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April 5, 2009

Helping hands

Teachers, community working together to help students

From Staff Reports



With the second round of state assessments scheduled in less than a week, Corsicana ISD staff and volunteers throughout the community are helping students be prepared.

Groups such as the Navarro County Boys and Girls Club and the Lifeline Fellowship Family Church are teaming with the district to provide extra tutoring in preparation for the TAKS test.

Teachers, however, have taken the majority of the tutoring roles for students, often at the expense of their conference and/or planning periods, as is the case with the science teachers at Collins Middle School.

Other teachers have driven to the Discipline Alternative Education Program to work with students who were placed at the Lee Campus for disciplinary reasons. The teachers help tutor those students to prep them for the TAKS, which they will still take despite being off their home campus.

“Many teachers are tutoring before and after school as well as their conference period, students are putting forth a strong effort to master concepts, and parents are encouraging their children to do their best while tutoring at home as well,” said Superintendent Don Denbow. “Hopefully, this unified effort will result in improved student performance.”

Corsicana ISD currently has more than 1,145 students being tutored in grades 3-11. This is accomplished by pulling students out of elective classes for tutoring, through before- and after-school “power hours,” and Saturday School. The goal of all the strategies is to have teachers work with small groups or one-on-one with students.

Corsicana High School is currently tutoring about 450 students, Collins Middle School is providing extra help to 200 students and Drane is giving special help to 150 of its student body.

Corsicana ISD’s four elementary campuses are tutoring a combined 405 students.

At Lifeline Church, about 35 students are being tutored after school. The tutors include Collins Middle School math teacher Rosie Kelley, Corsicana HS science teacher Abigail Thomas and retired teachers George Burrell, Sam Humphries and Elmeree Burrell.

“The kids who come in (to Lifeline) are pretty interested,” George Burrell said. “When we get the kids to recognize they are improving, they stay a little more focused. Getting them to stay focused is the biggest challenge, but we’re getting there.”

Students at Lifeline Fellowship are being tutored in grades 6-8 math and science and grades 9-12 math and science.

The Burrells have researched the best tutoring methods and have utilized materials provided by CISD at both Lifeline and the Boys and Girls Club.

“What we’re trying to do is help the kids with the TAKS test and then also help them with their daily homework,” George Burrell said. “One of the biggest challenges we try to get across to the kids is the necessity of listening in class. It’s not about me teaching them math as much as it is their listening to their teacher in school. Every student can learn. They just have to listen and stay focused and then they will excel.”

Burrell also said one of the biggest challenges schools and after-school tutoring sessions incur is with parent involvement.

“Maybe a parent had a bad experience in schools or maybe they are not comfortable with talking to the teacher,” he said. “We’ve got to find more ways to reach out to those parents, perhaps meeting them in their own environment.”

Corsicana ISD has also worked with the Boys and Girls Club in recent weeks, providing materials and also personnel. Director of Secondary Curriculum Susan Holt and Secondary Math Coordinator Carla Stanford work with students on Wednesday afternoons in math and science. About 35 students are participating in after-school tutorials at the Boys and Girls Club, according to Burrell, the president of the organization.

Even fellow students are participating in the tutoring. Fifteen Peer Assisted Learning students from Corsicana High School travel on Wednesdays to Drane and work with about 50 students. Also, the Ready, Set, Teach program at CHS is providing 32 students to work in the same number of classrooms at Navarro, Fannin and Sam Houston elementaries. Those students will work either one-on-one with students or in conjunction with the teacher in a group setting.

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