Goal
Using graphic organizers, MR will succinctly map out the various parts of her introduction paragraph. MR will also better understand how to use is versus are.
Opening
We began tutoring session #4 by discussing what MR shared with her younger brother. She told me that at first he did not really understand what a sentence starter was until she broke it down for him in spanish and gave him examples that way. Once she was able to do that, they were able to compare and contrast what sentences sounded better. MR was really happy about this because she felt that through this tutoring experience not only was she getting smarter, but her younger brother was too.
I then asked MR to take out the opening and closing sentences she wrote out. She told me her mom sat down with her and gave her feedback on which sounded the best and that those were the sentences that had stars next to them. I was blown away by the quality of her opening and closing sentences! All six sentences she wrote contained perfect spelling and grammar. When I asked MR what helped her do this, she told me that it was the exemplars that gave her the best motivation; MR said that she saw what her other peers were able to do and wanted to be just as good if not better.
After this, I laid out what we were going to be doing do this tutoring session with MR and explained to her our goal.
Quotes and Explanations T-Chart
MR and I continued to look at some of her peers’ work and specifically focused on quotes that they included. We discussed how it is important to not just include a quote but to have a descriptive sentence that comes after the quote to support it. I then had MR take out her notebook where she recorded excerpts from the article she wanted to use in her introduction during tutoring session #2. I told her to pick the five best quotes from her list and record them in the left column of the T-Chart, here. Once she had done this, using quotes she did not select, I gave her examples of descriptive follow up sentences. She took notes on this as well as how the quote may be incorporated within a sentence and not just stand alone. To better connect MR with this concept, we read aloud an article on Korean boy bands. When there was a quote in this article, MR wrote it down along with its surrounding context so that she could get more examples for how she may want to word her own quotes. Finally, using all of the examples and notes she had written down, MR wrote follow up descriptive sentences in the right side of the T-Chart.
Hamburger Graphic Organizer
Once MR had completed her work with her quotes, we transitioned to looking at the introduction as a whole by using this graphic organizer. Here, we started by looking at the opening sentences MR wrote for homework again. I agreed with her that the opening sentence she had starred was the best she produced, and so she wrote this in the topic sentence box of the graphic organizer. I asked MR what she thought had to come next. She told me that because the topic sentence said the introduction was going to tell the reader about bioremediation that she should probably define it. MR then looked at her lists of quotes, found one about bioremediation and wrote it under supporting details. MR proceeded to pick purposeful quotes for the two other supporting detail boxes and we discussed what she may want to write between the quotes to link the ideas; she wrote these notes down on the graphic organizer as well. Lastly, MR and I looked at the concluding sentences she wrote. I agreed that the one she starred was the best of the three she wrote, but we slightly tweaked it to make it more relevant to the overall paper. MR wrote this edited version in the concluding sentence box in the graphic organizer.
Homework
Throughout our tutoring sessions, I observed that one of MR’s biggest areas for growth was learning how to use the words “is” and “are” properly. In her writing she consistently used them interchangeably without reason or rhyme. To help her better understand their usage before writing her second introduction draft, I printed out five copies of these worksheets for her to work on each night of the week. Additionally, I emailed her mom the answer key so that she could work with MR on improving her usage of these words.
I also asked MR to continue to review her vocabulary flashcards with her younger brother.