HANCOCK COUNTY — In its 10th year in Hancock County, a tutoring program for third-graders is seeking at least 100 volunteers to read with students.
ReadUP is a program that pairs third-graders who are reading below grade level with a teen or adult volunteer who practices reading with them for half an hour three days a week. This school year, tutoring is scheduled to begin the week of Aug. 27 at J.B. Stephens, Harris and Weston elementary schools.
The program, a partnership between United Way of Central Indiana and Greenfield Central Community School Corp., requires between 100 and 130 volunteers a year, including alternates, to tutor 20 students at each elementary school, said volunteer coordinator Jeannie Roberts.
ReadUP gives teachers a chance to assess students’ reading skills and select students to participate in the program, she said. Roberts is reaching out to retirees, corporations and teenagers willing to read to students once a week from 7:30 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, she said.
In the last decade, volunteers have often worked with a partner, alternating tutoring every other week, Roberts said. This also helps ensure a student will always have someone to read to them, in case one person can’t make it that week, she added.
Each tutor reads with two students a week, helping them to gain confidence in reading skills including sounding out words, looking up words they don’t understand and reading aloud and silently, officials said. By the end of the school year, the students receive 50 hours of reading help, Roberts said.
“They work with the same two children all year,” she said. “They get to develop a very strong bond with these kids. … Lots of positive things come out of this relationship, in addition to the reading progress.”
When ReadUP began in the Indianapolis area a decade ago, United Way targeted the third grade, when students take two standardized tests, the ISTEP and the IREAD-3 assessment, which determines whether they may advance to fourth grade, officials said.
ReadUP has been shown to improve students’ reading ability and their test scores, educators said.
More than 90 percent of students enrolled in ReadUP pass the IREAD-3 test, said Harris Elementary School principal Jan Kehrt in 2017; that’s higher than the rate of third-graders not enrolled in ReadUP, which falls slightly under 90 percent, she said.
Register online to become a tutor at uwci.org/ReadUP-Hancock. Volunteers must attend a brief training session in Greenfield, according to a news release. They must also pass a simple background check process provided by the school system.
For additional information, contact Jeannie Roberts at [email protected] or 317-414-8288.
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ReadUP: tutor third-graders in reading
7:30-8:45 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays at J.B. Stephens, Harris or Weston elementary schools
Register at uwci.org/readUP-Hancock
Volunteers must attend a brief training session in Greenfield and pass a background check.
For more information, contact Jeannie Roberts at [email protected] or 317-414-8288.
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