Frontier College at U of T, St. George Campus
* Tutor Newsletter *
Welcome Back!
We hope you will take advantage of this newsletter to learn more about Frontier College and the many exciting issues and strategies surrounding literacy. You are also encouraged to use this as a forum to share your own tutoring tips, challenges and success stories. To contribute, or for more information, please e-mail utoronto@frontiercollege.ca .
Thank you for taking the time to read the newsletter and, of course, for your ongoing efforts to promote literacy in our community. Your dedicated work is much appreciated by the Organizational Team and by your learners!
Catherine Brunet, Communications Coordinator
Message from the Regional Coordinator
As some of you may already be aware, the United Nations has designated 2003 to 2012 as the Literacy Decade. Its primary aim is to reach the over 860 million adults around the world who do not have the use of literacy and the 113 million children who do not have access to school. In Canada, it is estimated that over 70% of all new jobs will require some level of post-secondary education, while at the same time, over 40% of working-age persons lack the necessary literacy skills to be able to successfully participate in our ever more demanding labour market. For more information on the issue of literacy in Canada, please see
Literacy Statistics.
The federal government has long recognized the crucial role played by literacy organizations such as Frontier College, working on the front lines to improve the literacy skills of all Canadians. This means the work being done by all of you in the community, working in homework clubs, reading programs, one to one tutoring in high schools, and adult literacy programs. Nevertheless, it is essential we continue to urge the government to commit sufficient resources to address this ongoing social and economic issue.
This year, the Frontier College team at U of T will be organizing a Literacy Awareness Day to take place sometime in the spring on the campus. Tying in to the U.N. Literacy Decade, the purpose of this event will be to highlight the issue of literacy in Toronto and the work being done in the community to address it. As the highlight of the event, we are working on arranging for a well-known Canadian author to do a reading at a venue on campus. Please let us know if you would be interested in helping us organize this event. Your support will be most welcome!
In the meantime, I wish you all the best in your tutoring work over the coming weeks.
Ken Martin
Message from the Co-Chairs
Jennifer Knight and Justin Wise
Site Updates
Alexandra Park Community Centre Homework Club
Judy Ng, Sarvi Sharifi, Madeline Wang and Jimmy Wu
Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute
Heydon Park
Native Women’s Resource Centre
Somali Homework Club
Nazanan Tochaie and Justin Wise
Tutoring Tips: Helping With Homework
Whether you’re working with elementary or high school students, many of these tips will be of use as you help out with homework in a wide range of subjects. For lots more tips, be sure to go to our website (http://utfrontiercollege.wordpress.com/) and click on Tutor Resources where you will find links to many Frontier College resources and to many other literacy and educational websites.
- Before you start, encourage your learners to give you a little background on the work. Just talking in general terms about the class and the assignment for a minute can help you ascertain the learner’s comfort level and familiarity with the material. That will help you discuss the material in a way the learner can understand and most benefit from!
- Read homework instructions aloud together. This is another chance to ensure that the learner understands. It’s also a bonus opportunity to practice reading!
- Read all the material together. This gives the student a sense of the general ideas of the text. The learner can read it all, or you can take turns with the learner following along as you read.
- Have student summarize. Building on what the learner knew before coming to the article, have him or her explain the main ideas of the text.
- Allow the student to answer first This lets the student demonstrate that he or she has understood the question and text, and can express the answer. If he or she can’t answer the question, don’t give them the answer! Try rephrasing the question and remind them of some of the ideas in the text.
Tutoring Tips: Making Reading Fun
- Find out the learner’s interests. That way, you can provide reading material that will be interesting and relevant to your learner.
- Try non-book forms of print media. A magazine, newspaper or comic strip can be a refreshing change from books while still providing the learner with a chance to practice reading. An article on last night’s hockey game or a website about the learner’s favourite band or artist is a great way to work on literacy skills while engaging the learner in something that interests them. Song lyrics are also a fun choice. Check out www.lyrics.com.
- Play games. Board games like Scrabble, crossword puzzles or even hangman can help pique learners’ interest in words and letters. Even trivia games can be good, since they give learners a chance to read the questions while showing off their knowledge! To make your own word puzzles, check out www.PuzzleMaker.com.
- Use books as gifts or prizes. Books for children and teenagers can often be found inexpensively at garage sales or college book fairs. Consider picking up a few to give or award for special occasions or achievements. When a book is used as a gift or reward, it reinforces the idea that a book is a valuable thing!
