Thanks to the efforts of two Wallace Elementary parents, fourth- through sixth-graders at the school are receiving the reading help they need.
Students and Tutors Achieving Reading Success (STARS) is a tutoring program aimed at older elementary students who are struggling with reading, says parent Susan DeBruin. DeBruin, with parent Linda Van Der Kar, set the program in motion.
Older students are targeted, says Wallace principal Teresa Gafford, because the Governor’s Initiative on Reading and his challenge to have all students reading on grade level by the third grade “has encouraged school districts to focus their efforts on students in kindergarten through third grade.”
However, she says, “we know that we still have many students in the upper grades who are not reading at grade level, and we cannot overlook their needs.”
“Linda and I recognized that there was a need to give additional help to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders so they don’t fall through the cracks,” DeBruin says.
DeBruin, Van Der Kar, Gafford, librarian Patricia Porter and RISD Reading Recovery director Barbara Baird met throughout the summer of 1997 to formulate a plan.
At the beginning of the school year, the group sent out notices asking for parents, grandparents and other neighbors in the community to volunteer their time once a week.
“Barbara Baird was wonderful,” DeBruin says. “She came out one evening and met with all the volunteer tutors.
She introduced us to a reading program that had been used in Canada and conducted a training session.
It’s called a duet program: first the tutor reads so the student can hear correct inflection and pronunciation. Then students read aloud on their own, and you go back and forth.
“We started with two students from every fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade class. Now we have more than 30 students involved, and 34 volunteer tutors ranging from parents to retired men and women from the neighborhood.”
One of the tutors is Betty Greene, a retired RISD teacher and grandparent of two Wallace students.
“I’ve been tutoring two girls since the program began in October. I have them one day a week, and my daughter, Debbie Charles, tutors them another day. That way we have some consistency,” she says.
“Both girls are shy, but they have blossomed and become more relaxed with us.”
For information about participating in STARS, call the school office at 214-503-2450.
