AY Honors/Literacy/Answer Key

1. Be at least in the 8th grade.

One must have a certain level of academic achievement and maturity before becoming a tutor, so this honor is reserved for those in 8th grade or above.

2. Describe the social conditions that make it more difficult for underprivileged children to achieve basic reading and math skills during elementary school.

Underprivileged children have several disadvantages that can affect their school work.

Poor nutrition

This affects overall health, cognitive abilities, school absenteeism, and may cause a child to become emotionally needy which leads to disruptive behavior.

Overcrowded Schools

Urban areas suffer from overcrowding in public schools. Teachers are forced to spend a great deal of their time administering discipline or working to keep the students safe from other students rather than in educating. These schools are usually underfunded as well, since most school funding comes from local sources, and these schools are located in places where funding is extremely difficult to come by. Thus, these schools are often poorly equipped.

Absent Parents

Many underpriveleged children do not have the opportunity to spend much time with their parents, as their parents must spend a lot of time out of the home to earn enough money just to meet the basics. Children are thus often left to fend for themselves and do not benefit from parental guidance. These parents are often uneducated themselves, so even if they were able to stay home, they may not be equipped to help their children with their school work. The types of jobs available to the uneducated often require the parents to work odd hours, so when the children come home from school, the parents are at work. When the parents and children are home together, the parent is often exhausted to the point of collapse, or preoccupied with other problems (how to pay bills, deal with drug problems, etc). Parents under such stress often become abusive. Two-parent families are rare in urban neighborhoods, so the child may have never lived with his or her father, and may have never even met him.

English as a Second Language

Many underprivileged children come from homes where English is not spoken, so they have to learn the language outside the home. They may be accustomed to hearing English spoken with grammatical correctness. In many underpriviliged homes, newspapers and books are rarely seen.

Living Conditions

Urban areas are very dense, with a lot of people crammed into a very small area. Large (or multiple) families are forced to live in two- or one-bedroom apartments, so there is not much room for privacy, or a quiet place to study. Noise from adjacent apartments easily transmits through the walls, so when there are no fights going on in the child's own home, there may be fights going on in an adjacent apartment. Conflict can be heard at all hours of the day and night.

Poor Self-Image

Children raised in the environment described here may have a very poor self-image. They are accustomed to failure and may have accepted it as their unavoidable destiny. They may not care if they fail and may take no pride in their work.

3. Explain the major types of community-based tutoring programs:

a. In-school, cross-age tutoring

In school programs are managed in a variety of ways. One common way is cross-age tutoring. In this case students, normally of a higher grade level, tutor other students in the areas where they need assistance. There are many advantages of this type of one on one peer tutoring: often the tutor has recently completed the same classes having a perspective on the unique issue a particular class presents, comradary can be formed quickly which often promotes the tutored to relax and lower their guard creating a better learning environment. Cross-age tutoring offers the tutor the opportunity to develop social skills and management skills not often developed in the school years of youth, giving the tutor an added benefit as well.

c. Community homework center

Community homework centers are not common to most areas. These centers often opperate in inner-city metropolitian areas as a haven for students who would otherwise be distracted by the environment around them. Centers such as these are normally not for profit corporations that are open to all youth seeking a place of refuge to study and socialize in, their continuance is dependant upon the generosity of the community and the dedication on what is often one or two full-time staff members. Peer tutoring and assistance from staff are available at these locations, and the staff often fill a parental like role for studnets who are often neglected. In addition to a safe a proper place for study such centers usually offer some recreation and community service opportunities to the youth who use them. These non-study activities help to develop social skills and skills in cooperation, self control, and problem solving as well as provide a special sense of accomplishment to youth who otherwise have no purpose in there lives.

4. Explain the difference between one-on-one tutoring and small-group classes, and list the pros and cons of each approach.

In a one-on-one tutoring session the tutor helps only one student at a time. In a small-group tutoring session, the tutor helps two or more (but not very many more) students at a time.

In a one-on-one tutoring session, the tutors attention is undivided, the student gets more tutoring time, instruction is tailored to the student, and it moves at the pace set by the student. In a group setting, the amount of time the tutor can spend per student is more limited, the tutor must balance the needs of all students, and some students may slip into a non-participatory role. However, students can benefit from the questions asked by other students - questions the student was afraid to ask, or questions that the student didn't think of. A wider variety of information is shared in a group setting.

References

• American River College - Online Tutor Training Project