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Reading Matters
Research Matters
Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | |17|
More Than a Literacy Lesson:
Pre-Service Teachers’ Connections with Students
in a University-Based Tutorial Program
By Bethanie C. Pletcher and Christie L. Warren, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
ABSTRACT — In this teaching narrative, the authors discovered
the importance of the relationships tutors and children built
during a university course-based reading tutorial program.
During the brief time period of eight tutoring sessions, the course
instructors noticed two pairs of tutors/tutees who had positively
impacted one another. Not only did the children learn more
about the reading and writing process and the teachers learn
more about teaching it, the children and their tutors created
relationships that illustrate the affective aspect of tutoring. The
authors conclude that more can occur, beyond academic learning,
in eight tutoring sessions than would usually be expected.
We know that on the first day of our undergraduate diagnosis
of reading problems course, our pre-service teachers will be
uneasy when we tell them they will be spending approximately
ten hours working with a student. As soon as we share this fact
during the first class, we know that hands will go up. Where will
these children come from? Where will we tutor them? How will I know
what to teach? They have many “initial doubts and fears” in the
weeks leading up to the actual tutorials (Richards, 2006, p. 777).
When we taught this course for the first time, we had
wonderings as well. Just howmuch of a difference can tutoring
a child for eight sessions make? How will our tutors know when
they have made a difference? As teachers of children, we firmly
believe in the power of one-to-one interventions; however,
for interventions to be effective, they need to occur at least
four days per week and be delivered by expert teachers. We
have not abandoned these beliefs, but we have become
more convinced of the power of the pre-service teacher.
Setting
The reading tutorial program is situated in an undergraduate
course titled Diagnosis and Correction of Reading Problems.
In each section of this course, 25 pre-service teachers attend
five traditional classes at the beginning of the semester. For the
subsequent eight classes, we meet with our students for an hour
and a half and then they tutor children for an hour and fifteen
minutes. The course takes place on the university campus in
the late afternoons, creating an after-school tutorial setting.
The course instructor guides students in the use of several
assessment tools, and tutors then analyze the data they gather
from these assessments to provide one-on-one instruction for
children, ages six through eleven, participating in the program.
Although this experience is “practice” teaching, it is a crucial
piece in the development of skills that impacts the reading and
writing of the children involved in the tutoring program.
Review of the Literature
A search of the literature finds information pertaining to
the beliefs, skills, teaching strategies, and effectiveness of
pre-service teachers in university-based tutorial programs. A
deeper look uncovers other dimensions of literacy tutoring
that we were interested in learning more about, specifically
how tutors develop relationships with the children they teach.
In fact, in studies conducted by Hedrick, McGee, and Mittag
(2000) andWorthy and Patterson (2001), most comments
made by tutors revolved around these relationships.
The Compassionate Practitioner
As mentioned in Worthy & Patterson (2001), it is a delightful
experience to watch tutors and children on the first day of tutorials
as they meet each other. There are some pairs who hit it off
immediately and others who are unsure due to nervousness or
anxiety. Over the course of the first couple sessions, it is evident
which pairs are working together naturally and which pairs are
going through the motions of planned tutorial lessons. The ideal
situation is that, as pre-service teachers have the experience of
sitting alongside a child, a bond develops. As the tutor listens
to the child and follows that particular child’s path to learning,
a “natural caring” occurs that is “driven not by obligation but by
personal feelings for the student” (Worthy & Patterson, 2001,
p. 331). As instructors of this course, we want our students to
understand that teaching begins with connections, and that
teachers form these connections by engaging in authentic
conversations with children (Assaf & Lopez, 2012; Lysaker,
McCormick, & Brunette, 2004). As noted by Hedrick, McGee, and
Mittag (2000), the one-to-one tutoring situation lends itself to
this level of rapport. Another salient outcome of individualized
tutoring is that pre-service teachers learn to empathize with
children who are developing as readers and writers (Richards,
2006; Worthy & Patterson, 2001), and this is a valued trait for
teachers to possess before they enter the field as practitioners.
The Social Spaces of Tutoring
The bond between each pair is a natural outgrowth of the
underlying social “scene” to which both the tutor and child
now belong. Upon meeting and spending time together, they
etch out a space for themselves in which they learn and grow
together. Their interactions during tutoring sessions help
students become more comfortable and help tutors develop
an appreciation of their students’ personalities and struggles
(Worthy & Patterson, 2001). For the first time for many of them,