Seniors Tutoring Students in Reading | NW Report: March/April 2001

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March/April 2001 | NW REPORT

Seniors
Tutoring
Students in Reading

By Karen Blaha

If senior citizens knew how to acquire the skills to become effective volunteer reading tutors, and schools had the capability to coordinate and support such a tutoring program, then that mighty combination could bolster students' reading achievement.

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory has designed a demonstration project, Seniors Tutoring Students in Reading, that, pending funding, will help schools create that winning combination: seniors who are prepared for the task of tutoring and schools that can support them. The proposed project aims to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of a statewide approach to training senior citizens to tutor elementary students who are struggling readers. The project will be piloted in urban and rural schools in Alaska, Oregon and Washington. Ten senior citizens will work as volunteer tutors in each school.

This project comes at a time when increased achievement in reading is a national education goal and a priority for virtually every local school district. The nation's senior citizens create a potentially large and motivated group of adults who can become trained volunteer reading tutors. Research indicates that tutoring:

Increases mastery of academic skills

Improves self-esteem and self-confidence

Improves students' attitude toward school

Breaks down social barriers

Provides emotional support and positive role models

Additionally, the individual instruction allows students to progress at their own pace, and to benefit from more focused encouragement and observation, as well as from companionship from an adult.

The Seniors Tutoring Students in Reading project will train seniors in reading instruction and how to support students' reading acquisition with praise and feedback. Processes and materials for building an effective senior volunteer tutor program will be developed during the course of the year long project.

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