Local Video
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| High schoolers organize tutoring sessions |
By: DAVID HENKE, Staff Writer
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Posted: Friday, March 6, 2009 8:33 pm
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NORTHFIELD — It’s one of the last things you’d expect to see at 7 p.m. on a weeknight in the media center at Greenvale Park Elementary School: more than a dozen students, diligently working together on homework.
But thanks to Giovanni Casillas and Mauricio Lozada, two seniors at the Northfield High School, that was indeed the case last Monday. The pair of Northfield High School seniors have organized an successful series of student- and volunteer-led tutoring sessions, held several times a week at the school.
Targeted towards sixth- through eighth-grade Latino students, the homework help sessions have had an effect on student achievement. Many of the session’s regular attendees who were once receiving failing grades on assignments are now making the B Honor Roll or better at the Northfield Middle School, Casillas and Lozada said.
The improvements are the result of a relatively simple formula. At the sessions, the students work with Casillas, Lozada, a handful of high school and college students and teachers, many of whom are Latino themselves or know how to speak Spanish. The tutors, who all volunteer to work at the two-hour sessions volunteer, help the students overcome the language barrier and work on academic subjects, like math and social studies.
“We’ve got some kids where language is a big barrier, and that’s where we step up,” Lozada said. “In the long run the kids are getting better grades, but we’re kind of giving them the idea that it’s cool to do your homework.”
Many of the middle school students who attend the help sessions also don’t have the resources at home to complete their homework, Lozada and Casillas said, whether it be school supplies like pencils and notebooks or Internet access. At the sessions, students are able to use the computer lab to complete online work, and are given access to basic school utensils. Students are also picked up in a school van and transported to the sessions, a mode of transportation paid for by a grant from State Farm Insurance.
But the key benefit of the sessions, Casillas and Lozada said, is the fact that the students are getting support from older students and adults — assistance that they might not be able get at home.
“It’s a huge help for them because a lot of these kids’ parents, their English skills aren’t that great,” Lozada said. “Here, they have us.”
“I think it’s encouraging to have more Latino mentors there,” said Youth Development Coordinator Jennifer Winterfeldt, an employee of the Northfield School District Community Services division who oversees the tutoring sessions. “It does help with some of the students to have someone who speaks your language and someone you can relate to more.”
In addition to Community Services, the tutoring program also receives support from the Northfield Healthy Community initiative, TORCH, the Connected Kids mentoring program, PRIMEtime and the Union of Youth.
“[The tutors] are role models to these kids,” Casillas said. “The kids not only get their assignments done, but they’re in a safe learning environment here.”
— David Henke can be reached at dhenke@northfieldnews.com or 645-1100.
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