A Successful Summer: Increasing Literacy Skills Through Interactive Tutoring

Format

Poster Presentation

Presenters

Brittaney S. MaplesFollow

Location

Harborside Center East and West

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

This presentation supports Strands I and II. The presentation supports “head” being a summer program working with Title 1 students who are at risk of failure with reading. It supports “heart” as it shows how the volunteers worked with the students to enable them to build self-confidence and self-worth.

Brief Program Description

This presentation will delineate strategies for improving literacy skills and self-image for K-12 students attending Title I schools. The emphasis of the presentation will be placed on the process for developing a program that keeps students engaged through hands-on projects, engaging activities, as well as building positive relationships with role-model tutors. The intended target audience for this presentation includes college students, K-12 faculty, and parents of K-12 students.

Summary

In the summer of 2014, six Citadel cadets implemented a reading intervention program in the Gadsden Green Housing Community; the class consisted of a group of K-12 students immersed in Title I schools across Charleston. After being trained by a certified literacy professor, the six volunteers developed an intervention curriculum that included reading assessments, interest inventories, and reading strategies. The program began with a pre-assessment of student reading levels (SLOSSON Oral Reading Test). Based on the results, the volunteers divided the students into groups based on their preliminary reading levels. Each group was led by a volunteer three days a week for eight weeks in a comprehensive reading enhancement program with the goal of bringing students to the level of their same-aged peers. Mondays were considered reading days where volunteers brought in books for students to read. Through a grant earned, the volunteers purchased 500 books that were used for the reading program each Monday and later given to the students. Books were semi-chosen by volunteers based off students’ reading levels. These were used for sight word recognition and comprehension for the younger children. Volunteers focused on comprehension strategies with older students. Tuesdays were dedicated to hands-on projects, such as taking song lyrics and focusing on nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students were asked to tell a story about certain pictures presented to them and then in turn with help of volunteers write about said story, eventually accumulating with an autobiography by the students. Thursdays were dedicated to presenting projects to parents and peers, which was beneficial in building self-confidence and getting recognition from their parents. In order to assist with motivation, students were rewarded with stickers based on number of books read and the number of assignments completed. When they earned a predetermined number of stickers, students were allowed to celebrate by an end of the summer festival. At the end of the summer, students were assessed again through the SLOSSON Oral Reading Test. Results showed significant gains in reading, confidence, and positive attitudes as they realized how important their skills in education truly were.

Evidence

SLOSSON Oral Reading pre- and post-Tests indicated that all students increased their reading skills significantly. What was observed through this program was that the students K-3 were reading at the appropriate grade level. Students 4+ were starting to fall behind, even three and four grade levels. The Post SLOSSON tests showed 100% success in advancement for the students, almost all being at or above the desired reading level. The following statistic was the motivation for this program: “A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.” (Sparks, S. (2011, April 8). Study: Third Grade Reading Predicts Later High School Graduation. Retrieved September 29, 2014.)

Biographical Sketch

Brittaney Maples is a senior Battalion Religious Officer in the South Carolina Corps of Cadets at The Citadel. She is currently getting a BS: Secondary Education and plans to get her Masters in Literacy Education. She has been volunteering in various projects teaching positive psychology concepts, after school tutoring, reading intervention efforts, and elementary service efforts. She was selected this past summer as a SUCCEED Fellow with the Krouse Center of Leadership and Ethics, on The Citadel Campus. With this fellowship, she spent her summer with her peers creating and implementing various service learning initiatives that included: reading, physical activity, SMART Strengths, and STEM activities. In the Spring of 2014, she and her peers received an award for having the best new service project for the year at The Citadel’s Leadership Symposium. She is also a member of The Citadel School of Education Mentor Program.

Presentation Year

2015

Start Date

3-3-2015 4:00 PM

End Date

3-3-2015 5:30 PM

Recommended Citation

Maples, Brittaney S., "A Successful Summer: Increasing Literacy Skills Through Interactive Tutoring" (2015). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 81.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2015/2015/81