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Tutoring 101: one-on-one

Posted on April 5, 2007April 5, 2007 by Staff

 

 Nicole Atwater, 10 years old, completes a writing assignment with her tutor.  Photo by Allison Parker

By Allison Parker
Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons

McDougle program helps UNC students learn as well

Matthew Coplin, a 10-year-old fourth grader at McDougle Elementary School, says he wants to build things just like his father.

“My dad wants me to follow his dream,” he says. “I think I’ve got the building genes.”
Matthew looks up to his dad as his role model.

Suddenly, he busts out in a song about multiplication. “I have trouble memorizing my timetables,” he explains. “But I have cool rhymes that I use to make me learn them.”

He says tutoring allows him to learn from past mistakes. “I like to be tutored in writing because the tutors can help you spell words,” he says. “They tell you to read words, like, 100 times, so you can memorize them.”

Why does he like reading? “Reading is cool because you get hooked on the beginning,” he says. “If the book is magical or mysterious, you want to read more.”

Tutoring 101

After-school programs, student tutoring sessions and parent-volunteer programs are just a few of the tutoring options available throughout the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system to help students like Matthew.

“Through the Parent Teacher Association, parents can sign up to be a tutor,” says Kathie Guild, McDougle school counselor. “The recruits in the county’s district office also advertise in the retirement community and recruit retired teachers to tutor.”

Students at UNC are also doing their part to educate younger kids. Through an “Education In American Society” class taught by professor Gerald Unks, college students tutor at the county’s elementary schools for an hour twice a week.

“The young kids really like the college students,” Guild says. “They work really well with the kids, and some, such as athletes, are recognized by the kids.”

Angela Alcala, a junior at UNC from UNC-Charlotte and student in Unks’ class, says she enjoys the one-on-one interaction tutoring allows.

“It’s interesting to watch the children develop, especially since I tutor the same child every week,” she says.

Eye on the prize

“What times what gives you 64? What two numbers?” asks fourth-grade teacher Diana Barefoot during her daily math lesson. About 15 hands shoot into the air as each child competes for her attention. Like with Matthew, multiplication seems to be a popular, sometimes troublesome, subject among elementary school students.

“I like math because I like doing multiplication problems,” says 9-year-old Brittney Gardinier. “When I grow up I want to be an eye doctor, so I want to do the best that I can in school.”

Reading is another one of her favorite activities. “I like reading different book series to see which I like the best,” she says. “Tutoring gives me good reading experience.”

High-stakes testing

With the new rules of accountability in North Carolina, children that move from other areas sometimes struggle to keep up in the classroom, Guild says. After-school programs provide students with the help they need to stay on track.

Tutoring sessions held after school are taught by teachers. “The program is meant to support kids that have a hard time with the End-of-Grade Test in May,” Guild says.

She says the after-school program focuses on students who are caught in the achievement gap. “English as a Second Language students and students with learning disabilities have the hardest time.”

Guild says tutoring helps students grasp the material necessary for them to pass the tests: “Kids that move around from school to school and are in transition need continual exposure to the material.”

The Carrboro Commons is a joint project of Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class and Andy Bechtel’s Advanced Editing class in the UNC School of Journalism. The Commons is an online publication and is posted biweekly during the fall and spring semesters. Visit carrborocommons.org to see all their stories.

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