I’m a learning specialist providing private tutoring. A parent of one of my students asked me if they should continue tutoring next year or wait and see how he does. This is a boy finishing 2nd grade whose main difficulty is in reading fluency. His classroom teacher agrees: he can read 2nd grade material, but works very slowly. I test him at about 60 words per minute and he should be around 90 words per minute. His comprehension is fine. He could use more phonics work - he can decode new words, but slowly. I feel like he’s “in between”. He certainly could use more private remediation, but he won’t fail or flounder without it. He is in a private Catholic school with a small amount of resource help from a resource teacher who does not have much specialized training.
Any advice for this mother? I would love to continue working with this wonderful student and his dedicated parents, but I understand the financial and time burdens of twice a week sessions. I have so far said that either way is acceptable and the parents need to decide.
Lisa SP
The problem that I can see with stopping now is that while he may be borderline and able to do the work, stopping now might contribute to frustration in the classroom because he will still struggle a bit more than his classmates. His parents may want to make sure that he is confident in his skills in the classroom before discontinuing the tutoring. This could give him a good start to the year and keep him from feeling overwhelmed. Reading isn’t just about fluency by confidence in your abilities.