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Nydia, the Nurturing Leader
Background
I mentioned in the introduction to the previous case that a
few of the individuals who attended the August training session
seemed particularly empowered to begin tutoring projects immediately.
This is the case with Nydia. Nydia Mendez (Nydia requested that
I use her actual name) arrived at the August training session
at the same time as Dr. Shirley Freed and myself, during the last
2 days where the focus was the SMILIES reading curriculum. She
had first heard about the Adventist initiative from Dr. Freed
earlier in the summer. Because of a reform effort she was spearheading
at the Boston public elementary school where she is principal,
Nydia was particularly interested.
Nydia has been with the Boston public schools for 25 years, 6
in her current assignment as principal of the Paul A. Dever Elementary
School, which is located in the Dorchester area of Boston. "The
Dever" has a racially diverse enrollment of 590 students
in Grades Kindergarten through 5. Ninely-two percent of the children
at the school are on free or reduced lunch. As is often the case
in a low-income school such as this, student achievement is low
compared to many of the schools in more affluent areas of the
city.
Two years ago, under Nydia's leadership, the staff at the Dever
school applied to become a 21st Century School, a reform effort
under the more encompassing Boston Plan for Excellence. In order
to become one of the 21st Century schools, the staff at the school
must define an instructional focus, one that will substantially
change the way the school functions with an ultimate goal of improving
student achievement. Nydia, during a 6- month long detailed look
at every aspect of the way the school functions, challenged her
staff to ponder the following question:
"What is it that stands in our way, that we believe contributes
to the fact that our children do not appear to be achieving at
their highest potential?" And the question was deliberately
posed towards "not what stands in our way over which we do
not have any control?" No, no. It's "what stands in
our way, over which we have control, of making sure the children
are learning to their highest potential?" (Data File, p.
169)
As Nydia explained, suddenly the entire staff was being required
to examine every aspect of their individual and corporate teaching
methodology, with a willingness to dispose of whatever might not
be bearing good fruit. After this 6-month period of intense introspection,
the staff chose literacy improvement as their target reform effort.
They drafted a statement which declared their instructional focus
as "a coordinated whole school effort to have all Dever students
show growth in their ability to read as measured by both the Stanford
Nine and the students' ability to meet the BPS Learning Standards
for reading comprehension" (Data File, p. 236).
The statement goes on to describe specific goals and means by
which the goals would be met. One key element of the plan is to
work to provide "individual student support in helping all
students show growth in their ability to read" (Data File,
p. 236). Several changes were made to facilitate this support.
The entire schedule was revamped in order to create an uninterrupted
90-minute "literacy block" where every support person
in the school was paired up with a classroom teacher to work on
literacy-related instruction. Nydia explained that "having
adults working with children was one of our broad goals"
(Data File, p. 172). This is where she saw the potential benefit
in using volunteer literacy tutors as was being proposed generally
by President Clinton in his America Reads plan and more specifically
by the Adventist initiative. So she secured the approval and the
funds from her school district to attend the August 1997 training
in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Nydia had a dedicated core group of parents who assisted with
many of the routine support duties in the schoollunch monitoring,
playground monitoring, helping with art projects, and similar
tasks. She stated, "I had parent mothers in the school who
had become kind of like an intricate part of the school, but I
did not really have a solidly defined program for them that would
give them the boundaries or the concepts for their involvement
in a way that it contributed to our instructional goals"
(Data File, p. 172). As Nydia took part in the training sessions
and as she pondered her school's new instructional focus, she
began to consider how these parent volunteers could be used in
ways to more specifically further the goals of the school. "[M]y
mind was going many miles per hour, conceptualizing how this could
be put into operation at the school. . . . The mothers were there
. . . and I had a feeling of potential in them" (Data File,
p. 175).
Within a few months, Nydia did indeed draft and train a core group
of 7 mothers who began tutoring children in reading. When I visited
the school in March, 1998, their program had been in operation
for almost 4 months. During my visit I talked with Nydia, then
I met separately with and interviewed her volunteers, and I observed
two of them working with children. One of my goals was to examine
key characteristics of successful tutoring programs as delineated
by the conceptual framework which I have described above. I was
also looking for other themes that might emerge as I spent some
time at the school.
