Tutoring of 3rd-graders in reading pays off quickly |
| Tutoring of 3rd-graders in reading pays off quickly Posted: 23 Jan 2011 11:57 PM PST HATTIESBURG — Hawkins Elementary School officials are making sure all students can read by the end of third grade. "Studies show in grades one to three you learn to read, after grade three you read to learn," said Hawkins Principal Donna Scott. "At third grade, the foundation should have been laid." To make sure the foundation is solid, about half of the 41 third-graders at the Hattiesburg school are tutored in reading each day. On a recent morning, seven third-graders are being tutored by two AmeriCorps reading specialists. One group of four girls is quickly reading words from flash cards held by volunteer Genae Keyes. "Would, around, always, which," the students read, as Keyes rapidly pulls the cards from a pile she is holding. "There. What are the other ways it is spelled? How is it used?" she asks. Four tutors meet with the students every day and two afternoons after school. They tutor students who are falling behind and also those who are ready to move to an advanced or proficient level. The students who receive the tutoring are recommended by teachers. And they are tutored during activity periods so they don't lose any instruction time. Eight-year-old Keeyosha Myers said she likes learning from the tutors. "We learn more words and their definitions," she said. Third-grader Mya Everett, also 8, said the tutoring has helped her. "I like reading books, so I can go on to fourth grade," she said. Scott said she's glad the students enjoy the tutoring because learning to read by third grade is important. Third grade is the first grade that must take the MCT2 state test, she said. "We talk about increasing and improving test scores, but if the student can't read the test, we can't improve the score," Scott said. Studies also show that third grade is a milestone - when it comes to reading. A 2010 Annie E. Casey Foundation Report found a major cause of being held back in later grades is the failure to read proficiently as early as fourth grade. The same report states, "millions of Americans get to fourth grade without learning to read proficiently, and that puts them on the high school dropout track." (2 of 2) The four reading specialists would probably not be at Hawkins without the efforts of a local church, which provided the $13,000 community match to hire the AmeriCorps tutors. "They can take students who need extra help and address their need," said Sharon Miles, coordinator of Neighbors at Hawkins, a project of Hattiesburg's Ekklesia Church. The church adopted Hawkins as its community project three years ago. Miles also said it's important to reach the third-graders through the tutoring. "They still want to learn, they want to be here, and the earlier you give them a passion for reading, the better," she said. Volunteer Tanesh McCarty said she has witnessed firsthand how the tutoring has helped students. "We've seen dramatic improvement with each student," she said. "They've not only improved in their grades, they've improved in their behavior and their self-esteem. I think it's important to reach them in the third grade to boost them up. "We can also catch them with whatever they missed in the grades before so they can move on up to the fourth grade." Scott said the improvements can be seen in as little as nine weeks. "We have a districtwide assessment test that we conduct every nine weeks. The students that go to tutoring, we saw an increase in test scores, so we know what they're doing is not in vain." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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