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Over the eighteen years the North Star program has existed,
the benefits to the tutors has been a rewarding
but unsung aspect of the program.
Many lessons have been learned. Some are presented below.
1. We have found that middle and high school students make good tutors
as long as a three year difference in ages between tutor and student is maintained,
they are trained in what is expected of them, and they are supervised by a classroom teacher.
From conversations with managers of programs where high school students are being tutored,
the age difference is not important since they are more mature.
Detailed knowledge of the subject is a larger challenge for the high school level tutoring.
2. Adults are not consistently available in large numbers in the mid-afternoon
to tutor elementary students for one hour twice a week.
Middle and high school students, however,
are traditionally released earlier than elementary schools so that
the older students can pick up their younger siblings and take them home.
Consequently, these older students are available in adequate numbers to be hired as tutors.
Students at this level are also usually available to work two hours a week.
3. Paying the tutors $5 per tutoring session helps
to recruit adequate numbers of tutors, and contributes to pride by the tutors.
This pay scale is inadequate for adults, but is ok for middle and high school students.
4. Having the tutors do some of the busy work, such as distribute snacks
at the beginning of the session, and take attendance allows
for better supervision by the adults.
This develops additional responsibility in the tutors,
and gives them some ownership of the sessions.
5. The act of helping others brings out the best in the tutors.
The tutors grow in self respect, pride and responsibility
in the course of helping the younger children.
The fact that the tutors are paid for their time as tutors
adds to the realization that they are appreciated.
6. Bringing in a paycheck added to the pride of the tutors.
Because these children lack checking accounts
and to avoid the hassles of converting a check into cash,
we pay the tutors in cash. The impact these children experience monthly,
when they have forty dollars in cash placed into their hands
is a new experience for some of these tutors.
For many of the tutors, this is the first money that they have earned that is totally theirs.
It is not a gift and they did not have to beg to get it.
Frequently they use part of this money to buy things for others,
including their parents.
This materially contributing to others also raises their self respect.
Needless to say, some also learn lessons of poor money management
at an age when the costs are small.
7. The tutoring model is an expansion of the
Pause-Prompt-Praise system we have used for years.
In our tutor training, we have elaborated on these three steps
so that the tutors know exactly what is meant by those words and why.
The trained tutors know that they should let the child try to solve the problem themselves,
but also to give helpful hints before the child becomes frustrated.
They know to have the student explain what they are having difficulty with,
and to not give the child the answer, but rather help them work it out,
since the one who does the work does the learning.
The Praise aspect of the program is covered in the
Lessons Learned - Students section of this web page.
8. Also, stressed in the tutor training is that at the root of many
difficulties in learning is an absent or incorrect understanding of a word or symbol.
Consequently, a component of prompting is asking the child what the meanings of various words
and symbols in their materials are that the child may not correctly understand.
From direct observation, these wrongly or not understood words and symbols
are also frightfully frequently found in the directions and titles
of the materials the children are having trouble with.
Because over 90% of our students and tutors are Hispanic,
which includes a large number of English-as-a-second-language students,
not just correct pronunciation
but understanding the meanings of the words takes on even greater importance.
9. Because of the inevitable peer mentoring that occurs in this setting,
we address this in the tutor training. The tutors explore a number of concepts,
including what it means to set a good example, the importance of good manners,
why it is important to be worthy of trust, and why they should try to do what they promise.
10. Tutors are given raises of fifty cents per session for returning
as second-year tutors and an additional identical raise
for completing each section of advanced tutor training we provide.
11. Establishing a repeating structured tutoring session
makes it easy for both the tutors and students to know
exactly what they should be doing throughout the tutoring session.
12. Contrary to what one might think, the tutors are not deterred by the longer day
when tutoring is added onto the end of a regular school day.
The fact that they are helping another seems to make a difference.
The concept: "He is not heavy, he is my brother" applies here.
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