It’s fast approaching the conclusion of the tutoring year. This past Tuesday, the tutoring organization directed tutors to conduct the first half of the “post-assessment.” The assessment consists of two sections, reading comprehension and math. On Tuesday, I administered the reading portion of the test to Zoey, who in the next month or so is going to complete sixth grade.
This post-assessment was a retest of the identical test I had administered to begin the school year. It is thought that comparing the results of this latest test against the results of the first test will fairly measure a student’s progress. However, I’m not completely sold on this methodology’s reliability. See, e.g., “The Use and Validity of Standardized Achievement Tests for Evaluating New Curricular Interventions in Mathematics and Science,” Sussman and Wilson, American Journal of Evaluation 2019, Vol. 402, 190-213. For example, this past Tuesday Zoey correctly answered nineteen out of twenty questions, her identical score on the previous test. This result could imply she has not improved, but to jump to this conclusion would be misleading and inaccurate.
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Zoey is a bright and eager student. It’s clear to me that she wants to excel at school. It’s evident, too, that her family encourages her to excel. Indeed, as might be expected, many other students in the tutoring program appear to be underachievers.
Based on my limited experience as a volunteer tutor, in most cases, I correlate low student achievement with the lack of adequate family support at home. Sadly, it is unfair when the acts and omissions of parents consign their children to a future of failure.
It was particularly gratifying to me when, at the conclusion of last year’s program, Zoey’s parents specifically requested that I be reassigned to her case this year. Consequently, I am comfortable using my limited time with Zoey to challenge her. To do so, however, sometimes means straying from the weekly agenda the program administrators provide to the tutor volunteers.
For example, while the program gives us access to age and grade-appropriate books, Zoey was having difficulty selecting a title. We tried a couple of books, but each time their premises or the characters were boring, making it hard to expect Zoey to read at home on her own. When I asked her about the types of book she might enjoy, I was surprised to hear her mention science fiction.
I ended up recommending an old example –Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea—not because I ever read it myself, but because I had remembered seeing the Disney movie of the same title, starring James Mason as Captain Nemo and Kirk Douglas as the brave whaler Ned Land, featuring the character actor, Peter Lorre, when I was still a little kid. (Paul Lukas, an Academy Award-winning best actor, though never a household name, played the pivotal role of Professor Aronnax.)
It turns out Verne’s book is a serious and challenging work, certainly in comparison to the Disney film. The book is geared to older students –eighth or ninth graders at the very least. It includes many technical terms and descriptions, which give the story its scientific gloss, but is by no means the high adventure Disney produced. My bad, I guess.
To spruce things up, in our weekly discussion, I update elements of the assigned readings by explaining how Vern’s imagination presages many things we now take for granted. At least, our readings help to expand Zoey’s vocabulary, and, hopefully, her general knowledge of geography, elements of grammar, and the sciences. Finally, I occasionally will give her “homework,” consisting of questions designed to measure her comprehension of the reading material. For example, recently I asked Zoey to define the word “sward,” as used in the story, and also to identify a homonym for this word. I was pleased with Zoey’s response, which had required her to know the meaning of a “homonym,” and told her so.
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It’s amazing how much tutoring a young person helps an old dog like me to learn new things.