Critical Components of Tutoring Programs
Vision
Nydia certainly exudes passion for her work. As we walked into
the school on a Monday morning, it seemed obvious to me that her
"fingerprints" were all over every cog and gear that
turns in the Paul A. Dever elementary school. Teachers and other
adults greeted her by name as they gave quick updates or offered
reminders of events to come. Children waved to and hugged "Ms.
Mendez" as we walked the hallways. And in those hallways,
I could not help but notice intentionally placed reminders of
the sense of mission that Nydia is helping to foster in the school.
An abbreviated version of the Dever School Comprehensive Plan
(Data File, pp. 237-238) was blown up to poster size and placed
in conspicuous places around the building. A white board with
current goals and positive reports hung near the office for all
to see. The mission that Nydia has clarified for this school is
a very public thing.
Clear Mission and Goals Expressed
The mission and goals for a tutoring project at the Dever school
are essentially the mission and goals for the entire building
discussed above. All of the volunteers are aware of the instructional
focus of the school, that "all Dever students will show growth
in their ability to read" (Data File, p. 236). Nydia also
explained that the school has expectations of them as parents
(most of her volunteers are parents of children in the building)
because "parents are the children's first teachers"
(Data File, p. 177). One of the parent volunteers, Nadene, described
their specific mission as one that is a part of the district-wide
mission that engulfs the local effort:
There's a new learning standard that children must meet in the
Boston Public Schools. Now, by the year 2000, high school students
have to pass the standardized test in order to receive their diploma.
What we're trying to do is reach the children at the younger age
now that need help so when they are old enough to attend high
school and participate in graduation we can help them before there
are any learning problems. (Data File, p. 197)
It was obvious to me as I talked with this group (five were present at school that day) that they were driven by the same passion for excellence that Nydia has nurtured in her entire staff.
Clear Expectations of Volunteers
Most of the parent tutors also have other responsibilities in
the school. Pam is the school librarian, a position for which
she receives a paycheck. The other women have regular, volunteer
duties in the building such as monitoring the playground or taking
lunch money. The children and the staff depend on their regular
attendance in order for things to function normally, and the volunteers
are aware of this. So there is a type of "built-in"
expectation package that is a part of the volunteering mandate
at the Dever. Nydia's ability to foster this level of responsibility
and loyalty in her volunteer parents is a positive testimony to
her leadership capabilities.
The Dever Comprehensive School Plan states, "We believe that
developing a close partnership with parents will produce graduates
that are hard working and responsible citizens" (Data File,
p. 242). The partnership that Nydia has developed with these particular
parents has resulted in their willingness to volunteer extra time
to the school. There is no extra statement of expectations that
has been placed on them as volunteer reading tutors beyond the
general expectations already in place.
Skills
When Nydia first told me about these parent mothers, she remarked that they had become "an intricate part of the school," but that she "did not really have a solidly defined program for them that would give them the boundaries or the context for their involvement in a way that contributed to our instructional goals" (Data File, p. 172). Dr. Shirley Freed, who is also Nydia's doctoral advisor, told her of the Adventist initiative and about the training which would be taking place in August, 1997. As Nydia took part in that training, "there is where the idea of training them [the parent volunteers] properly came into my mind" (Data File, p. 173).
Ongoing Training and Supervision of Volunteers
When school started, Nydia did not begin training her volunteers
right away. "We had just begun more struggles of re-organizing
our school and the schedule so I needed to give my attention to
that" (Data File, p. 175). But before Thanksgiving, when
Nydia felt ready to start, she put out a notice to the entire
school community announcing the opportunity to receive training
in this tutoring project, and that a $100 stipend would be offered
to anyone who attended the entire training and who committed to
working with children for 1 hour a day. The training would take
place over a 2-week period for 2 hours each daya total of
20 hours of training. Ten mothers started the training process.
The training consisted of going over the SMILIES manual, watching
the accompanying videotape in segments, and discussing key theory
and concepts related to the SMILIES philosophy. Both Nydia and
the volunteers commented on the richness of the experience. The
discussions around multiple pathways to learning were particularly
potent. Nydia said:
We spent a lot of time explaining things and the philosophy behind
it, particularly, and this is fascinatingwhen we talked
and learned a little bit about the notion that you can be smarter
than anyone else that you know, they were like "wow!"
