Fourth-grade twins mentor younger students
Hearing the same story again and again might bore your average fourth-grader, but Megan and Sarah Lambert are anything but average. The twin sisters are enthusiastic tutors for third-grade students at Hayden Meadows Elementary School, and when their pupils read, they listen. The sisters are part of a project designed to improve reading skills.
“It’s cool to listen to her,” Sarah said, of the third-grade girl she tutors. “If she messes up on a word, I help her.”
Megan finds that there is a lot more to listening than the content of a story. Her ears are tuned to hear the breaths taken between the words. If students are to read more fluently, they must recognize common phrases on sight without having to sound each word out. So the tutors listen and watch the time. If their pupils don’t recognize a word in five seconds, the tutors step in and help identify it.
For 45 minutes each Thursday, the Lamberts volunteer their expertise along with seven other excellent readers. Their teacher, Vern Harvey, calls the twins “top-notch students” who show empathy, dedication and caring when working with kids who struggle with reading.
Megan and Sarah believe that their pupils will have a less complicated future if they can master reading, since it will help with every subject.
“They won’t have to worry about their grades,” Sarah said.
The sisters think that the tutoring project works well because they are so close in age to their pupils. It wasn’t long ago that they were reading the same stories and learning the same new words. They believe their pupils feel less pressure than they would feel with a tutor who is much more advanced.
“They really like learning from someone who’s just a year older,” Megan said.
The Lamberts have been in the same classroom since kindergarten and find the only drawback to sharing a classroom is that teachers will call them by the wrong name sometimes. Otherwise, they agree that it’s just fun.
The sisters are also first-place winners in their school and district “Invent Idaho” competition. Sarah and her partner invented a desk organization system, and Megan and her partner designed a car adaptation. Their mother, Laura, finds that the girls have separate and common interests that are hard to keep up with because sometimes they swap preferences. Presently, Megan likes art and sketching, and Sarah prefers to spend free time with physical activities like gymnastics. Both love soccer and sing in the school choir.
The twins say that the tutoring project is a two-way street and they are benefiting from their pupils. They now know what words are most challenging and have made new, younger friends. They’ve also learned that time and efforts pay off. The third-graders learn a lot more quickly than Megan expected, and she sees progress with every session.
“It makes me feel really proud that they’re learning,” Megan said.