Tutor Corner September/October 2022

OwlOur Oasis tutors are gearing up to start another year of tutoring learning and fun! We are pleased to welcome our returning tutors as well as many new tutors this school year – we’re so glad you’re here!

Featured Topic and Book

colorful bagsTo kick off the school year, we want to know “What’s in your Tutoring Bag?”

As tutors pack their bags for the school year we thought it would be fun to hear directly from them about “must-haves” in their tutoring bag:

Along with our back to school theme, this month’s featured book is

 Dear Mrs. LaRue Letters From Obedience School.

You can find this book in our Oasis Resource room with an accompanying lesson plan & activity. Check out a reading at the link below. Notice how the reader uses lots of expression and gives a brief summary of the book to help with comprehension before reading:

boy writingWhat supporting activities can you use with this book?

  • Activities involving letter writing – write a letter to someone. Draw a template to aid the student in proper letter format. “Mail” the letter and discuss how to address a letter and place a stamp.
  • Comparison – how does the dog feel about obedience school? How do you feel about school? Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast.
  • Perspective – notice the difference between the black & white pictures and the color pictures. What are they showing? Write a sentence and draw a picture that represent two different perspectives of the same situation.
  • Exaggeration – how is the dog using exaggeration in his writing? Choose a page and identify the descriptive words he used in his letter in order to embellish his situation.

Tutor Highlight

StephanieWe have several administrative volunteers that assist in maintaining our tutoring program behind the scenes. Stephanie has taken on the tedious task of adding our resource room books to an online catalog which will soon be available for tutors to access from home.

Thank you, Stephanie!!

Important Oasis and School Updates

Group of kidsMCPS Important Dates:

  • October 5th – NO SCHOOL (holiday)
  • October 24th – NO SCHOOL (professional day)
  • November 7th – NO SCHOOL (professional day)
  • November 8th – NO SCHOOL (holiday)
  • November 21-22 – Early Release – Check with school regarding your schedule
  • November 23-25 – NO SCHOOL (holiday)
  • December 7th – Early Release – Check with school regarding your schedule
  • December 23rd – January 2nd – NO SCHOOL (holiday)

MCPS Important Elementary Reading Update:

This school year MCPS is implementing a new reading curriculum, Really Great Reading, with Kindergarten – 2nd Grade. This new curriculum follows a ‘structured literacy’ approach and emphasizes phonics instruction as the foundation of all reading. If you’d like to know more please check out the Really Great Reading website here.

Thank you written on ChalkboardWe are so excited to begin a new school year with our dedicated tutors; we appreciate all you do!

Please share any items you keep in your bag in comments below!