It was just amazing the quality, the richness of conversation
and the anecdotes. You know, "My kid is so good in this,"
and the music thing, and it was just fabulous. So we were able
to latch on to things that, for them, became points of comfort,
because they had experiences themselves as learners. (Data File,
p. 178)
The volunteer trainees also had positive comments about the
training. Nadene enjoyed the training experience, saying:
I liked it. I thought it was fun, because we got to relate to
the principal other than just a boss. We saw her as an individual,
a person like us, who wants to make things better. And it was,
basically, it was fun. We learned from her and she learned from
us as a parent. She saw what we'd like to see, and we saw what
she wants us to see through her eyes as a principal. We connected.
(Data File, p. 197)
Pam also said that she "connected" with Nydia, and
that she developed a somewhat playful relationship with her:
Yea, Nydia always picked on me. She'd ask me questions. I just
gave her direct questions, answers I mean, and she was just asking
me even more about what I felt and then said she didn't know.
I was giving her answers to it, and it really helped quite a bit.
(Data File, p. 198)
I asked the volunteers if the training had given them confidence
for the task. They all agreed with Angie who said, "I felt
confidence about it, I mean, I think I'm making progress as I
see the student that I'm preparing with. . . . I'm happy about
it" (Data File, p. 199).
Nydia expressed concern that she has not been able to offer much
in the way of continuing training, even saying she had "done
somewhat of a sloppy job in terms of providing that continuing
support that is so highly recommended" (Data File, p. 176).
But she compensated in other ways, most notably by changing the
supervision structure of the tutors. After Christmas, each tutor
began reporting to a particular classroom teacher who took responsibility
for the tutor and her student. Also, Nydia arranged for Dr. Freed
and me to work with the tutors for a short time during our respective
visits. So the continuing training has been more informal than
formal, but it certainly has not been "sloppy."
Training for Leaders on Recruitment and
Retention of Volunteers
I mentioned earlier that Nydia did not attend the entire 5-day Tutoring and Mentoring seminar in Silver Spring. She did receive a copy of the manual, in which Sahlin (1997) talks about the recruitment of volunteers. Nydia and I did not talk about whether she studied the manual, or about what she may know about volunteer retention. But it is obvious, at least to me, that Nydia knows enough to have recruited and retained the volunteers who so faithfully come to school each day. Nydia did comment that she would like to expand the program, and that she is "figuring out a way of having someone on staff paid to be the on-site coordinator" (Data File, p. 175), a move that would, most likely, ensure the continuing success of the tutoring program.
Incentives
Support From the Administrative Level
The volunteer tutors were offered more support than just the
$100 stipend they received for their training and tutoring commitment.
They received a certificate verifying that they had completed
the 2-week training session which was given to them during a small-group
"graduation" ceremony at the end. They also received
their own SMILIES manual, a bundle of simple readers packaged
in a little box, a set of magnetic letters, and their own budget
for future purchases. "They were made to feel like professionals"
commented Nydia (Data File, p. 181) as she reflected on what she
had done to offer support.
But "this was not the first time" that they were made
to feel like professionals, according to Nydia. "There had
already been a kinda' pat on' behavior deal so they knew
we valued what they did" (Data File, p. 181). This trust,
the same trust that Nydia extends to her staff, is very affirming
to the volunteers. I noted this during my visit in March 1998,
and in my journal I observed that
the women who work for Nydia have their own officea converted
janitor's closet that has shelves, a refrigerator, a microwave,
and a coffee pot. It is also used for a storage area for their
instructional "tools." This is clearly their domain,
and the fact that Nydia provided it to them lets them know that
she values their work. (Data File, p. 299)
Resources
Committed Tutors
When you consider the above, it is no wonder that Nydia is so
successful in retaining her volunteer work force. They extend
to her the same respect that she offers to them. When I asked
Nydia why she feels like these parents volunteered in the first
place, she said:
I think they volunteered because they came into a building where
they found, in the way they were greeted, that it was contrary
to any perceptions they had had about what was inside those doors.
