When you start tutoring a child using more than one activity, you need to make an ongoing instruction plan, which specifies the activities you will use in this phase. When you complete the phase of the instruction, you will update your plan. It is a general plan that covers many lessons.

Instead of formal "lesson plans" the second part of your planning is to make brief daily notes indicating what needs more work and where you will start next time on the activities specified in the ongoing instruction plan. Of course, you must be flexible and adjust your plans as needed. On a bad day you may have to make a major change in your plans.

You will need to work out the amount of time you should spend with your child on each of the activities. It will depend on what he is learning in school, on his needs and capabilities, and on his his attention span. Follow each period with a short break to stretch and move around. You might also read something funny to the learner such as a poem of his choice.

Here are examples of how the activities might be combined at different levels for your instruction plan:

Preschool

Use Reading Activity 1, which is reading to the child, conversing with him, taking him places and showing him things, and encouraging him to do lots of drawing and scribbling and to look at books and magazines. Use Reading Activity 4, family reading session. He may "read" a picture book.

Kindergarten

Regardless of the kindergarten program your plan should include the following activities on a daily basis:

1. Reading Activity 1, 15 min. or more
   
2. Reading Activity 4, family reading, 20 min. or more.
3. Writing Activity 1, 15 minutes.

First Grade

Help him with his school homework first and then include the following, as well as math lessons, until he finishes Writing Activity 1:

1. Reading Activity 1, reading to the child, 15 min. m/l daily. His "help" will depend upon how well he can read. The most advanced learners might point to all of the words as you read.
   
2. Writing Activity 1, spelling, 20 minutes.
   
3. Reading Activity 4, family reading session, 30 min. m/l, daily

After he finishes Spelling Script 1 and much of the Script for Instant Words, include these activities as well math:

1. Reading Activity 1, reading to the child, 15 min. m/l daily.
2. Reading Activity 2, laddered reading, 15 min. m/l, daily.
   
3. Reading Activity 3, word attack, as needed.
   
4. Writing Activity 2, writing stories.
   
5. Reading Activity 4, family reading session, 30 min. m/l, daily

Adults

Teaching an adult to read takes time. They may not learn any faster than a child, but the child is in school five days a week. For a beginner one should have two two-hour sessions a week plus an hour of homework three days a week. After the learner is reading you might have one two-hour session plus four days of one hour of homework.

Beginner

Reading Activity 1, e.g., read a newspaper story, 5 minutes
Writing Activity 1, 20 minutes
Reading Activity 2, work on a short funny poem, 15 minutes
Break, 10 minutes
Writing Acivity 2, 20 minutes
Homework: Read along with a tape of the poem used in Reading Activity 2 until he can read it perfectly without the tape.

Other Adults

Find out what they can read and what their reading problems are, and then make an ongoing plan that is appropriate. For a learner that reads at about the second grade level, you might try the following plan:

1. Reading Activity 1, 10 minutes
   
2. Reading Activity 2, 30 minutes
   
3. Break, 10 minutes
   
4. Writing Activity 1, 20 minutes
   
5. Writing Activity 2, 20 minutes
   
6. Homework: Read and reread along with a tape-recorded story until he can read it without the tape.

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