Tutor Progam Help Kids With Reading Difficulties
Spokane School District 81 recently announced plans to have volunteers give a hand to students struggling with reading, backing its intentions with $100,000 in new books and volunteer training sessions.
Jefferson was way ahead of the game. The Grand Boulevard elementary school was already $1,500 and one year into planning its own reading room when teachers learned of the district-wide tutor program.
“When the district allotted this money, it was absolutely exactly what we wanted to do,” said second-grade teacher Carol Hayes. “It was just amazing the district came up with it just when we did.”
Jefferson was one of 14 schools that applied for - and received - an additional $7,000 in district funds.
With a master’s in reading, Hayes has taken the lead in developing Jefferson’s tutorial room.
It’s a necessary step, she said, in getting kids off on the right foot with reading.
“We see that there are a lot of children who are simply falling through the cracks,” said Hayes.
The idea behind the tutor program is to provide the one-on-one reading that’s impossible with a ratio of 30 students to one teacher.
The district has been recruiting parents and community members to undergo the program’s required six hours of training.
Jefferson teachers are reaching out to parents and the South Side retirement community to staff the reading room, which they hope to kick off in November.
Their aim is to get the students in the reading room four times a week for half-hour sessions.
The consistency of daily work and familiar volunteer faces will help students, Hayes said.
She had brought volunteers into her own classroom last year to provide more one-on-one practice for students reading below grade level.
“It absolutely made such a difference,” she said. “The kids really made some nice strides.”
By the end of last year, Jefferson’s primary teachers knew they were on to something and requested funds to develop the tutor program. Principal Mary-Dean Wooley set aside $1,500 from the school’s student learning improvement grant.
The future reading room is now home to overflowing boxes of new books just waiting to be cracked open. Third-grade teacher Mardell Cochran spends her spare moments patiently color-coding books that will soon line the room’s shelves.
Both teachers spent a recent Saturday undergoing the district’s tutor training program. They say the district’s program mirrored what they had in mind for their own reading room.
“We felt good,” said Hayes. “It told us we were on the right track.”
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WANT TO HELP? South Side adults who want to tutor readers can contact principals at these Spokane elementary schools: Hamblen, Jefferson, Lincoln Heights, Moran Prairie, Mullan Road, Pratt, Roosevelt and Wilson.