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Patricia A. Lykins
Portfolio Project 3 Service Learning Component

For this portfolio project, I spent over five (5) hours with a Kindergarten
student (Student Z) as a tutor. During this time we worked on her daily homework
as well as supplemental language and math skills. We have actually been working
together for several weeks and I have seen great progress in her abilities.
I met with Student Z everyday after school for an hour. I felt this was an
appropriate time given she had spent the entire day in school and had a bit of a
limited attention span. During this time I would divide the hour into 4 sessions
homework, additional language art skills, math skills and lastly, we would read a
book or two together and discuss it for comprehension. Having the sessions broken
into smaller increments seemed to work best with her. It became a routine and she
easily moved from one session to another.
Student Zs teacher has a monthly calendar of homework. The student brings
this home with her on a daily basis. Each day specifically states what needs to be
done. For example, on Monday we will practice writing a specific letter of the
alphabet, both the capital and the lower case. In the beginning, she had a difficult
time writing the lower case letters below the dotted line on her writing paper. To
make it easier for her to understand the expectation, I would demonstrate to her
how it should be done. Using dotted lines, I would show her the path to take to
make sure she understood how it could be done. She would trace over my dotted
letter and than would continue making the required number of letters on her own.
There were times when she would have to try again when it didnt quite make it to
the dotted linebut she did! She has become quite good and remembering that
capital letters are tall and most lower cases are small.

This has been an

ongoing progress for her. In the beginning of the school year (having never been to
any preschool programs) she had some difficulties with writing. She could only
write her first name, not her last, and she didnt have a great deal of letter
recognition. In the first 9 weeks of our time together, she has made amazing
progress! She soaks everything up like a sponge!

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During our Math session, we work on counting to 110 also by 2s, 5s and
10s. She has become quite proficient at counting to 110. In the beginning, she
could only count to 15 without making a counting error. I often remind her of her
progress and it encourages her to keep doing her best. We have just begun to work
on adding and subtraction concepts. We are using counters to make the idea easier
for her to understand. We also worked on a phonics based program for our
language session called Wilson Reading. Each letter of the alphabet has a keyword
and we use flash cards with the letter and the keyword on it. We practice these
everyday. She began by repeating the sounds after me. I would say (while holding
up the flashcard) A Apple aah using the short a sound. She would then repeat
it. Student Z is a very visual learner and I found that this method was working
wonderfully with her. As we progressed through the first 9 weeks, she would begin
to lead the session. I would ask her to be the teacher and I would be the
student. Having modeled this to her she was able to take my role and I would
repeat the sounds as she had done. There were occasions when I would make the
wrong sound to see if she would catch me! We have had much success in this
program and she is able to read and sound out many consonant-vowel-consonant
words.
Reading time has became a favorite of ours. During this time we would pick
2 or 3 books and read them together. Keeping her engaged in the reading was
sometimes tricky. At first I would read a few pages and than ask questions like
what do you think will happen next? or what did he mean when he said that? or
something similar. It was a way to measure her sense of comprehension as well as
a way to ensure her attention to the task at hand. I also asked her to read the
book using the pictures. Since she has become better at simple, one-syllable
words, I have found some picture books that she is actually able to read from start
to finish.
Student Z is also very music smart and there are times when we use my
laptop to go to websites such as www.starfall.com to supplement our reading time.
Some of the books are also set to music and it helps her to be able to use this more
kinesthetic approach to learning. She really enjoys this website. I feel using these
different methods have made our tutoring time very successful. We have had
difficulties, but we have overcome them. A quote from our test book states

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Teachers who inspire realize there will always be rocks in the roads ahead of us.
They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use
them. (Koch, 2014)

Bibliography
Koch, J. (2014). Teach. In J. Koch, Teach (p. 105). Belmont: Wadsworth.