Last year, 28 volunteers visited Clara Byrd Baker Elementary to tutor students in reading. This year, Williamsburg-James City County Schools is looking to more than double that number as it expands the program to two more elementary schools.
The 2011-12 school year was the first time WJCC partnered with Literacy for Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to adult education, to develop a formal process for training volunteers to tutor students. It was a first step toward a goal now articulated in the Strategic Plan adopted by the School Board earlier this year – develop a process for training and working with volunteers in the schools. Previously, volunteering has happened on an ad hoc basis.
Now, volunteers hoping to tutor can sign up to help Kindergarten through third grade students at Clara Byrd Baker Elementary, James River Elementary and J. Blaine Blayton Elementary. Volunteers must attend one five-hour training session, offered from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 and 19, at Literacy for Life’s offices at The College of William & Mary’s School of Education.
Tutors will be paired with up to three students to work for 30-minute sessions; volunteers are expected to tutor at least an hour a week. Tutors can start no later than Oct. 1 for the current school year; WJCC would like to have at least 50 volunteers signed up in time for the first training date. A background check will be completed for all tutors.
“The reason it was initially attractive was that volunteers were receiving training on how to work with kids,” said Clara Byrd Baker Principal Bruce Brelsford at a planning meeting of administrators Friday. “They were matched with children to ensure the volunteer was reinforcing the lesson the teacher had done.”
With one year of the program finished, WJCC Coordinator for Reading/Language Arts Kimberly Nunnally and Literacy for Life Program Manager Mary Lynch have tweaked the program to ensure the tutors and students both have positive, affirming experiences without headaches or confusion.
Tutors will be kept up-to-date on school schedules and classroom field trips, and if they wish, their phone numbers can receive WJCC’s robocalls alerting them to changes in the schedule. Nunnally also encouraged the school administrators to schedule orientations for tutors, who will all receive the same informational packet that includes word games to play with students. Tutors also will be invited to evening events and school events sponsored by the Parent-Teacher Association.
“That’s beneficial to children,” Brelsford said. “If a child sees a tutor outside of sessions, it sort of completes that circle.”
If tutors want to work with more students, they could work with more than one teacher, but Nunnally said it is important to keep sessions to a half-hour so students don’t miss too much class time. If tutors want to continue working with their students after they’ve left third grade, Nunnally said that will be encouraged.
Although teachers won’t have time to talk with tutors about their observations, tutors are encouraged to record their progress, including concerns, for teachers and reading specialists to review. Clara Byrd Baker Reading Specialist Nancy Wright said the reflection sheets were helpful last year, and provided insight into what was and wasn’t working with the program.
“Our tutors really enjoyed it and if you could see their faces, they were just luminous,” Wright said. “Our teachers also felt very helped.”
To assist with recruitment and to share community perspective, Superintendent Steven Constantino asked Citizens for Education members Bill Bryant and Steve Vignolo to work with Nunnally. At the WJCC School Board’s Aug. 21 meeting, Vignolo said the tutoring program can bring the community and school division together.
“This program shows that ‘community involvement’ is not just a buzzword in the Strategic Plan, but is a real-world example of how different community organizations can come together to work with the school division and truly add value to what the schools are already doing,” he said. “It is especially significant that these volunteer resources come at a critical time for WJCC, where budgetary constraints have severely limited its ability to fund new initiatives.”
While the program is focused on reading right now, organizers envision eventually having tutors in all of the content areas, hopefully in all of the schools. “This will serve as the framework or model for all other content areas to follow,” Nunnally said.
To sign up for training, contact Literacy for Life at 221-3325 or e-mail [email protected].