. . . They felt drawn to something, and a lot of times it had
to do with personality. You know, you can't deny that. (Data File,
p. 179)
As we discussed whether the motives of the volunteers were
primarily egoistic or altruistic, Nydia pointed to comments they
had made about their own personal fulfillment:
The first thing that I recall coming out of their mouths when
Shirley [Dr. Freed] was there, which I had not heard from them
before, was how good they are feeling and how much what they are
learning is helping them. (Data File, p. 179)
I asked the tutors why they volunteered to be a part of this
project. Their responses varied, but they all indicated that they
wanted to help others. Nadene said:
I volunteered basically to help children who don't have the help
they need at home, whether it'd be the parents be too busy, or
there are students in the best of school systems who need help
during the school day, and that's why I'd like to help. (Data
File, p. 196)
Francine's motives were similar:
I volunteered because I have three children at this school and an older son who's on his way to college who went to this school. I'm a student of the school and I volunteered so that I can not only help my children, but help other children that's in this community, to see that you don't have to leave the community to make your life a success. And through reading they can make their life successful. Also I would like more parents to be involved, um, because when your children know you care enough to come, they spend the time to do this, they try better. (Data File, p. 197)
Pam had mixed reasons for helping:
I volunteer because I have a son at this school and he has problems with reading and it's helping me to help him to read the way they read. It's hard to explain, but it helped my son a lot. . . . I'm getting a lot from it. It's just making me learn more too, and, I can't explain it. It's natural when I'm reading it to my son, or to the kids I tutor. It just helps me learn a lot more. (Data File, p. 197)
Whatever their reasons for helping, these women appear to be
passionate for this program and committed to its success. They
know that they are valued by Nydia, the teachers, the students,
and the parents of the school. One of their own, Francine, commended
her colleagues for their dedication to the program:
I cannot be here every day, I'm going through an adoption and
I have a small child which has to be out of her class by 11:00.
So I commend these women in their commitments. To my knowledge
Angie doesn't have any children at this school, yet she's committed
to the students. Nadene and Pam are newest to the community and
they are very committed. Julia is very committed. She's always
saying her English isn't good, but I understand everything she's
saying. And she has the commitment. So I commend themPam,
Veronica, all of them in their commitment. Next year I'll be able
to commit more, but for me the timing, the scheduling is not too
good. (Data File, p. 202)
Qualified Faculty to Provide Support
Nydia's qualifications and her support have already been made
clear. But she expressed her limitations in being able to provide
consistent support to the tutors. This became clear to her right
at the beginning of the tutoring program, therefore, right after
the Christmas break, she made a change.
What I did this time, through the second cycle, is that they are
working more closely with a teacher or teachers from whose classroom
they're drawing kids. I had to realize that I could not give them
that ongoing guidance which is what they really needed. I will
see them working with their child and there were, you know, there
were certain things that I was concerned about in terms of the
techniques. (Data File, p. 181)
Thus, as of the beginning of the calendar year, the tutors
now work with and support children from specific teachers' classrooms.
The classroom teachers are more knowledgeable about the specific
needs of each child.
Nydia is also thinking about placing the tutoring project in the
hands of a paid coordinator. There are two possibilities here.
A local college holds educational methods classes for graduate
students right in her building, and the graduate students are
assigned each quarter to specific classrooms. Nydia is thinking
about tapping into this rich resource of expertise by offering
the college the chance to work with the tutoring program. There
is also a local professional who has successfully worked with
the Dever School in another capacity whom Nydia would like to
possibly hire for the position of coordinator.
Quality Materials/A Sound, Simple Training Guide
Nydia ordered a copy of the SMILIES manual for each of the tutors-in-training.
They used it as is, without abbreviating the length, but they
did punch holes in the pages so that each manual could be placed
in a binder to simplify handling. Nydia also utilized the entire
SMILIES training video, but she showed only a section at a time
as appropriate.
The tutors are definitely "sold" on the SMILIES philosophy,
and they do strive to use the methods that Nydia has taught them.
They make books with the children by cutting out magazine pictures
or drawing, they spend much time reading leveled books together,
and they use magnetic letters to work on simple phonics principles.
As mentioned above, Nydia was able to provide the volunteers with
a small budget so they could purchase more materials when necessary.
