Personal Narrative: Self-Efficacy Model

At the beginning on the semester, there were three goals that were identified to achieve during our tutoring sessions. The first goal was to help Aiden gain confidence in reading and give him the support he needs. The second goal was for him to be able to identify sight words. The last goal was to work on reading fluency. Looking back at the goals that were placed, I do believe that the goals were realistic. However, I knew that I was not going to be able to complete the goals fully because we did not have enough time together to gain full mastery.
The first goal was to help Aiden gain self-confidence and we know that confidence cannot be given, but you can help build it. To help build Aiden’s self-confidence I used the self-efficacy model. I started with a verbal persuasion, also known as a pep talk, by telling him that it is okay to make mistakes and we even read the book It's Okay to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr. However, for the vicarious experiences he did not get a vicarious
experience by seeing someone else improving, but me telling him that last time we read a story called Sam, Come Back that he only got to the third line, but after weeks of working together, he is able to read the entire story with little to no problems. Aiden was in amazement when I told him how much he has improved. Because of the verbal persuasion and the vicarious experience, he is beginning to have a mastery experience by his improvement in reading. In addition, when I was setting up his mastery experience I started by giving him the word he was having trouble with and slowly scaffolding until he was able to use the tip and tricks we worked on by himself.
The second goal was for Aiden to identify sight words and correctly read them.
This goal was realistic because over the course of the semester, we used distributive practice with four different list of sight words that Aiden must know by the end of the year. In order to help Aiden, learn the sight words, I started by giving him a “spelling test” using magnetic letters. I then asked Aiden to read the sight words off of the list I had. After that, we created index cards and practiced with them every day. I then found books that specifically used a sight word he was having trouble with throughout the book. I also made a game out of the sight words by creating Go-Fish cards with the sight words on them; we also used the same cards for Matching. My cooperating teacher did testing with Aiden to see the improvements he has been making, the data says that he has gained mastery with the sight words list one, two, and three, but making progress on list four which is what we are currently working
on.
The final goal was to help improve Aiden’s reading fluency. I knew this goal was going to need more time then what we had together. In order to help Aiden on his Reading Fluency, I tried to make Aiden read as fast as he can without sounding out a word and if he did not know a word, I told him to skip the word or tell me what he thinks the word is. Aiden is a perfectionist and wants to make sure he is saying the word correctly so he takes his time on every word making sure he gets it right. In addition, I read to Aiden, but also Aiden read to me which was a vicarious experience because he was able to see me do it and then he showed me that he can do it.
The goals that were set were partially met. The main obstacle that stood in our way was time. In order to gain full reading fluency Aiden is going to need more time and practice. Since he is only in the first grade mastery of reading fluency something that cannot fully happen. With the sight words, the goal was met. However, there are most list that he needs to complete. As for the confidence, I believe that the goal was partially to fully met. I believe that Aiden has received a boost in self-efficacy however, I believe that with more time he will be able to fully gain self-confidence.
If I had to start over again with Aiden, I would have tried to make the environment better for his learning. Throughout the semester, Candice, Carly, and I all took our tutee’s to the library and either worked on the rug, the backroom, or the tables and it was near the time that other kids were going to lunch or going to recess. Aiden would always complain that it was too loud for him to concentrate or someone or something was interrupting us. One day, my cooperating teacher took her class to the library and they were making a lot of noise making Aiden shout, “can you please be quiet, people are trying to work in here.” Shortly after, Carly and her tutee got too distracted at the tables that they joined Aiden and I in the back room. This caused Aiden to get distracted by what Carly was doing with her tutee and even try to start a conversation with them or answer Carly’s tutee’s questions. However, there was no place in the school that we could have gone that would have made it less distracting for him.
I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher. One thing that I have learned is that I have a lot of patience while working with Aiden. In real life, I do not have a lot of patience I like to get things done fast and move on. However, when teaching a student, you have to take more time and really put in the work in order for them to learn.