[YL] Hello and Question

[Hawkins Roger (DOL)]

Wanda, I started a tutoring center at a non profit community agency.  I ran into an organization called National Tutoring Association www.ntatutor.org <http://www.ntatutor.org/>  which provided some resource, particularly in tutor training  (I think that tutor training is essential, especially for volunteers).  I don't know about the curriculum of America Counts; however, I have discovered the importance of good skill assessment prior to tutoring so that tutors can more efficiently know what specific skills of a student are needed to be remediated.  If tutors are not in the business of specific skill remediation, then they are basically helping students with their homework. As you probably are aware, nothing is wrong with homework help, but that is not skill remediation, which is the real power of tutoring. So, I went to publishers and bought curriculum materials which addressed various areas like phonics, word recognition, various comprehension skills, and fluency.  I sought local funders to grant monies for curriculum development.  All of the curriculum is put in binders with sheet protectors and students use dry erase markers to write in the books, thus saving a lot of consumable expense in paper.

 

Roger Hawkins

New Castle County Coordinator,

Delaware High School High Tech

Delaware's High Tech Career Network for Students with Disabilities

761-8275/377-3132

"Empowering youth to achieve their career dreams!"

 

-----Original Message-----
From: youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org [mailto:youthlearn-bounces at milhouse.edc.org] On Behalf Of wanda-edwards
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 11:54 AM
To: youthlearn at milhouse.edc.org
Subject: [YL] Hello and Question

 

Hello Everyone!

 

My name is Wanda Edwards and I currently am employed in an afterschool tutoring program and I volunteer as a director/coordinator of my church's summer youth programs.

I am a single (divorced) mother of 3 children, th oldest of which is 19 and developmentally delayed. In my adult life I have been a foster parent, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for children, home day care provider, Sunday school teacher, VBS teacher and director, and private tutor.

I am also a student, I am finishing my Bachelors degree at The University of Toledo in Youth Development.

So, I said all that to say this: I LOVE WORKING WITH CHILDREN!

 

Now for my question:

 

In collaboration with another community agency, I am attempting to establish a summer tutoring program for students grades 1 - 6 next summer. All tutors will be volunteers and this project has an extremely low budget.

In searching the Internet I found the archived information from America Reads and America Counts tutoring programs (leftovers from the Clinton administration). The few people I talked to describe it as a dismal failure. I looked over the website and I am not seeing any major faults with the curriculum, maybe some things could be tweaked to make it better. The most attractive part to me, I must admit, is the cost (FREE).

 

Does anybody have any experience with these programs? Any information you could share with me would be greatly appreciated. Or even if you know of any super low cost curriculums that we could use would be great!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Wanda J Edwards

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.edc.org/pipermail/youthlearn/attachments/20050929/60e1b551/attachment.htm