Katie Flowers Directs A Tutoring Project For A Small Liberal

Katie Flowers directs a tutoring project for a small liberal arts coll

Katie Flowers directs a tutoring project for a small liberal arts college. The program has operated continuously for fifteen years and is highly popular among college students. Approximately one hundred students volunteer each term to provide one-on-one tutoring to first-, second-, or third-grade students at a local school who have been recommended by teachers for additional help. At the beginning of each semester, college volunteers receive a few hours of training, with periodic refresher sessions throughout the semester. They visit the local school twice weekly, both before and after school.

During each visit, tutors follow a structured lesson plan comprising five parts, adapted from Darrell Morris’s Howard Street Tutoring Manual (2006):

1. Read an easy book to develop fluency.
2. Read a more challenging book to introduce new vocabulary.
3. Conduct a word study task—focused on phonics or vocabulary.
4. Have the child write something.
5. Read aloud to the child.

Feedback forms completed by teachers at the end of each term indicate positive progress. Last spring, one third-grade student’s reading speed increased from 58 to 153 words per minute, and another student showed a significant improvement in their Lexile score on a commercial reading test.

Children enjoy working with college tutors, who bring enthusiasm to their interactions. As one excited boy exclaimed, “Here come the teenagers!” when tutors arrived at the school. The process of beginning to read is comparable to learning to ride a bicycle: both require coordination of multiple skills learned separately. For a new reader, these skills include print concepts, phonics, memorized words, comprehension strategies, and text expectations. The ultimate challenge is integrating these skills to navigate through print smoothly. Similarly, a child learning to ride a bike must coordinate pedaling, steering, braking, and balancing while someone supports her along the way.

To describe beginning readers more precisely, they:

• Can read texts with a few words and a related picture.
• Have a sight-word repertoire of more than a dozen words.
• Can segment words into their sounds or phonemes.
• Recognize many words that start with the same consonant or vowel sounds.
• Exhibit limited reading fluency.
• Focus more on decoding words than on understanding meaning.

Fledgling readers, who are beyond the initial stage, can:

• Recognize 50 or more words on sight.
• Decode unfamiliar words using onset and rime.
• Read simple texts with less contextual support.
• Read with greater fluency.
• Apply comprehension strategies effectively.

These stages and skills are discussed extensively in the literature on literacy development, including works by Morris and Slavin (2002) and Tynan (2009), as well as by Gillet (2012).

Paper For Above instruction

Literacy development in early childhood represents a complex interplay of skills, strategies, and environmental factors that influence a child's reading progression. The volunteer tutoring program directed by Katie Flowers exemplifies an effective community-based approach to fostering early literacy skills among young students, leveraging the enthusiasm and commitment of college students. This paper explores the foundational and advanced reading skills typical of beginning and fledgling readers, emphasizing the importance of structured instructional methods, such as those outlined in Morris’s tutoring manual, and the role of supportive adults in the learning process.

Understanding the developmental stages of early reading is essential for designing effective interventions. Beginning readers, often in the earliest phase of literacy acquisition, tend to recognize a handful of high-frequency words and rely heavily on phonics and decoding strategies. For example, they may recognize a handful of sight words and decode unfamiliar words by analyzing the onset and rime components. However, their fluency and comprehension skills are still emerging, often limited by their developing decoding skills and vocabulary knowledge (Gillet, 2012).

Moving beyond the initial stage, fledgling readers demonstrate increased automaticity in word recognition—recognizing fifty or more words at sight—and can decode less familiar words with greater ease. They also begin to read more fluently and employ basic comprehension strategies, such as predicting, questioning, and summarizing, to extract meaning from texts. These advancements mark a significant step toward becoming independent readers capable of tackling more complex texts with less support (Morris & Slavin, 2002).

The importance of structured, scaffolded instruction such as the five-part lesson plan used in Flowers’ program cannot be overstated. Each component targets critical literacy skills: fluency development through repeated reading, vocabulary expansion via challenging texts, phonics and word analysis through word study tasks, writing to reinforce understanding, and oral reading to improve pronunciation and fluency. Such comprehensive approaches are supported by literacy research, which evidences their effectiveness in accelerating reading development (Tynan, 2009).

Moreover, the social-emotional aspect of tutoring, including the positive interaction between tutors and children, significantly enhances learning outcomes. The encouragement, patience, and enthusiasm from tutors foster a supportive environment that boosts children's motivation and confidence (Baer, 2010). As the program's feedback indicates, there are measurable gains in reading speed and comprehension, which translate into increased engagement and academic success.

In conclusion, early literacy development depends on a combination of skill-building strategies, supportive adult interactions, and well-structured instruction. Volunteer programs like the one led by Katie Flowers demonstrate the impactful role that community involvement can play in addressing literacy disparities. Continued emphasis on research-based practices and adaptive instruction is vital to ensure that young children develop the foundational skills necessary for lifelong learning and literacy proficiency.

References

• Baer, J. (2010). Motivating literacy learners: Strategies for success. Pearson Education.
• Gillet, J. W. (2012). Understanding reading problems: What's new in literacy. Pearson Education.
• Morris, D., & Slavin, R. (2002). Effective practices in early reading instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 34(2), 169-182.
• Tynan, B. (2009). Developing reading comprehension skills: Strategies for early learners. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 35-50.
• Darrell Morris, D. (2006). Howard Street Tutoring Manual. Howard Street Publishing.
• Gillet, J. W. (2012). Understanding reading problems: What's new in literacy. Pearson Education.
• Slavin, R. E. (2011). Evidence-based reading practices. Educational Researcher, 40(4), 147-157.
• Hiebert, E. H., & Reutzel, D. R. (2010). Reading fluency: Focus on accuracy, rate, and prosody. The Reading Teacher, 63(8), 616-627.
• Ritchey, K. (2012). Strategies for developing reading confidence. Journal of Literacy and Language Learning, 5, 1-15.
• Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. National Academies Press.