Changing Lives through Literacy Tutoring- Katie’s story

Literacy tutoring changes lives!

Katie and her family have always enjoyed reading together. She started her literacy journey with GiGi’s Playhouse back in the fall of 2022. In spring of 2023, Mike started working with Katie. He quickly learned her love of all things Star Wars, Toy Store, and Laura Ingalls Wilder – The Little House on the Prairie. In the spring 2024, Mike learned that Katie would be visiting Laura’s birth place in Pepin, WI, so they focused more on The Little House on the Prairie books in preparation of her visit. Betsy took over tutoring Katie in the summer of 2024 and expanded on Katie’s knowledge, creating a KWL chart (Know, Wanted to know, Learned). Here’s more about her journey as shared by her mom, Sue and her tutor, Betsy.

Sue – Katie’s Mom

When she was younger- probably elementary school age I read some of the books in the series to her.  I had also read them to her sister earlier.  Since both girls enjoyed them we made a point of visiting a few of the sites where the books took place when we went on family vacations- DeSmet, South Dakota and Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  We also visited her birth place in Pepin several times, since it’s so close to Eau Claire where we lived.  This past summer Norah (Katie’s sister), Katie and I took a day trip back to Pepin where we visited the museum and the site where the cabin was where Laura Ingalls was born.  There’s a replica of the cabin there.

There is a museum in Pepin that Katie likes to visit when we’re there.  Katie particularly liked looking  in the covered wagon and was struck by how small it is, and that there wasn’t much room for riding since they were carrying supplies, tools and clothes.   The museum helped Katie to better visualize those references when she reads the books. 

I started buying her the picture books and short chapter books based on the books that Laura wrote.  This made the series more accessible to her.  Since Katie loves history and enjoys learning facts, she wanted to know more about the Ingalls family.  Katie likes to “research” topics that she’s interested in, so we have looked on-line to learn more about Laura and her family.  

Betsy – Katie’s current literacy tutor

Thanks to Mike’s good notes from last session, I was ready to meet Katie with some books I found at the library about Laura Ingalls. I loved the Little House books when I was growing up and they’ve been a great context for building our tutoring relationship – there’s nothing better than a shared love of what you’re reading!  The stories have been adapted into picture books, short chapter books, and biographies at various reading levels.  Katie has an encyclopedic knowledge of the details of Laura’s life and family.  We always have plenty to talk about when the conversation is about Laura.

One of the activities we worked on was a KWL chart.  Katie already knew (K) some information about Laura’s school days, but wanted (W) to know more about how she learned to read.  We brainstormed some ways she could learn more (L), and then filled in the details after we read the book School Days, a Little House chapter book.  Another graphic organizer we used for reading comprehension was a chart where we filled in events that happened first, then, next and finally.  We read A Little Prairie House, a favorite of Katie’s, so we could dig into the sequence of events.  One day Katie just wanted to read an entire book from cover to cover – Winter on the Farm, about Almanzo Wilder’s childhood – and wasn’t interested in comprehension questions or the activity I’d planned.  So I had the luxury of sitting back and enjoying having a story read to me.

We’ve spun off a little and have read some other stories about pioneer life, the Pony Express, and the world during Laura Ingalls’ childhood.  We learned how to use the Table of Contents and Index by looking for information about horses, county fairs, and the mail in a book called The World of Little House.  I try to use the week’s reading selection as a context for our phonics work.  I’ll pick out some words that illustrate the phonics topic of the day, and we practice them at the beginning with a game.  One week, we tried to write a poem about Laura, using pairs of rhyming words. We talk about vocabulary as well; Katie is really strong in this area. We’ve had some fun trying to find words with 3 or 4 or more syllables in the text.  Often the words I think will be hard for her are not hard at all!

The root of this success is Katie’s family.  Katie comes from a family of book lovers and Katie loves to read. She often brings a book she wants to read together, or takes home a book so she can finish it. She thinks deeply about the characters and says she feels like she knows Laura.  I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Katie – and Laura! – this year and look forward to Tuesdays when we read together and talk about life in pioneer days.

Tutoring at GiGi’s Playhouse

Here at GiGi’s Playhouse, we believe that literacy is a skill everyone can develop and continues to develop. We work on phonics, following directions, sitting and listening to stories, matching words and pictures, answering multiple choice and open ended comprehension questions, identifying parts of a story, sharing and recording knowledge, researching topics, summarizing what was read, creating projects, and so much more. Developing literacy skills also improves speech and language development, auditory perceptual skills and working memory function. Our goal is to foster a love for reading and provide an opportunity to develop and master skills for all ages, all while building a positive relationship with our volunteer tutors. We celebrate everyone’s Best of All moments, big or small.

Tutoring Applications for Participants are open December 9th-January 5th

For more information about our tutoring program read our tutoring blog.