Some money was previously available through the existing volunteer
program for purchases of this nature as well. Nadene talked about
how these funds were being used: "We had a small amount of
money left so we took the money and bought some books, and some
the magnetic letters, in English and Spanish, so she can work
with the Spanish children" (Data File, p. 207).
Pam, who is also the school librarian, was concerned about
the need for books in their building library. She had been able
to purchase newer books for students in Grade 3 and above, but
there were very few books for the younger readers whom they help
in the tutoring program. She is hoping that the 21st Century Schools
grant money may allow them to purchase more easy readers for the
younger children.
Now that the tutors are working directly with classroom teachers,
they can use the existing classroom materials in their instruction
as well as their own materials. Nydia talked about this aspect
of the arrangement:
They [the tutors] say, "Well, Mrs. Mendez, this is the book
that he's been working on, struggling with. I don't think I want
to use that book for this 30-minute period and I say, "Oh,
more power to you. Go make your books. Use all that, extract all
that natural language, use that as you are generating wordsgive
them a positive experience." I am seeing them do that, but
there are always days when what the teacher wants for that child,
which is valid, is "here are the words that are important
for him to learn," and I am saying, "Ok, that is fine,"
and I am seeing what the mothers are doing, which is fabulous,
because they're giving the child chances to use all the things
that the teacher, by virtue of the fact that she has so many other
kids, cannot really make available for these kids. . . . The parents,
they went out and purchased little magnetic boards and they let
the kids form words out of that classes' spelling list. (Data
File, p. 182)
Parents Are Informed and Involved
"All my volunteers are family members or parents of the
kids in school," Nydia explained as we were talking about
parental involvement (Data File, p. 177). She had been very concerned
about strained relationships in the past between parents and the
staff. Nydia had made it a goal to eliminate the negative "energy"
being directed toward the school and to "channel" it
in positive ways (Data File, p. 172). This is where the idea of
nurturing parents by giving them a chance to work in the building
came into her thinking. "Boston [Public Schools] has a history
of organized actions toward engaging parents, so when I did not
go that way, I really wanted to step out of Boston" (Data
File, p. 17). Then she heard about the SMILIES opportunity and
believed that this was the answer for her building. I believe
that this was a wise move. These parent volunteers, with their
energy, enthusiasm, and with their relationships with other parents
in the community, are the best "public relations" tool
Nydia could have implemented!
Nydia explained to me that there is not much parental contact
that is specific to the tutoring program. Once again, this is
all absorbed into the larger mission and focus that has been adopted
at the Dever. Parents at the school have numerous opportunities
to become involved by actions as simple as reading the school
newsletters and attending conferences, or more fully by volunteering
to work in the school like the SMILIES tutors.
Community Support
Community support, too, is an area where the larger operations of the school "absorb" any specific action that might be directed toward the tutoring program. The children served by the program do benefit from the community involvement relationships that have been established. Nydia explained: "We have a local health center where the employees benefit, and the people do come twice a week and do read aloud with our grades" (Data File, p. 177).
The owners of the newly renovated housing community across
the street from the school took notice of all the positive changes
taking place at the Dever. They approached Nydia: "They talked
to me, and they have invested in the school . . . and it's just
about to begin, what you just mentioned, where an actual business
will have employees released to come into the school and work
with children" (Data File, p. 177).
Another area of community involvement has been discussed above,
but is worthy of mention again. A local college has a graduate
education program centered in the Dever. Actual university-level
instruction takes place in one room that has been set aside for
the college. These student teachers do work in the building with
the teachers. But Nydia is not satisfied that her building is
reaping all of the potential benefits from this relationship.
Nydia has a plan:
What I'm finding is that I am not, myself, I am not deriving as
much benefit as we should from the presence of the college professors
in the building. The student teachers are okay because they're
in classrooms, helping us reduce class sizes for literacy and
so on and so forth. But from the actual resources of the university
we are not drawing a whole lot. So what I'm trying to get is a
professional educator who's real into curriculum, who believes
that we need to be able to support teachers in their classrooms
and do away with this one-shot inservice training. I'd like to
think that this individual, if I succeed in getting him there,
will work with parents, will provide the training for literacy,
will work with the staff, will work with me, will work with the
university side of this equation so we can properly become a full,
duly constituted, professional development school learning organization
that involves the parents, the community, and all the other folks
who are out there.
