ACE News
A Year's Worth of Growth: A Tutor's Perspective
July 2, 2012
As the 2011-2012 school year comes rapidly to a close, one cannot help but reflect on all the growth the students have undergone over the course of the past school year. Once a week, every student was administered a test that measured their progress after five days of tutoring. Though the rate of progress from week to week was satisfactory, it failed to provide astounding results at first.
However, as the weeks passed and more data points were collected, the real impact of the program came into view. As each new point was charted on a graph, it became easier to see exactly how much of a difference was being made. It was as if someone were slowly unveiling works of art. As more data plots came into view, we could really start discerning the differences among the students and appreciate them as individuals. The quantifiable data collected throughout the year certainly illustrates a measure of academic growth in the tutored children, but it has no means to account for the social and emotional growth each student has undergone due to the program.
The students' characters and personalities remained fundamentally unchanged. Smiling faces ready to greet anyone walking through the door were just as resplendent at the end of the year as in the first few weeks of class. The grumbling responses of the shy individuals were still barely audible among the shuffling feet as they walked down the hall, and the endless chatter of those that deemed whoever was near worthy of knowing the entire contents of their lives, still gave detailed accounts of their previous day as soon as they were picked up from the classroom; however, over the course of several sessions, a change began to occur.
At first, no matter how different each child was, when it came to reading, everyone was the same—introverted, apprehensive, and overwhelmed. For the most part, the first few lessons dealt more with changing the students' perspectives on reading than on doing any actual reading. All of the students expressed that they "hated" reading, which was amusing, because they had done little to no reading at all. When confronted with the question as to why they hated it, most became perplexed. After some talking and practice, they came to realize that what they truly hated was how their difficulty in reading made them feel. After that, and after realizing that the problem was fixable through steady practice, their relationship with reading improved.
Some came to love reading, which was equally amusing. But most maintained a professional relationship with it. And they did truly become professionals. From the moment they sat in their chair and turned to the first page of their book until it was time to leave, they were all business. They were no longer greeters, stragglers, socialites. The smiles were replaced with focus. The awkward shuffling was replaced with confident turns of a completed page. The retelling of real life was replaced with the retelling of a story. They were professionals. They were professional readers. And, on the way back to class, the shuffling seemed more confident. There was more to smile about. And among all the many things to talk about, was the new topic of reading.
By Eric Caraveo, ACE full-time tutor