Ummm...I don't know: A Case Study of First Grade Student's Literacy Development During One-on-one Tutoring
The acquisition and development of literacy is a complex and constant process. There are many components of reading, and effective readers follow the reading process, and draw on several skills and strategies in order to read. The purpose of this study is to examine the development of literacy in a young child and the way a future teacher (pre-service) learns to adapt instruction to meet a student's needs. In order to gather data, I taught thirty-minute, one-on-one tutoring sessions with Jose (pseudonym) twice weekly for two months. Sessions were held at Jose's elementary school. These sessions focused on utilizing research-based teaching methods to provide individualized instruction, while collecting data on the student's progress as well as my own progress, as a pre-service teacher myself. At the time data was collected, Jose was seven years old, in first grade, and reading at a first grade level. The results of this study reveal the specific difficulties a student may have with understanding what he or she reads. The results also highlight certain pitfalls pre-service teachers may experience as they tailor instruction to meet the needs of individual students.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations