My name is Louise Friedrich-Castronovo (she/her). You can also call me Lou. I’m a second year grad student at Hunter in the Childhood Special Education – Learning Disabilities program. Currently, I am a preschool teacher at the Goddard school in North Bellmore. It’s amazing seeing kids take their first steps and say their first words. I also work at Frankies 457 in Brooklyn on the weekends. I love crafting and am currently working on making crochet baby toys for my class. I am so excited to become a special educator and eventually have my own classroom where I can see kids learn and grow. Last year I moved to Long Island and started fishing. I absolutely love it!  I am so excited to meet you all and learn and grow together. 

I am a career changer with roughly 3 years of teaching experience. Before beginning this graduate program, I earned my TEFL certification and taught English in Spain and Portugal. While living abroad I also taught English online to students based in China through a company called VIPKid. Last year I was a teaching assistant in a school on Long Island for children on the autism spectrum. This school year, I am very excited to begin a new position as a teaching assistant in the public school that I attended growing up on LI. I will be assisting in a mostly self-contained K-2 classroom with a 12:1:2 ratio. When I am not working or studying, I enjoy traveling and spending time in Portugal where my partner lives. After I graduate from this program, I hope to continue teaching in NY as well as abroad in International Baccalaureate schools.

Question- Is there a specific curriculum/ program being used to teach the lesson? 

Resource: Recipe for Reading for multisyllabic word instruction. 

Seismic: Explicit teaching- the teacher explains, models, and gives examples throughout the lesson. 

Grow/Question - How can you give Matthew a job to do while you explain things? Perhaps he can write on the board/underline the vowels you name? 

Potential Resource - Perhaps try Fundations

Connection to SEISMIC - checklist to break down steps of reading multisyllabic words, explicit (voices cognitive process underlying the checklist)

Grow or Question: Implementing a brain break or movement break later in the lesson could be helpful and supportive of Matthew. 

Potential Resource: Recipe for Reading, OG methods, Rewards

Connection to SEISMIC: Explicit instruction was great! Explained every aspect of his lesson, and what his expectations were for Matthew. 

DK was very clear with his instruction/explanations and his visual representation was displayed in a way that was clutter free and  easy to view. His behavior management was also very well accomplished as he addressed it as it happened rather than letting it continue throughout the lesson. 

Grow/question: I wonder how DK would address the students’ impulsivity increased as the lesson progressed

Potential Resource: I have just started using REWARDS with my Tutee and I have really enjoyed using it and my tutee seems to like to. I also like to pair it with the sand tray’s when tutoring in person to promote engagement and motivation when doing REWARDS work as I have found that REWARDS can sometimes dry. 

Connection to SEISMIC: Multisensory: DK used a lot of wonderful visuals that proved to be very effective as we saw the tutee actively engaging in the lesson. 

Grow: This lesson was fantastic! I would suggest making the lessons more multisensory. This is an element that falls under the SEISMIC Teaching Methods and is important because students need to be exposed to many different elements in a lesson. 

Grow: Question- What website is this game on? 

Resource: superteacherworksheets.com has great math activities! 

SEISMIC: explicit- teacher is constantly routine naming and modeling so student is able to stay on track.

Grow/Question - Is it possible to allow the student to pick the sign instead of choosing for her?

Potential Resource - https://jr.brainpop.com/math/numbersense/comparingnumbers/

Connection to Seismic - Multisensory (visual animations and auditory prompts)

Grow: This was another fantastic lesson. In terms of recommendations I would suggest giving the student more options to choose from and encourage them to use more vocab when they discuss problems. 

Potential Resource: N/A
Connection to SEISMIC: Explicit & individualized. APM asked Naveah exactly what was expected of her, redirected her to use math language, and also used prompts and a visual program supportive of her student. 

Glow: I liked the way she asked the tutee to use the math vocabulary in her answer. The way she asked was more of a reminder and did not come across as saying the tutee’s answer was wrong. 

Grow/question: There could have been visual support regarding math vocabulary as the tutee seemed to need reoccuring reminders to use vocabulary.

Potential Resource: Prodigy is a resource i have never used but have been told that it is a very helpful and endearing resource disguised as a game. 

Connection to SEISMIC: Multisensory: the visual representation was very interactive which made it more engaging. Also, Systematic: It was clear that the tutee was building off of the math vocabulary previously taught. I thought she did a wonderful job trying to incorporate the vocab into the activity. 

Grow: You could add a “we do” question for us to work together on before independent practice (there was probably one but I didn't notice it).

Recommended Resource: Video about Latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes in the English language

Connection to SEISMIC: Individualized through an in-the-moment adjustment - scaffolded/gave us something to refer to during independent practice (rewrote rules on board next to independent practice words)

Grow/Question: Make sure when asking kids to read that your visual matches exactly what you want them to say! An anchor chart/visual for all of those great mnemonics like a, o and u being “big and strong” and “always long” could be prepared ahead of time for reference. Perhaps on a slide? 

Potential Resource: You would love Anita Archers research! https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258166252_Decoding_and_Fluency_Foundation_Skills_for_Struggling_Older_Readers

Connection to SEISMIC 

SEISMIC Teaching Methods
Explicit | Voice cognitive processes (e.g. thoughts, reasoning, and reflecting) through routine naming, explaining, modeling, teaching examples/non-examples, and challenging common misconceptions (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

 

SEISMIC: This lesson was noy only hands-on , it was multisensory. Jenna used her voice and visuals to navigate the class through the lesson. 

Grow: Although I was close to the bord and able to read the agenda I would recommend writing the agenda larger so students in all areas in the classroom can see their tasks. 

Suggestions: Incorporate other sources into lessons as class suggested. 

SEISMIC: When looking at this lesson through a SEISMIC lens the material was clear and accessible. This lesson was multisensory in the sense it enclosed a variety of colors and images to support material. 

Grow/ Suggestions: I would suggest adding additional sensory elements into the lesson such as more movement elements and maybe some engaging videos. 

Grow/Question: I think seeing all the other slides on the zoom on the far left could be visually distracting for a kid with LD. I would do a partial screen share which will allow you to only show the slide that you are sharing.  

Potential Resource: For teaching different types of summary writing here is a nice visual: https://litinfocus.com/10-graphic-organizers-summary-writing/

Connection to SEISMIC: Individualized Use planned accommodations and modifications and in-the-moment adjustments to learning experiences based on student strengths and needs (IDEA, 2004).

- Gorgeous visuals

- Your pacing and tone is both calming and engaging. Your patience for this child is incredible.

- Excellent balance of validating his strong verbal skills while holding him accountable to challenge himself with writing. 

- Good catch to add the question to the “Summary Sentence” slide

- Great modeling with the sloth summary.

- You provided a super logical, accessible summary of why you ordered the parts of the sentence in a certain way (“Costa Rican jungle”)

- You are so attentive to Leo’s interests. 

Questions:

- Would it be possible to do this activity with a split screen? 

- Had you done an activity like this before? - How does it go when Leo does the typing?

- Has he learned about appositives / parenthetical phrases? This might be a fun tandem partner lesson.

Potential Resource:
- Do you have a NYC library card? I always forget how many rich resources they have online for nonfiction materials.
- Have you ever watched CNN10? It's a short news segment for kids. I love using them for summary practice.

Connection to SEISMIC (So many to choose from!) Explicit -- You voiced your logical cognitive processing when ordering the components of your summary sentence.

Grow or Question: This lesson was extremely well scaffolded! To further scaffold the content of this lesson and to ensure Leo’s mastery, in the next lesson you can provide the same summary sentence slide with your verbal prompts written next to each bullet point that are specific to the new text. This will allow Leo to attempt the summary sentence on his own. Then the prompts can be removed for another new text and Leo can use the bullet points as reference. Finally, the summary sentence bullet points can be removed for another new text and Leo can attempt to complete an informative summary sentence independently.

Potential Resource: Readwritethink.org has great resources for reading and writing lessons! They have lesson plans that I have been exploring and will be using with my tutee in upcoming reading comprehension and writing lessons.

Connection to SEISMIC: Daniella had multiple examples of SEISMIC teaching methods throughout her lesson. The scaffolds and gradual release of content responsibility were both systematic and strategic. This lesson was also individualized as adjustments and modifications were made throughout the lesson to ensure the student’s understanding of the content. She adapted to the student’s performance by modifying her verbal directions and writing the question for the tutee’s reference. Daniella also explicitly modeled her cognitive thought processes when writing the “where” information of the Costa Rican jungle in the Sloth example. This modeling was essential for the student to be able to engage in similar cognitive processes independently.

Grow or Question: I was curious about the tutee’s prior knowledge and what the tutor previously taught him. Were the student’s knowledge of vowel sounds and open/closed syllables assessed beforehand? Were these concepts reviewed in the beginning of the lesson?

Potential Resource:  The CORE Reading Sourcebook and Recipe For Reading have good multisyllabic decoding lessons that would be appropriate for this student.

Connection to SEISMIC: This lesson was strategic and systematic as it utilized the gradual release model of responsibility.

Grow or Question: Displaying the sentence frames or typing them in the chat box for the tutee to reference would assist the student in saying the sentence correctly and independently.

Potential Resource:  SplashLearn is a great website with math games!

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was successful as it was multisensory. The student was engaged in the content of the lesson as they were required to use multiple senses simultaneously.

Grow or Question: Something I have noticed with my tutee and our Zoom lessons is that it has been helpful to hide things on a slide behind a rectangle if I don’t want him to look or read that part of the slide yet. For example, with your “I do” slide and the 3 sentences that are presented on the slide, you can put a rectangle over the 2nd and 3rd sentence to have Leo only focus on the 1st sentence.

Potential Resource:  The textbook from our writing course last semester, Writing Assessment and Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities by Barbara J. Wendling, Nancy Mather, and Rhia Roberts, provides guidelines for the order of punctuation instruction. I found it to be helpful in prioritizing which punctuations to teach.

Connection to SEISMIC:  Your instruction was consistently explicit from the beginning to the end of the lesson! The multisensory aspects of the content that were provided through the anchor charts were also extremely beneficial to Leo’s understanding of the lesson. Great job, Samira!

Grow: You do a great job of capturing and re-interesting Leo when he gets distracted. I think it could be helpful to set a goal or target for the end of each task to look forward to. For example, if you finish your writing task, you can use a 50-second timer to talk or look at Pokemon cards (since he had those in his hand). 

Resource: The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman is great for creating writing lessons and teaching writing concepts. It is beneficial for sentence structure and that basic punctuation! I used it for teaching writing foundations last year. It is explicit in its explanations. 

SEISMIC: I loved how explicit your lesson was. You stated what you were looking for and did a great job using the gradual release model. You also did a great job in individualizing the lesson to support Leo. 

Grow/ question: Is there a specific curriculum that you used? 

Resource: I’ve been using Hochman Method for writing, and there is some worksheets on punctuation that was helpful for my tutee because he struggles with capitalization and punctuation in his writing!  

SEISMIC: Your instruction was explicit, you stated the expectations for the lesson and used the gradual release model to teach writing. Great lesson!  

I like how patient and flexible you were throughout this lesson. You started off really well by voicing the purpose of the lesson: “Edit is what strong writers do to make their writing even better…go back and fix…” The use of the mnemonic devices CUPS and MINTS (I haven’t heard of the latter before!) was a good way to introduce the topic. You did a fantastic job asking questions to assess your tutee’s background knowledge, like when you asked if he had ever heard of or used the devices in school and when you specifically asked about MINTS “what do you remember about it?” Additionally, you asked questions to gauge your tutee’s understanding and thought processes when he answered questions, which is a great way to improve metacognition. Having the visuals for both the capitalization and the punctuation was great, as it gave your tutee something to refer back to when he made errors or forgot something.

Grow/Question - 

What is your break ratio? Do you think your tutee could benefit from having multiple short breaks in between instruction vs one longer break?

Additionally, to help your tutee more independently make use of the MINTS strategy, you can make a checklist for him with the rules on it; you can take it a step further by laminating it so he can use a dry-erase marker to check off each letter in real time.

Potential Resource - 

One helpful resource for you might be Writing Assessment and Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities by Barbara J. Wendling, Nancy Mather, and Rhia Roberts. This book has a lot of research-based strategies for teaching editing skills, as well as checklists and graphic organizers that might be of use to your tutee. 

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Individualized - “Use planned accommodations and modifications and in-the-moment adjustments to learning experiences based on student strengths and needs.”

In-the-moment adjustments were evident when you used the example of the question your tutee asked you in order to get him to understand that the sentence “did you see that bug” is a question, as well as when you began referring back to the mnemonic devices as a checklist to help your tutee look more carefully over the sentences while proofreading.

Potential Resource: Although I haven't used this resource much I believe Hocman method would work well for your tutee. I have heard many great things about this resource from classmates and our professor. 

SEISMIC: In terms of seismic your lesson was explicit and tailored to your tutees' individual needs as a learner. Your lesson also clearly followed the I do, you do, we do format perfectly! Great job! 

Grow: One thing I would suggest is to maybe color code each of the question words to help distinguish each part of the expanded sentence. 

Resource: Reading A-Z is a resource I have used in the past that could be fun for George! 

SEISMIC: I loved how organized Natalies lesson was and how clear she was with her "I do" You do" "We do." Her instruction was very explicit and it was really successful as George seemed be internalizing the information very well when doing it together/independently.

Grow or Question: Bolding the questions separate from the answers may help your tutee visually when creating the summary sentences. This may help him with identifying the answers he needs to put into the summary sentence.

Potential Resource:  A summary sentence checklist that features the questions on your slides may be a helpful resource for your tutee to use on his own in future writing lessons.

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was very well scaffolded and exemplified the gradual release model. The tutee was able to create his summary sentence with minimal tutor assistance after receiving explicit instruction and modeling.

Grow: In terms of your questions I would suggest making them more visually accessible this can be done by changing the fount size or color even building certain items. 

SYSTEMIC: In terms of SYSTEMIC this lesson was individualized to meet your tutees needs. 

Resource: I believe a good source recommendation would be Teaching Source Book, RFR and possibly writing revolution. 

Grow or Question: Where was the source of your article from? It seemed to be a great level for him and the topic was something he was very interested in.

Potential Resource:  I just used The True Story of The Three Little Pigs in my lesson today to teach POV. This may be a story your tutee would enjoy and can do a SWBST on since it is different from The Three Little Pigs.

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was systematic as the content of the lesson was sequenced and scaffolded. This provided the student with the tools necessary to complete the SWBST on his own.

Grow/Question: Where did you find the article and visuals from? Also, I would make the font a little bigger because it was hard to see! 

Resource: There are a lot of great articles on reading a-z to choose from to use for this strategy of summarizing! 

SEISMIC: The lesson was super explicit through using the gradual release model.  The "I do" "We do" "You do" was clear and the objective seemed to have been met!

I love how encouraging you were throughout the entire lesson, from the gold stars for work completion to saying “give yourself a pat on the back” to giving praise for good, fluent reading. You also gave opportunities to check for understanding (thumbs up) and reminders to keep your eyes on the screen. I also loved how you reminded your tutee that he could go back to the article if he needed help with some of the questions because, as you put it so well, “that’s an important strategy we can use.” Additionally, I like how you had a picture up from the text that your tutee could refer to on your google slide for the writing activity.

Grow/Question - 

Does your tutee struggle with typing? If not, would you be open to allowing him to type out sentences using remote control share of your screen?

Potential Resource - Something Jenna recommended for me after I taught a lesson similar to this was introducing appositives, which has been really helpful! I use the Writing Revolution for this.

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Explicit - “Voice cognitive processes (e.g. thoughts, reasoning, and reflecting) through routine naming, explaining, modeling, teaching examples/non-examples, and challenging common misconceptions.” You demonstrated explicit instruction when you showed your tutee an example summary sentence and voiced the reasons behind your actions as you did them. You also demonstrated explicit instruction when you said that going back to the story is a good strategy to use when you need help answering a question. 

Grow: It might be a helpful memory trigger for Eyden to have the SWAB explanation before reading the article. 

Resource: I have a comprehension game with prompts on inferencing and summarizing! Could be a fun game to use during in person! 

SEISMIC: Explicit and Individualized! The lesson was really tailored to Eyden’s interest which was clear in his participation throughout the lesson. Also very explicit in what was expected of him

I love the resource you used for SWBST because it has the questions students should be asking themselves to fill in that letter. Great asking of comprehension questions! Also, what a great example of using the three little pigs for your SWBST “I Do” instruction! I love how you gave him a chance to explain what you could add to your example. Lots of reinforcing that a summary should not give too much information - I always like to say that a summary is not a retelling. 

Grow/Question - 

When your tutee is just reading the slides and not typing, you could put your slideshow is presentation mode so he can see the text in a bigger font. To help your tutee more easily remember the content he needs in order to answer SWBTS, you could have him read the story after you do your example; then he can apply the strategy while the reading is still fresh in his mind.

Potential Resource - 

Newsela is really helpful for finding texts on your student’s reading level. They also have comprehension questions.

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Individualized - “Use planned accommodations and modifications and in-the-moment adjustments to learning experiences based on student strengths and needs.” In addition to using a text that was relevant to your tutee, both in terms of his personal interests and his reading ability, you also helped your tutee to self-correct a word when he read it incorrectly.

Grow: I had a difficult time seeing the writing in your presentation. I would suggest making the fount size a little larger. 

SYSTEMIC: In terms of SYSTEMIC this lesson was individualized to meet your tutees needs. This lesson was also fantastic because it used great visuals creating multi sensory opportunities for your tutee. 

Resource: I personally love the core text book and think it would be a great source for you to use with your tutee. 

Grow: I think George really responded well when he checked off each W question when he was creating a sentence. Adding an interactive component like checking off steps throughout a lesson could be a good additive for George! 

Resource: Time for Kids has awesome articles (especially non-fiction) and even articles written from student perspective. 

SEISMIC: Explicit! The lesson was really explicit in what was expected of George! The I do, We do, You do, was very apparent and supportive of George. 

Grow/Question: Where did you find this resource from? It seemed so helpful for him when understanding point of views. 

Resource: Reading a-z is a great resource for finding articles, I’m not sure if they have specific point of view lessons.  

SEISMIC: The instruction is explicit and done through the I do, We do, You do  gradual release model. It was evident that he understood the goal of the lesson! Great job.

Grow: I think during the exit ticket your tutee would have benefited with  additional reminders and examples to support tutees understanding. 

SEISMIC: 

Grow/Question - Here’s something that I just learned about that may elevate your presentation of slides that you have to edit: click the small arrow at the bottom of the left hand corner of the slideshow to get rid of that list of all of the slides. This helps to zoom in some more on the slide you are presenting while also allowing you to edit, especially when making text bigger isn’t feasible for your teaching purposes.

Potential Resource - I’m a big fan of checklists. You can use a checklist that reminds your student to exclude quotations when determining what point of view a text is. Here’s one I found online (which can be edited for your tutee, of course): 

1. Read the passage

2. Cross out the dialogue 

3. Focus on the pronouns

4. If the point of view is 3rd person, ask if the narrator knows the thoughts of ONE character or EVERY character.

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Individualized - You were able to adjust instruction based on your tutee’s understanding when he showed that he was confused by the pronouns in the quotes.

Grow/Question:  Do you assess your student before using REWARDS to know what level they are up to or do you start from the beginning of the book? 

Resource: I have not been doing multisyllabic word work with George, but this lesson was a great resource for me to learn from and maybe utilize for future lessons. 

SEISMIC: You’re lesson was individualized and you made modifications that were based on Taros strengths and needs! I also like how you were reflective of what you learned about yourself through watching this lesson, which is so important to do as teachers to better our practice. Overall, great job!  

Grow or Question:  I love the reward system you used and it seems to be working very well for Taro. Brain breaks may be a good motivator for him to stay on task. I know you mentioned he likes Connect Four, he may also like tic-tac-toe which is a quick game you can play during transitions into the next content area.

Potential Resource: I have been teaching syllables at school with Unifix cubes. Each letter is written on a cube and you connect them all together. You separate the syllables by breaking them apart and putting them back together to form the word. This might be a nice multisensory tool for your in-person lessons!

Connection to SEISMIC: Sienna included multisensory components in the lesson by having Taro sky-scoop the syllables in the world. 

I love the scaffolding you have on your slideshows; the sound chart (ay, au, er, and ai) and the step-by-step tutorial of the skill were great resources for your tutee to utilize. It’s also great that your tutee can contribute by writing from his own device at home and erasing things.

Grow/Question - 

How do you determine what sounds your tutee is working on? In other words, why ay, au, er, and ai? Some of your words that these sounds, while others didn't.

Potential Resource - 

Orton-Gillingham helps students to decode words.

https://ortongillinghamonlinetutor.com/the-big-five-phonics-teaching-syllabication/ (there are probably better websites to learn more, but here is an example!)

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Explicit - lots of amazing modeling on your end, and clear use of gradual release model in general. Not only do you voice your cognitive processes, you also have an anchor on each slide for your tutee to refer back to.

Grow: I would suggest maybe only having your tutee in an individual quiet room to eliminate distraction. 

Resources: I would recommend using a sand tray with your tutee turing in person word work. I believe this sensory strategy will help your tutee with comprehension and engagement. 

Grow: What program did you use for the lesson? It was super explicit and awesome in its content and step by step procedure. 

Resource: Readers Theater could be an a awesome tool for you and Ethan! ReadingAZ has many scripts! This could be a fun was to develop POV and really bring it to action. 

SEISMIC: Explicit! Your use of the gradual release model was awesome. Your expectations of Ethan were clear and the lesson was direct in its instruction. You did an awesome job of engaging Ethan. 

Grow: The format of your slides was awesome! I was wondering the resource you used to create your slides, or if you use a specific theme?

Resource: Glass Analysis could be a helpful tool to support learning of clusters in words to help further Taros knowledge in reading words.  

SIESMIC: Individualized! Sienna did a really great job at catering the lesson completely to Taro. Every aspect was created around him and his needs. Also your lesson was explicit and clear in instruction of what was expected of Taro! 

Grow/Question: Adding a visual to the powerpoint about the math problem could be helpful!

Resource: Math-aids.com has great free math worksheets. 

SEISMIC: The lesson was both explicit and systematic. There was a great balance of teacher modeling and student independence. Overall, great lesson! 

Grow or Question: How did you determine Ethan’s prior knowledge before the lesson? The content and lesson were just within his reach of understanding.

Potential Resource:  Toy Theater has great virtual manipulatives for future Zoom math lessons! https://toytheater.com/category/teacher-tools/virtual-manipulatives/

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was extremely systematic and the role of responsibility  was gradually released as the lesson progressed. Sarah was also very explicit in her instruction which contributed to Ethan’s understanding.

Glow - You did a great job thinking aloud during word problem #1. You also encouraged your tutee at every step (excellent, you got this, I know you know this, you’re on the right track). You’ve obviously done a great job explain the “why” for your lessons and for tutoring in general because your tutee has a very positive attitude about things he doesn’t know yet: “that’s why we’re here!”

Grow/Question - When your tutee started explaining how he got ½ in Word Problem 3, you cut him off to finish answering the problem. Listening to his thought process is a great way to figure out if he really understands or is just trying out random answers.

Potential Resource - Fraction tiles.

Connection to SEISMIC - Explicit: Voice cognitive processes (e.g. thoughts, reasoning, and reflecting) through routine naming, explaining, modeling, teaching examples/non-examples, and challenging common misconceptions. You did a great job modeling and explaining each step, as evidenced by your tutee knowing how to set up the problem.

Grow/ Question: I think your tutee would benefit from having the ability to write during zoom lessons. Have you tried this with him before? 

SEISMIC: Not only is this lesson individualized to specifically meet your tutee’s needs, it is also multisensory when using the white bord feature to dissect the problem. 

Resources: I feel like you are the resource queen but Jenna suggested to me last semester to implement concrete manipulatives into math lessons. In your lesson you talked about how many quarters make up a half. Maybe in your in person lessons you can introduce real  money. 

Grow or Question: Maybe next time, you could display vocabulary definitions for terms he might not remember the meaning of.

Potential Resource:  Flashcards with definitions or his own copy of the word bank. 

Connection to SEISMIC:  Explicit- the teacher did a really good job of following the gradual release lesson format. The teaching was very explicit, at a good rate, with great examples and making sure the student was following along and understanding what she was teaching. 

Grow or Question: I noticed the student understood it immediately, I wonder if maybe next time he can maybe get timed during the multiple problems so that he feels more challenged? Or maybe provide more challenging problems for him to solve, as the tutor herself said, “you’re too good at this!” which is encouraging and positive, but the challenge could’ve further pushed his thinking. 

Potential Resource: Jeopardy fraction game! (competition between tutor and tutee) https://jeopardylabs.com/play/adding-and-subtracting-fractions-with-like-denominators 

Connection to SEISMIC:  Systematic: “Uses task analysis to sequence, connect, and scaffold learning and organize learning toward independence.” The teacher scaffolded this lesson really well! There were many types of problems and eventually allowed the student to take control and solve the problems on his own.  

Grow or Question: I think it would be useful to read the directions to him and explain first, instead of having him read it because it seems that he struggles with decoding, so he probably wouldn’t understand the directions right away. I was wondering if maybe you could use jamboard in the future since there seemed to be a struggle with typing in the chat. With jamboard he’d be able to write with the writing tool or type, and there can be more organization as well. 

Potential Resource:  https://jamboard.google.com/  

Connection to SEISMIC: Individualized “Use planned accommodations and modifications and in-the-moment adjustments to learning experiences based on student strengths and needs.” The teacher definitely tries to modify and accommodate the student based on his strengths and needs. It was evident from that snippet that he sometimes struggles to be on task and focus. It’s hard to learn online! But he gets breaks in short intervals, instruction based on his interests, visual charts, which shows the tutor seems to plan around his strengths and needs.  

Resource:  I have been using games to practice multiplication facts with my tutee. I used mammouthmath.com and timestable.com. They both have many options of games, and my tutee enjoys this. We usually do this to warm up our lessons. 

SEISMIC: Explicit and Multi-Sensory! Not only was the lesson direct and clear in your instruction of Lily but it utilized hands-on learning, visual learning, and auditory learning! 

SEISMIC:The lesson you taught to Lily was both explicit and multi-sensory. You provided clear and direct instruction while also incorporating hands-on, visual, and auditory learning techniques to make the lesson engaging and effective.

Grow/Question - You could give a bit more wait time while she tries to remember the next number. 

Does your tutee understand that multiplication is repeated addition? In other words, does she know strategies for when she can’t remember a fact, like using an easier fact as a stepping stone to a harder fact? (ex: she knows 12 x 6 = 72, so 12 x 7 is just 12 more than 72) 

Potential Resource - To improve her recall speed, try using flash cards as a warmup before math activities. You could find free ones online, buy a pack at the dollar store, or create your own using index cards.

Connection to SEISMIC - Explicit: Voice cognitive processes (e.g. thoughts, reasoning, and reflecting) through routine naming, explaining, modeling, teaching examples/non-examples, and challenging common misconceptions. 

Grow or Question: Have you completed all the other times tables with your tutee? Has the strategy you used in this lesson been successful with your tutee fluently learning the other times tables?

Potential Resource:  A fun warmup for your tutee that incorporates movement could be reciting a times table while doing an exercise. I do this with my tutee and counting. For example, having Lily recite the 7 times table while doing jumping jacks.

Connection to SEISMIC:  Multisensory components were incorporated into the lesson through auditory, visual and kinesthetic techniques. This is evident through having the student clap while saying the times table.

Grow/Question: I love how you added the tips to answer the word problem more efficiently on the jamboard. A visual under each step could be helpful to remind the student of the steps without having to read all the words! 

Resource: Mathaids has great word problem practice.  

SEISMIC: Your instruction was explicit and you used modeling, explaining, and you challenged common misconceptions throughout the lesson. Overall, it was a pleasure to watch you teach! 

Grow or Question: Does your student enjoy learning through Jamboard? My student has poor fine motor skills and sometimes gets frustrated with Jamboard, so I was curious how your student likes Jamboard and how often you use it / for what activities.

Potential Resource:  I’ve found some great Jamboard templates for free on TpT! There are many for brain breaks and check-ins that you may find useful.

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was explicit, individualized and systematic. The checklist was a great individualized resource for the student and clearly helpful for the student to be able to reach their learning goals. Huimin explicitly modeled how to use the checklist before having the student use the checklist on their own.

Grow: I am a person who is used to giving verbal check-ins  so this might be more of a preference, but I would suggest maybe having a few more check-ins during independent work to support her thought process. I find that it often helps students to talk things out as they are doing it because sometimes they are on auto pilot and might not really realize when they are making a mistake. But, I thought it was really great how focused and how engaged she was with the independent work! 

Resource: I have been using graphic organizers when doing long division with a student outside the lab. She struggled with organization and lining up the numbers correctly when doing long division. So, I found a graphic organizer that helps students to keep their long division steps organized and it really helped my student! There’s a lot out there but here is an example from Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Long-Division-Practice-Graphic-Organizer-3356431?st=8dff79532aa3e9bdb37e71e49bd14f6b

SEISMIC: I thought that her representation was visually welcoming and organized. The visual checklist was really great and it was very effective. I also loved how explicit she was with the strategies and with the instruction. 

Grow: Through your lesson I would recommend p]providing your title with more positive and verbal reinforcement. 

Recommendation: I would recommend implementing a reward system like a sticker chart. 

SEISMIC: This lesson is individualized to meet your tutees needs and multisensory you had a great slideshow! 

- You created a checklist and used it on slides for you tutee to look at while working. I love how you chunk solving word problems into small steps.

- You gave your tutee room to choose which strategy to use when solving the word problems: “What kind of strategy do you want to use to solve this?”

Grow/Question - 

- You can utilize the gradual release model, especially by showing you tutee the strategy you use with a word problem before you have the tutee do a problem by herself.

- Could provide more positive feedback during quiet times. It can be helpful to provide instant feedback to students

Potential Resource - 

CUBES method - This might be a helpful mnemonic device that your tutee can easily remember even without a checklist in front of her. This is especially useful for helping students identify the operation by focusing on keywords.

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Explicit - Great modeling during the second problem!

Grow/Question: I think adding a small brain break, or SEL check in could be an awesome addition to your lesson! It will offer Mei a moment to collect herself!

Resource: I have this awesome long division Maze game I originally bought to use for my tutee, but I didn't end up using it because we had to back track to doing more foundational work. I linked it here from google drive! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BecHnjLMNkgS_L4RTO9JOyigkIC4F2M1/view?usp=sharing 

SEISMIC: Individualize & Systematic! You really created a lesson that was supportive of Mei! Progressing through the lesson you can see how she takes intuitive herself and how the layout, organization, and instruction of the lesson allows her to be more independent in her problem solving! 

Grow/Question: Did you use a specific math curriculum?  

Resource: Mathaids and superteacherworksheets has great and engaging math worksheets. 

SEISMIC: Your lesson was explicit and you used the “I do, we do, you do” model which is stated on the slides. I also thought it was individualized and based on the needs of your students learning needs. 

Grow/Question: Is there a program or curriculum you use to teach fractions. Also, not sure if you have already, but using manipulatives is a great concrete way to teach fractions to students. 

Resource: Math Playground is a math website with fun games! 

SEISMIC: The lesson was explicit- Julia used the “I do, We do, You do” method which was explicitly stated on the paper you were writing on. 

Grow/Question - Would your tutee benefit from a lesson or two about error analysis (to really hone her abilities to catch mistakes when checking her own work)?

Potential Resource - I don’t have a specific resource in mind, but you could help support your tutee’s automaticity when reading fractions with a quick fraction-reading warmup before your math lessons.

Connection to SEISMIC - 

Explicit - You were able to voice your cognitive processes so well that your tutee was able to explain her work as well!

Grow: I loved how you had the big poster paper, but maybe using different colored markers to represent the different numbers/ steps could be helpful for your tutee. Also, maybe incorporate a visual or graphic that includes steps for her to refer to if she needs. 

Resource: N/A

SEISMIC: Julia was very clear with her wording and her responses to questions her tutee asked were very clear. She also incorporated the I do, we do, you do method very well. 

Grow/Question: One thing that I think could be helpful while doing this question would be having her come up during the I do/We do to be a “helper” and write down numbers for you so that she can engage with the numbers more. 

Resource: N/A

SEISMIC: The lesson was very systematic. It was clear what you were working towards and how you were getting to the point of independence where your tutee would be able to solve a problem on her own with minimal help. She was also able to carry over the strategies that you were using which was super cool to see! 

Grow/Question: What website did you use to play the math game? It seemed so fun and engaging. 

 

Resource: Math Playground has fun and engaging math games. 

SEISMIC: Your lesson was super individualized. You used in the moment adjustments based on what your student needed. It really showed how well you know your students’ learning style. 

Grow: When starting the Times Tables Speed Test she was really excited when she was getting things correctly, but her face and mood drastically changed when she started to get them wrong, so maybe find times table tests that are not timed. Once she feels more confident, maybe then start doing timed tests. 

Resource: IXL Learning has great math activities that are categorized by different topics in math that could work great for her.

SEISMIC: Your lesson was very individualized to suit your tutee’s needs and throughout the session. You have a great rapport with your tutee and are able to adapt to how she is feeling.

Grow/Question - Does your tutee know that multiplication is repeated addition? Could that be a strategy you use to introduce prior to reviewing times table charts?

Potential Resource - When I taught fourth graders times table, I found teaching fact families was helpful because sometimes students would know 5 x 3 but not 3 x 5. I also like “See It, Say It, Write It” or “Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check,” which is something you can make to have her practice recall.

Connection to SEISMIC - Individualized. You had great in-the-moment adjustments when your tutee was struggling and demotivated to get her to persist in her work.

Grow/Question: During the “we do” have her more actively participate, like coming to the board and doing the steps herself rather than just doing it all verbally. I might be helpful for when she has to complete the problems on her own and has those hand movements stored in her brain. Even though it is important to point out mistakes, maybe wait until she notices them (so like during the check), because you won’t be there when she is taking a test or at school.

Resource: N/A

SEISMIC: The lesson was very systematic. The lesson was very clear and scaffolded well so that when it came time for the “you do,” she was able to do it on her own. This was a great model of I do, We do, You do!

Grow or Question: Maybe visualizing multiplication as repeated addition through array models would help her with learning her times tables. 

Potential Resource:  There are a lot of YouTube videos of fun songs for learning times tables. I thought this one was funny and catchy for the 3 times table: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV0ZL2h8IRg

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was explicit, individualized, systematic, and multisensory. The content was presented in an extremely engaging way to the student and the gradual release model was clearly utilized.

Grow or Question: I created virtual notebooks for my tutee that include everything we have been working on. I made one for Reading/Writing and one for Math. Uploading pictures of all your in-person posters may be helpful for your tutee to reference at home!

Potential Resource:  I’ve been having success with my tutee reaching his math goals by using various free resources from the Bridges Curriculum. Definitely explore this site if you haven’t yet, there are a lot of great free lessons and games! https://www.mathlearningcenter.org/curriculum/free

Connection to SEISMIC:  This lesson was explicit and strategic as the content of the lesson was clearly presented to the tutee through the gradual release model.