Action Plan
Sound Organization and Management
The above statement is typical of Nydia's forward thinkingof
the way she is constantly planning for the success of her staff
and students. The current reform effort in the building is a result
of Nydia's efforts, and it is also the reason that the SMILIES
project has been implemented.
Nydia's strength as a principal, beyond her ability to organize
and manage the personnel and schedule of the school, is her focus
on instruction. She is very involved in the instructional aspects
of the school. We were discussing how Nydia could take the time
out of her schedule to train the volunteer tutors:
I also was able to do this in the middle of being a principal
because of a block schedule so that everybody . . . you see most
of time the principle spends walking around has nothing to do
with instruction, but it has to do with keeping people in place
. . . making sure our teachers are not out walking the corridors
or copying stuff, you see what I'm saying. So with that structure
it speaks to . . . organizational management. . . . I mean that
had to be in place. I don't ever think that we could have done
this or that I could free myself to do that had we not had structures
in place for this school in general. (Data File, p. 180)
Close Cooperation Between Volunteers and
People in the School
The way the school day has been organized into 90-minute literacy
blocks (Data File, p. 247) has facilitated cooperation between
the classroom teachers, the volunteer tutors, and every other
teaching and support person in the building. The literacy blocks
were instituted at the beginning of the 1997-98 school year in
order to facilitate the new instructional focus on reading improvement.
The teachers worked with Nydia and the tutors to decide who should
receive the extra individual attention. The tutors now report
to their assigned teachers, and they get their "marching
orders" for each child's work that day. Julia is working
with a first-grade boy who is bilingual, but his primary language
is Spanish, as is Julia's. The reasons for the student-teacher
match are obvious. Julia explained to me (in her delightful Spanish
accent) how she and the teacher work together.I tell the teacher,
"He know all this so now he gotta learn all the name for
the animals" and she say, "Oh that's good Julia. That's
helping a lot." And I helped him out a lot too. He can pick
all his animals. So he understand what I'm going to teach him.
So he, this year he keeps back [he'll be held back in first grade].
That's another reason I want to stay with him. His teacher ask
me to stay with him because I don't want him to give up on this
year. The help devoted to him is going to be help to him from
this year so when he study this year he learn study habits. The
teacher filled out kindergarten all his learnings at length, then
when I get the books I started out writing his name and he learn
all the letter his name in the morning. So when the teacher gets
him back in the classroom, the teachers to have all but two books
to read, so when he gets into the classroom with different stuff
he can get it. (Data File, p. 201)
Another example of the cooperation that exists between the
teachers and the tutors is the way the tutors cover for each other
when one of them has to be away. Nydia explained:
If someone is out . . . it's important that there is consistency
to it. There's nothing that a teacher dislikes more than if one
day a person is ill, and you know how that goes. So they have
a little system where there is sort of a backup for each other.
If Monica has an appointment, then Laura takes Johnny and Peter.
(Data File, p. 183)
Careful Selection of Students to Be Tutored
I talked with Nydia about how students were selected to receive
tutoring. She explained:
We went the route of, let's go to one classroom, let's ask [the
teacher] if there are six, seven, eight, nine, or ten of your
kids that you think would benefit from being worked with one-on-one
with one of these mothers during the literacy block. (Data File,
pp. 181-182)
Nadene, one of the tutors, indicated that she helped the kindergarten
teacher identify which children needed help:
I would pull one child out in the morning for a half hour or so,
read to that child, try to get a sense of where that child's at,
and poll the teacher so she can find out how many children will
fit into this category of, you know, where they are at as a kindergarten
child. Now I found that some of the children don't even recognize
the alphabet, but they sing it, but when you look at it on a piece
of paper they can't recognize any of the letters. They can look
at a word and see the word cat because they saw that cue card
over and over again through their memory. So basically what I
do is I just help the teacher find out where each child is at.
(Data File, p. 205)
Of course, the annual achievement tests given to every child
in the school represent a more formal way of identifying difficulties
the students are having, and which children would be good candidates
to receive extra help.
