Star Readers

Tutoring program helps elementary and junior high students succeed

Kathy P. Ockey

A recent trip to Ferron Elementary turned into a real learning experience. Principal Brian Dawes was there to greet and make you feel very welcome. He is very proud of his school and the many programs they have to teach the children.

One of the programs is the new tutoring program they have at the school. He introduced Stephanie Roper, the Title 1 teacher in charge of the program. She explained this tutoring program was originally for “at risk” students and then it evolved to include all students, including San Rafael Junior High Students.

Roper said a couple of years ago they had a tutoring program that wasn’t working as well as it could. Utah State Education developed the Star Reading tutoring program and presented it to Ferron Elementary. The new program changed the tutoring method to one based on a research strategy. These strategies were more structured and enabled the students to become more proficient readers. The strategies included comprehension, word families, sight words and fluency. The program is structured for Kindergarten through first and second grades.

There are from 80-100 junior high students involved in tutoring the grade school children each year. They work in two 10 week sessions. The junior high teachers involved in the tutoring are Kelli Nelson and Jodee Willson, who became secondary reading teachers after being involved with this. The junior high students are trained on how to teach the elementary students. Roper said it takes everyone working together to make the program work.

The new program allows the junior high students to become responsible for the children during the tutoring session and they have been trained to offer support and also how to correct in a positive way. They are very patient and give a lot of encouragement to the students. Each tutor is given a binder with their lesson plans and they are responsible for teaching the students the lessons and also for raising them to different reading levels.

In Tiffany Conover’s second grade class during tutoring time everyone was works in an organized, efficient manner. The students know what they were doing, where to go and also seem to enjoy the experience. The teachers said the tutors and the children become very good friends while working together.

Roper said the elementary students reading has raised from two to five levels with the help of the junior high students. The tutors try to target the weak areas in the students’ reading and then help to strengthen them. She said the reading levels for the junior high students involved in the tutoring also rose. The students all work hard and stay focused on their work.

Those involved with state education visited Ferron Elementary again and were impressed with the implementation of the program they had presented. They presented Roper with a certificate of excellence award for her efforts in working with all of the students involved.

Roper is modest about the award and said it takes everyone involved to make the program a success.