple Analogies - Ask child to complete the comparison:

Toes are to feet as fingers are to __________.

Water is to a fish as air is to a __________.

Fur is to a bear as clothes are to a __________.

You can use these word plays as a change of pace activity or as an extension of the story you’re reading. Part of the language learning process is to investigate how words are made and how they fit into the larger meaning of a story. Feel free to create any kind of word discovery activity you can think of and work together with your child to become word sleuths! If the process can intrigue you, then the child will be too. Have fun and a very productive year in 2009.

All the Best,
Joan

Please remember that I’m available to work with you on any questions or concerns about tutoring. Don’t hesitate to contact me by phone (415) 751-4992, or e-mail at jfgreen2@aol.com.