…I started tutoring again last night.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was great to see M. again (she’s my only student this year, with two lessons a week), and to have my ego pumped by finding out how much she disliked working with another tutor up at their summer home these past couple of months.\u00c2\u00a0 (Let’s face it: we all like to have our ego pumped up.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s part of being human.)\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m happy to report that tutoring on Monday and Wednesday nights feels much more manageable and sane than last year’s Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday schedule.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a good feeling to do my tutoring gigs at the beginning of the week, when I’m fresh – or at least fresher<\/em>.<\/p>\n The interesting side of my lesson with M. last night was discovering that her Wilson tutor for the summer didn’t\u00c2\u00a0faithfully adhere to the Wilson lesson plan and techniques.\u00c2\u00a0 A bit puzzling, considering that when I got certified in Wilson (in the summer of 2001), my trainer was extremely strict about following the structure of the Wilson Reading System to the letter (so to speak).\u00c2\u00a0 No deviations were allowed.\u00c2\u00a0 Period.\u00c2\u00a0 If we trainees didn’t follow the system, we wouldn’t get certified.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n And then I find out that M.’s summer tutor deviated in odd ways from the Wilson system.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, this tutor wouldn’t let M. see the sound cards in the decoding Quick Drill; M. told me that the tutor “hid the cards” from M. and simply asked her “What are the keywords for ‘a’?”\u00c2\u00a0 Wait a second – what about the sound\/symbol connection, Ms. Summer Tutor?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you realize that is a hugely important part of teaching a child with dyslexia??<\/p>\n Ms. Summer Tutor also didn’t have M. write down any sounds on her dictation pages – once again demonstrating a clear lack of understanding of how the WRS works.\u00c2\u00a0 And Ms. Tutor didn’t have M. set up her own dictation pages, but instead used the pre-made dictation forms that can be downloaded from the Wilson website.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I feel the student’s setting up of her own dictation page is incredibly important, as it both builds a sense of being a partner in\u00c2\u00a0her own education, and also helps the student with transfering information from one page (the dictation template) to another (the actual dictation page) -\u00c2\u00a0a skill which comes into play when trying to copy\u00c2\u00a0information and assignments from the teacher’s whiteboard to the student’s notes.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Another deviation that Ms. Summer Tutor made was to completely and totally skip the Step 10 Posttest.\u00c2\u00a0 This tutor simply moved M. on to Step 11 without confirming that M. had mastered the concepts of Step 10.\u00c2\u00a0 Wait a second.\u00c2\u00a0 The Wilson Reading System, as I was taught it, is all about achieving mastery <\/em><\/strong>and fluency<\/em><\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 There are firm guidelines for grading the posttests to ensure that the student has mastered all of the taught concepts and is fully fluent in decoding and encoding words with those concepts.\u00c2\u00a0 If the student fails the posttest, review of the step is required before moving on to the next step.\u00c2\u00a0 Skipping the posttest isn’t an option.\u00c2\u00a0 Most interestingly, Ms. Summer Tutor sent me an update saying that substep 10.5 had been introduced but not mastered, and that substep 11.1 also had been introduced.\u00c2\u00a0 So it was a conscious shirking of the mastery and fluency rules.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s up with that??<\/p>\n It’s disappointing to me that a parent looking for a Wilson tutor has to know how to ask all the right questions, and can’t simply depend upon the tutor having official Wilson certification.\u00c2\u00a0 I take my role as a Wilson certified tutor very, very seriously, and I don’t invent things or change things.\u00c2\u00a0 Barbara Wilson spent many years and much research developing this system, and it works.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t mess with it.\u00c2\u00a0 In not messing with the WRS, I’ve had a great deal of success teaching students with dyslexia and other language based learning disabilities.\u00c2\u00a0 Other Wilson certified tutors should have respect for Barbara Wilson’ s work, and not mess around with what she spent years perfecting.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Wow, I sound like some sort of cult member.\u00c2\u00a0 But seriously, my many successful students prove my point, and justify this soap box moment of mine.\u00c2\u00a0 And now I’ll step down from that soap box.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks for listening!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …I started tutoring again last night.\u00c2\u00a0 It was great to see M. again (she’s my only student this year, with two lessons a week), and to have my ego pumped by finding out how much she disliked working with another tutor up at their summer home these past couple of months.\u00c2\u00a0 (Let’s face it: we … Continue reading How I know summer’s really over…<\/span>