BRANDYWINE — It’s difficult to have a student mentoring program for young readers during a pandemic. But, officials with Brandywine Elementary School involved with the Helping One Student Succeed (HOSTS) reading program found a way to keep in touch with students via a couple of different routes.
Last year when schools shut down, HOSTS organizers developed a pen-pal element to the program and just last week they started working virtually with students at New Palestine High School through their Peer Tutoring Program.
HOSTS, the national educational mentoring reading program, calls on community members to tutor students who need help; the tutors spend one-on-one time with the students developing reading and vocabulary skills. The program has been in the school district since 2017, but last year was the first at BWE.
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“It was a huge success,” BWE teacher Trisha Ennis said.
The program served 20 students — 10 third-graders and 10 second-graders — through 42 volunteer mentors who came Monday through Thursday to read with students for 30 minutes per grade level.
“Students who were in the program grew in fluency and comprehension, and they developed confidence in their reading ability,” Ennis said.
Since guests are no longer allowed to enter the school due to the pandemic, educators didn’t want to lose the progress made with students. Last year HOSTS coordinators at all three elementary schools got creative when classes switched to e-learning and connected via virtual meetings, crafts and activities delivered to students.
This year Ennis added the pen-pal element to the program to give students the chance to practice writing and reading with their former HOSTS mentors. Plus, BWE partnered with the NPHS Peer Tutoring program to have high school students read virtually with the HOSTS elementary school kids.
“We are still working, but as a small group with six students per grade level, due to social distancing regulations the corporation follows,” Ennis said.
While it’s not the same as reading in person, the Peer program allows the elementary students to keep learning and build relationships with the high school students virtually.
Tina Boehm, the Family and Consumer Science teacher at NPHS is in charge of the Peer Tutoring program had reached out to Ennis about trying to make the elementary and high school connection.
“From my side with the high school students, I was so impressed with their ability to engage with the elementary students,” Boehm said. “They were asking really good questions about the text, laughing and having a fun time.”
Plus, many of the NPHS students participating have taken Advanced Child Development 2 and have been taught how to read with students and extend comprehension through questioning.
If Boehm has enough student tutors sign up, the goal is to be able to open this section of the program to HOSTS programs at Sugar Creek and New Palestine Elementary schools, Ennis said.
Boehm is excited to be working with Ennis and the HOST program at BWE because it’s beneficial for all the students.
“Being face-to-face with community members is incredibly beneficial to the HOST program and I am thankful we are able to use technology to meet face-to-face, the best we can during the pandemic,” Boehm said. “It is a win-win for everyone.”
In HOSTS educators use reading levels to track student growth and note how amazing it is to see students move to higher levels of reading. Coordinators credit extra hours of one-to-one reading time for the growth.
It’s why they’ve also tried to keep relationships between students and mentors from last year active.
Pam Darger was a mentor last year at BWE and has kept in contact with one of her students, Micah Gaines, via the pen-pal element of the program. It’s been great, she said, to see Micah grow in his reading skills.
In his last letter Micah told Darger his goal was to read 50 books this year.
“He only has seven more to go,” Darger said. “I told him to keep up the good work.”
She said the letters have helped Micah, a home school student, develop all kinds of skills.
Ennis thought the pen-pal element would help students grow in their writing skills while giving them practice reading plus expose them to things like snail mail.
“When Micah’s mom reached out and shared that they were still writing, it made my heart so full,” Ennis said.
Kendra Gaines, Micah’s mom, said her son loves being pen-pals with Darger and it’s given him confidence as a writer.
“He looks forward to her letters and it helped him to continue to feel connected to school last year when quarantine started,” she said. “We are so thankful for Pam (Darger) and the HOSTS program.”
Relationships and reading is the goal in HOSTS, and even a pandemic can’t stop that. The hope is to bring mentors back to the schools after winter break, but that may be pushed back depending on the number of virus cases and how the county is doing.
All Southern Hancock elementary schools are actively seeking mentors. If interested please reach out to BWE: [email protected]; SCE: Toni Powers: [email protected]; Kendra Olin: [email protected].