Growth/Question: I think having her come up to the Easel to help you with the “WE” could be fun for Eva! Especially since she loved being involved in using the Easel during her “I do.”

Resource: I don’t have a specific resource, but think incorporating the idea of Eva being the teacher and teaching you a lesson you went over (utilizing the Easel) could be really awesome in assessing progress and getting Eva excited to learn!

SEISMIC: Explicit!! Systematic!! You did a great job in setting your expectations, and walking and giving clear instructions. You can see her progress and growth that was made through the lesson and how she was self-correcting, and understanding how to get to the next step. 

Grow/ Question: What resource did you use for this strategy on finding common denominators? 

Resources: I think implementing fun math activities into your lessons would really benefit your tutee. I really enjoy the math playground. 

SEISMIC: This lesson was individualized and explicit. It really embodied the I do, we do, you do gradual release model. 

Grow/ Question: How did using the visual representation of moving the numbers on the slide help your tutee learn the tables?  

Resources: I think implementing fun math activities into your lessons would really benefit your tutee. Math memory games I believe would be great for your tutees overall learning. 

SEISMIC: This lesson was individualized and explicit. It really demonstrated the I do, we do, you do gradual release model. 

Grow or Question: Where did you get the resources for this lesson from? I really love that the checklist was on the same page of the worksheet for her.

Potential Resource:  If you haven’t explored the various resources on Reading A-Z I would definitely check them out! They have a lot of different resources under “skills” including phonics and word work.

Connection to SEISMIC:  Your lesson was explicit and systematic as it was very well scaffolded!

Grow/ Question: Where did you get this worksheet from? It seems like a great resource for writing. 

Resource: Hochman method is helpful for adding more details into sentences through sentence expansion. 

SEISMIC: Your instruction was explicit and strategic. Overall, great lesson!   

Grow/ Question: Bigger font on the slides can be more clear for the student to read from! 

Resource: I have also been using the Hochman Method for sentence expansion and it is a great resource for making sentences more detailed! 

SEISMIC: Your instruction was clear and explicit. It was also strategic based on your tutees needs. Overall, great lesson! 

Resource: The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman is a really supportive in foundational writing. It would be a great resource to help her with sentence completion and developing on that. 

SEISMIC: Explicit and Individualized! You did an awesome job of modeling the gradual release lesson. You can tell you really know what will be supportive and work for your tutee and really catered the lesson to her! 

Grow/Question - You can use sentence fragments to help your tutee work on writing quick notes.

Potential Resource - You could use NewsELA for more articles that your tutee can answer comprehension questions for using sentence expansion.

Connection to SEISMIC - Explicit - great “I do” during gradual release model; explaining, modeling, and naming!

Grow/Question - Ask her to name what the subject, verb, etc. are every once in a while to make sure she isn’t guessing. Instead of giving her options, you could try to first ask her “we need an action word, so what can we do to cookies?” so she can generate some ideas on her own.

Potential Resource - Play your own version of MadLibs as a warmup so she can practice generating her own words in preparation for you ask her to come up with a verb, subject, etc.

Connection to SEISMIC - Systematic - scaffolded learning using checklists and prompts towards independence

Grow/Question: For two of the sentence fragments, your tutee used "on the hill” as her answer for two of the 5 W questions. Maybe next time remind her she’s already used that before and see if she can expand her thinking with a different response.

Resource: I can’t think of anything, but I would just continue to use Hochman!

SEISMIC: Your lesson was both explicit and strategic. You did a great job of using the gradual release method to guide your tutee through her learning. Using Hochman helps breakdown and scaffold the learning for a complete understanding. 

Grow Question: What resource are you using for story structure and sentence writing? 

SEISMIC: This lesson was individualized and multisensory. I think your tutee really benefited from being able to take in verbal information as well as visual information. 

Suggestion: I would suggest using the Teaching Reading SourceBook. It has amazing lessons and structured plans you could implement with your tutee. 

Grow or Question: I think next time, it would be cool if you allowed George to somehow interact with the lesson as well, to increase the engagement. 

Potential Resource:  Jamboard, screen sharing.  

Connection to SEISMIC:  Explicit- Your modeling was very explicit and well scaffolded! George was following along and you did a great job at explaining any misconceptions or anticipated confusion. 

Grow or Question: I think it would be useful to use a bigger font so that tutee can see your typing even better/clearly. 

Potential Resource:  EPIC, RAZ Kids, NewsEla

Connection to SEISMIC:  Explicit: You made great use of explicit modeling, provided a story that student was most likely familiar with to represent each part of the SWBS acronym. You also had a text that I would imagine is just right for the student. 

Grow or Question:  These are great multisyllabic words, but the student seemed to struggle with them and i think that was because of difficulty with some of the “rules” of phonics, so maybe pre-teaching and offering student a chart or something with these rules  would help him decode more easily.

Potential Resource:  Online games that teach/practice phonics to make it more engaging and help the student memorize these rules more efficiently.

Connection to SEISMIC:  Multisensory: student was taught to scoop the words through different ways- on computer screen with marker, scooping in the air, color-coding syllables.