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The North Star Tutor/Mentor program is based on two simple truths:
One, that students occasionally need individual help to learn something.
Two, that the classroom setting cannot routinely make that help available.
North Star provided low cost tutoring help to second and
third grade students after school two times a week,
through the school year. This generally provides about
fifty hours of help in a school year. Middle and
high school students are hired to deliver the tutoring,
and two teachers are hired to supervise and coach the
tutors and students.
The workable size is up to 30 students and ten tutors.
The focus of the tutoring is homework help, reading and
math literacy. The normal use of homework is
to increase competence on those topics covered
during the school day.
Many children do not do the homework for a variety of reasons.
Rather than addressing that host of reasons,
we chose the direct approach,
and that is to help the children get their homework done.
The direct benefits of the tutoring help on homework are
that the child understands the material better the next day,
and instead of sheepishly saying they did not get their homework done,
they can proudly turn in their homework.
When it comes to class discussions on the subject,
they can volunteer to explain the problem instead of
hoping the teacher does not call on them.
The effect is a change in attitude about school and homework.
Parents have commented that children who had fought
to avoid doing homework have changed after being in the homework program,
and now start their homework when they get home without prodding.
The pattern of many children working on homework as a group
increases the children's involvement in the doing the homework.
They become friends with the other children working in the group
if they are not already. Also, since they are all working together,
it becomes the game to play. They are not alone,
working on their homework,
and this gives a dramatic to their willingness to work on the homework.
Another aspect that contributes to the willingness of the children
to work in these tutoring sessions
is the attention the individual students receive.
Most people like attention and children are no exception.
During the school day, negative attention is better than no attention,
and misbehavior gets attention. In the tutoring sessions,
they get the attention automatically.
Their behavior invariably improves.
The effect of the tutoring help on reading is also dramatic.
Using the Dynamic Reading Assessment tests to gauge progress,
some of our programs have taken second graders,
15% of whom were reading on grade level at the start of the year,
to 90% reading on grade level at the end of the year.
This is in far excess of the gains of students without tutoring help.
The use of older students to tutor younger students has several benefits.
The younger students will open up more with another child then they will with an adult.
The older children doing the tutoring are three or more years older
than those being tutored, and they are familiar with the nature
and intricacies of the homework, having done it only a few years earlier.
These tutors also are from the same community
and often the same neighborhood.
They have the same culture and know many of the same people.
This friendly connection between second and third graders
and eighth graders and high school students provides
a sense of security for the younger students in the community,
and the older students increase their connection to
and respect within their community.
For anyone who has worked with a young child for a length of time,
there is a bonding and affection that occurs.
These young children really get attached to their tutors.
The attention and validation the young children get from their tutors
and the validation the tutors get from helping the younger children
is simply good for the emotional health of each.
The tutors are benefited in additional ways by helping the
younger students. The tutors develop a confidence
and a pride in themselves. They have a status that is earned.
The practice of tutoring develops a confidence
and comfort in working with others that isn't easily developed elsewhere.
A number of teachers have noticed that many
of their hyperactive middle school students excel at tutoring.
Their hyperactive energy is more than absorbed by the needs
of three second graders as he helps them do their homework.
This change in self image of the tutors and the change
in the way the teacher sees the tutor impacts the future of the tutor.
The warm feeling that one gets from helping another,
and the pride from knowing that one has really helped
another is valuable to the tutors. Several teachers have
used the tutors' strong desire to continue tutoring to
induce the tutors to rise to a higher level of self control,
and behave better throughout the school day. To the
amazement of the child, teachers, and parents, this has
worked when other approaches have failed to improve behavior.
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