A sentence strip can be used for
a variety of purposes in your tutorial. Start
with a long piece of lined paper. Either you or
your student can then write a sentence on the
strip. You can take this activity
in lots of directions:
You can use
the strip to have your student look for “little
words in the big words.” You may be surprised
that even basic sentences can be effective for
showing students that words can be deconstructed—For
example:
“She can hit the ball.” »» “She
can hit the ball.”
You can cut
up the sentence strip, mix up the words and
have your student put the words in the correct
order. This activity can be very valuable when
students are at basic levels. Be sure to discuss
capitalization and punctuation when ordering
your words. Cutting the capitalized letter from
the first word (or other proper nouns) helps
students notice capitalization. Also, the punctuation
marks can be cut from the rest of the sentence—giving
your student a chance to recognize the importance
of punctuation as they manipulate the words/marks
in the sentence.
Use a sentence strip for
your students to respond to your writing prompts.
You can rewrite what your student has written
and ask your student to compare the two sentences.
Your student can “edit” his or her
sentence, using your strip as a resource.
Talk to your
student and identify an experience or topic
of interest to your student.
Record your
student’s words as he or she tells of the
experience or topic.
Read the writing
several times, asking your student to read after
you.
Ask your student
to select meaningful words. Underline those
words and put them on individual word cards.
Teach each
selected word. Ask your student to shuffle the
word cards and read them, referring to the story
if necessary.
Reread the
story together. Ask your student to reread the
story.
Give a copy of the story and
word cards to your student for home study. Keep
copy for yourself or for your student’s
portfolio.
The Look What
I Did! writing activity is an important component
of the learning process. It gives students an
opportunity to reflect on the skills and activities
completed during the tutoring session and write
about them. Reflection promotes academic achievement
and it helps the student become actively involved
in the learning process.
Review the
Look What
I Did! work sheet. Read each statement and
have your student respond. Ask your student
to write his/her response on the work sheet.
If you are running short of time, you can serve
as a scribe and write your student’s response
in the appropriate space. Your student can still
participate by circling the appropriate face
on the form (We hope it will always be “great!”).
Send the completed
sheet home with the student for a parent to
review.
