STARS Literacy provides individualized attention to children who need assistance with advancing their literacy skills. Volunteers work one-on-one with students using a variety of curriculum and activities. Each child will have a unique lesson plan for each day, but tutors will typically begin a session with a song which teaches a reading skill, then they may do a worksheet or puzzle with the child to reinforce that skill. In order to introduce students to the joy of reading, tutors will read aloud to their student and will generally finish up a session with a game which reinforces skills which the student has learned that day or in previous sessions. Tutors give feedback to STARS staff after each session and this information is used to tailor the next lesson plan for the child.
Before beginning sessions with a volunteer, each student will have a brief assessment to determine his or her reading ability. Another assessment will be administered at the end of the school year to see how the student’s skills have progressed over the year. STARS literacy will communicate with parents and teachers as necessary to adapt activities to help the child the best that we can.
The STARS staff works hard to make tutoring as easy as possible for the tutors, so even volunteers with no educational experience can work with a child successfully.
STARS is not suited to help children with severe learning disabilities and is best suited for those children who simply need more time and attention than can be provided in a traditional school setting.