- Be a role model. Show your learner what you’re reading for school or pleasure. Show how excited you are about reading, and how much respect you have for books and learning. Your enthusiasm can be contagious!
Tutoring Tips: Behaviour Management for Reading Circles
Poor Attention Span
- Provide the children with choices.
- Select books of interest to your group.
- Let the children pick books from the selection.
- Let the children choose a book-buddy (other child or volunteer).
- Ask the children if they want to read, if they want you to read, or if they would like to take turns.
- Have an activity (game, craft, read in a circle) for the last part of the program
- Use your volunteers.
- Use a wide variety of materials.
- Choose lots of quality children’s books from your public library.
- Owl Magazine; Sports Illustrated and “Teen” magazines for older children
- Word puzzles (word search, crosswords)
- Rhyming books (nursery rhymes, funny poems, limericks)
- Puppets
- Word games (Junior Scrabble, Junior Boggle)
- Favourite books that the children bring from home to share
- Books that the children make themselves
- Comics, riddles, puzzles, optical illusions, magic, world records, sports, science, strange facts
Children Who Seek Attention
- Draw the child into the story. Be enthusiastic!
- Have the child tell a story to you.
- Encourage an attention-seeking child to read with a quiet child.
- Give the child a special responsibility.
- Talk about the story; personalize the story (eg: what would you do?).
- Make the effort to include parents or caregivers.
- Give recognition, and make a big fuss about their positive behaviour, (even if it is just being quiet for ten minutes! eg: I’ve noticed how you have been reading quietly today, it is so nice to see you doing this. Thank you Millicent!
Bickering, Competitiveness, Quarrelling,
Complaining, Bossiness, Won’t Listen
- Have a meeting. Ask the children to suggest solutions to problems.
- Establish rules with the children that they all understand.
- Identify why the child is misbehaving.
- Find common ground.
- Channel aggressive behaviour in positive way.
- Separate quarrelling children.
- Address the behaviour; don’t put down the child.
- Ask the child to talk about feelings.
- Acknowledge the child’s feelings.
- Use humour.
- Offer another approach.
- Be careful not to gang up on a child.
- Timing – give the child some time out.
- Approach bullies privately; make sure they feel wanted.
- Don’t take testing or anger personally.
- Make sure leaders and volunteers enforce rules equally and behave in a consistent, predictable manner.
- Do not underestimate children .
- Remind the children that this is a special and safe place.
- Make expectations of behaviour clear and consistent have a “bottom line” that every child understands. (You may need to tell a child to leave, or to bring a signed note from a parent.)
Literacy Statistics
| Approximately 5 million adult Canadians can’t read, write or use numbers well enough to meet the literacy demands of everyday life. Of this number over one million can barely read and write at all. Seventy percent of those surveyed were born in Canada.
(Southam Report, 1987) |
The Facts
- 7% of the Canadian population (1.2 million) found most daily reading materials nearly impossible to deal with
- 9% of the Canadian population (1.8 million) can read only simple words that are familiar to them in daily life
- 22% of the Canadian population (4 million) can read everyday materials if they are written simply, clearly laid out, and if they involve tasks that are easy to perform
- 62% of the Canadian population (11 million) can do most daily reading without difficulty
- 31% of Canadian students who enter secondary school leave
without getting a diploma or certificate. - By the year 2000, 70% of jobs in Canada will require a
college-level reading ability. - The average North American child watches in excess of 40 hours
of television a week.
Some Common Tasks Canadians Could Not Do
| % of people that could not complete the task | |
| sign a social insurance card | 1 |
| circle the expiry date on a driver’s license | 6 |
| circle the charge on a telephone bill | 10 |
| read the instructions on aspirin | 20 |
| find a store in the yellow pages | 25 |
| find school hours in a pamphlet | 41 |
People who have trouble reading tend to…
- watch 24% more television than people who read
- rely less on newspapers
- be less active in their leisure time
- earn 2/3 the income of people who read
- are more likely to have non-reading children
(Creative Research Group, 1989)
Literacy Links and Resources
And don’t forget to check out the website for Frontier College at U of T, St. George Campus: http://utfrontiercollege.wordpress.com — Tutor Resources. Operated by volunteer website designer Stephen Hong, this site provides more information and updates on our own group.
Volunteer Survey
(Published: Jan. 22, 2004, URLs revised Oct. 8, 2010)
Visit our national site!
Gallery from Recent Events
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