Even though she is thrilled with the assistance that the tutors
offer and with the fact that struggling students are receiving
individual attention, Nydia is realistic about the tutors' limited
training and the needs of children who have severe learning problems:
I suspect that we'll still be very pragmatic about this whole
thing, and you just can't take any chances. I mean, we are liable
if a parent came and a child ended up being referred for special
education, and I would have to say, "Well, his literacy block
was in the hands of a person who had ten training sessions."
(Data File, p. 184) Therefore, student selection is a negotiated
thing between the teacher, the tutor, and the principal. It is
based on teacher referrals, testing results, the relationship
that the tutor has with the child, other services that are available,
and the schedule.
A Regular, Frequent Tutoring Schedule
The Dever School Comprehensive Plan states that, in order to reach
the goal of growth in literacy for every child, an "uninterrupted
block schedule . . . for reading and language arts" would
be instituted "utilizing all specialists and support personnel
to support the instructional focus" (Data File, p. 244).
This has been accomplished by using, among other people, the volunteer
reading tutors who were trained by Nydia.
Prior to the Christmas break, some of the tutors worked with small
groups, but this was found to be unsatisfactory. Now most of the
tutors work with one or two children for a total of an hour each
day. Nadene told me, "I found it a lot better working with
one child, working one-on-one for a 5 or 6 week period" (Data
File, p. 205). The tutors help each other out in the event that
someone has to be absent. Their tutoring takes place during the
literacy block for the classroom to which they are assigned. This
arrangement is exemplary in its regularity and frequency, elements
that are so important in successful tutoring projects (Bader,
1998b; Morrow & Walker, 1997a; Sahlin, 1997; Wasik, 1997).
Monitoring of Student Progress
As explained above, the school's annual testing program is one
formal way that student progress is monitored. Since the tutors
are working closely with classroom teachers, the teacher helps
each tutor keep track of the child's current level. Sometimes,
the help is reciprocal as in Nadene's case above.
Informally, the tutors keep a daily log, a personal journal, of
the work they do with the students. Angie, explained:
I keep a file on what I do and how far he's improved. . . . I
use my own little folder and loose paper in there, I mark it down,
what we're going to work on, what we did for that half hour and
what I did while I was in there. It's not just about him, it's
about me too. . . . I don't think I'd show the teacher. I think
I'd show Mrs. Mendez cause she, I'm sure she'd see the improvement.
(Data File, pp. 209-210)
I found no evidence, either through observation or interviews, that the tutors use a leveled test or any other criterion-based tool to monitor improvement. Nydia, the teachers, and the tutors are satisfied that the existing testing program, coupled with their informal assessments, is an adequate indicators of student progress.
Lesson ContentReading and Writing
The school's instructional goal of literacy improvement for
all facilitates the work that the tutors do. The training they
received in the SMILIES program was oriented around techniques
that are focused on authentic reading and writing while working
in ways that honor each child's individual strengths. "We
all learn in different ways. Our task as tutors is to find the
pathway that will unlock a child's understanding into the many
nuances of what it means to be literate" (Freed, et al.,
1997, p. 1). These tutors are convinced of these premises, and
they strive, in their lessons, to go beyond drill and repetition.
Nadene said:
The way I see it, there are no two children that are the same,
whether they be your own children or children in the school. Now
the pathways, you can find a different category to sit that child
under to help them. So there is basically something for every
child in it. There's not just one set, you know, child. You can
help any child through the seven pathways. (Data File, p. 204)
I watched as tutors read simple, leveled books with their children.
I saw the books that the students and their tutors had made togetherbooks
illustrated with hand-drawn pictures and photographs cut from
magazines. The volunteers told me about how they were using magnetic
letters, word games, music, and movement to help the students
learn. They also helped the children with spelling and vocabulary
words. Nydia explained that "there are days when what the
teacher wants for that child, which is valid, is Here are
the words that are important for him to learn' and I am saying
OK, that is fine'" (Data File, p. 182). Even with this
simple task the tutors are striving to use different approaches,
different pathways. When Angie was given a spelling list to work
on with her child, she used her magnetic board and letters. "We
put the word down for the child, have him spell it, mix the word
up, and see if he can put it back how it should be spelled"
(Data File, p. 200).
