TUTORS SHARPEN LEARNING SKILLS

Angela Snider, left, a fourth-grader at May Greene Elementary School, is helped by Alisha Tanner, a junior at Central High School, with the headings at the top of her paper.

Matt Cowan worked on a puzzle map of Russia during the after school tutoring program.

The benefits of a tutor for a student aren't just limited to the student in trouble. Tutoring provides remediation and enrichment for anyone that takes advantage of the numerous tutoring opportunities in the area.

There are a number of different tutors and tutoring programs available for students.

Tutors are available in the schools and at the university.

If in-house tutoring isn't helping, then students have a third option of professional tutoring services.

At May Greene School, the B.E.S.T. program (Becoming Excellent Students Together) has been in place for three years to help students K-6.

Becky Hicks said the program rotates from month to month helping students in the 4 through 6 grades and then K-3.

Right now there are 30 students using the program that uses high school (sophomores through seniors) students as tutors.

The high school students filled out applications and were recommended by two teachers and one principal. They are paid through a grant from the Futures Program, a state program that funds tutoring programs.

Alisha Petty, a junior at Cape Central High School, got involved with the program because she wants to be a teacher and likes working with children.

There are 20 tutors helping the 30 students at May Greene. The program will help more than 100 students during the course of the year, Hicks said.

The program was called the Literacy Intervention Program, but this year it has been revamped and improved.

Hicks said the tutoring program focuses on reading and math but will help students in other areas as needed.

The reason why the focus has turned to reading and math is because reading and math skills, if improved, will help students in other courses.

"We found that we needed to get back to the basics," Hicks said.

Students are recommended for the program by their teachers, but one teacher told Hicks all of her students want to be part of the program.

"Sooner or later they will all get a chance to be tutored," Hicks said.

The program has two phases that help the students sharpen their learning skills.

Students spend an hour after school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. For half of that hour, students play math and reading games to make the experience of learning more enjoyable.

The other half-hour the students spend working with their tutor working on a list of needs the student has.

The list of needs is drawn up by the student's teacher, and the students bring in their homework and work with their tutors to learn how to better comprehend their schoolwork.

"It doesn't have to be a student that is struggling," Hicks said.

The program remediates children, keeps others on track and enriches the children that are ahead of their schoolwork.

Jay Musgrave is a professional counselor who heads the Musgrave Professional Counseling Consultants.

Prescriptive tutoring is what he calls his approach to tutoring.

He has been involved with tutoring since 1985.

He got involved to help children and families understand the nature of learning.

"You don't outgrow learning disabilities. You have to understand them and adjust to them," Musgrave said.

First, Musgrave performs extensive evaluations and assessments and then prescribes a program to help the child with the learning disability.

"A thorough assessment by a certified examiner is one of the most important aspects of the tutoring process," Musgrave said.

The learning problem is a symptom, and Musgrave tries to find the problem causing the symptom, whether its biological, social, emotional or a processing problem.

After the problem is found, remediation can begin. Musgrave tries to learn how the child learns and then teach to the child's strengths.

Right now Musgrave's counseling service handles 15 one-on-one sessions that try to involve the parents. They work on remediation, enrichment and help with college entrance exams.

Musgrave said it is not his goal to do the homework for the children.

"But to give them the skills to do it themselves," He said.

Also, Musgrave said that it is important to help the parents deal with the learning problem.

Jack Stanley is the executive director of the Sylvan Learning Center in Cape Girardeau.

His group works with people from kindergarten age to adults.

"We are diagnostic and prescriptive in approach," Stanley said.

The length of time someone uses the services provided at Sylvan depends on what that particular person needs.

"We guarantee the outcome with reading, math and ACT and SAT preparation," Stanley said.

There are 11 certified teachers on staff to help with tutoring.

Sylvan tutors reading, writing, math, algebra, study skills, geometry and ACT and SAT preparation, Stanley said.

Stanley said the average time a person uses the tutoring service is from six months to more than a year.

People come in for different reasons. Some are behind in class, others want to learn to study better and some people just want to be challenged, Stanley said.

Whatever the learning problem, there are tutors in numerous places throughout the area that can help the student perform better in school.