The tutors and the teaching staff are working as partners in the
common goal of literacy for all. Nydia would like to train more
parents, and she would like to provide more training for the parents
who are tutoring now.
Nydia's tutoring program at the Paul A. Dever Elementary School
has been operating for only a few months. Already it appears to
have become an integral part of the new schedule and focus that
has been implemented at the Dever just this year. I have analyzed
this tutoring program using the framework of critical components
that I proposed in chapter two. I have shown that many of the
characteristics of effective programs are evident in this program,
yet no one believes that it is operating at peak efficiency. Nydia,
the tutors, and the entire teaching staff are committed to "a
coordinated whole school effort to have all Dever students show
growth in their ability to read" (Data File, p. 236).
Other Observations
In the previous chapter I explained the process I used to identify
other themes that emerged as I read and reread the transcription
of my interviews with Arnold and his tutors. I did the same as
I worked through the transcriptions of my conversations with Nydia
and her volunteer tutors. One alternative theme did emerge that
I describe below, one that has to do with the personal benefits
derived from volunteering to work with children in a literacy
project.
Personal Benefits Derived From Tutoring
In chapter two, I discussed the research that has been done
on the motivations that people have for offering themselves as
volunteers. Most studies have indicated that students and older
people alike volunteer for reasons that are, at first, egoistic.
That is, they volunteer because there is personal benefit in it
for them (Serow, 1991; Serow et al., 1990). This is not to say
that there is an absence among volunteers of the desire to help
others; certainly altruistic motives factor into the phenomenon
(Fitch, 1987; Winniford et al., 1995). It appears obvious that
an individual must be convinced that volunteering, no matter how
worthy the cause, will be beneficial to him or her before committing
to the task or in order to continue once he or she has started.
This group of volunteers, when I asked about their reasons for
volunteering, began by talking about how much they genuinely wanted
to help the children. Dr. Freed, after her visit to Nydia's school,
mentioned their noticeable commitment to me in an E-mail communication:
When they talked to me they were clear that what they thought
they did well, that teachers didn't have time to do, was really
show the children that they loved them, with hugs and smiles and
lots of warmth. It's not that teachers can't/don't/won't do these
thingsit's just that when you have 30 kids you get spread
pretty thin! (Data File, p. 312)
But as we continued to talk, they also indicated that their
training with Nydia and their subsequent engagement as tutors
were extremely encouraging to them personally. Angie's words verify
this:
I have a lot of satisfaction about this. I'm beaming about it.
I mean, I see him (the child she tutors) in the morning. He's
excited. I get excited. If my work wasn't a payback, if I didn't
see improvement, I wouldn't know how to work. (Data File, p. 209)
Pam commented that tutoring is "just making me learn more.
. . . It's just natural when I'm reading it to my son or to the
kids I tutor, it just helps me to learn a lot more" (Data
File, p. 197). Francine said that she tutors to show the children
of the school that "you don't have to leave the community
to make your life a success" (Data File, p. 197), revealing
her belief that a person who tutors is as successful as anyone
else.
The SMILIES focus on learning pathwaysthe idea that people
can be smart in ways other than traditional academics alonewas
especially affirming to these parents. Pam and Nadene both commented
on the "connectedness" they felt during the training
process. When Nydia and I were discussing the motives of the volunteers,
Nydia agreed that egoistic motives were definitely present. Nydia's
assessment of why this might be true had to do with the feelings
of self-worth they derived from the discussions around the seven
pathways and personal gifts.
We were able to latch on to things that, for them, became points
of comfort, because they had experiences themselves as learners.
. . . A lot of it had to do with the fact that nobody recognized
they were smart in other ways. (Data File, p. 178)
Nydia adds to these positive feelings of self worth by making
the volunteer tutors feel like professionals. They are a vital
part of the school's academic mission and schedule. Nydia depends
on these people in many ways that even go beyond tutoring.
One of the two other themes that emerged in the previous chapter
also had to do with emotional needs and support. Perhaps an emotional
component should be added to the framework that I proposed after
completing the review of the existing literature. If people do
volunteer partially because of some felt needs they may have,
those who operate tutoring projects would be wise to recognize
these needs and contribute toward meeting them. I expand more
upon this idea in chapter eight where I offer concluding observations
and recommendations.