Tutors Progress With Students

2 Find Gratification In Helping Adults Work Toward Diplomas

January 22, 1997|By Jeffrey Steele. Special to the Tribune.

It's 7 p.m. on a Wednesday at the Oak Lawn Public Library. In a small-group study room on the second floor, volunteer literacy tutor Carol Carroll is huddled with a young woman at a small circular table.

"Right now, I want to start with the GED exam (preparation) book" for the equivalent of a high school diploma, Carroll tells her. "This is to measure your ability to write clear thoughts. Read this paragraph out loud. At the end, there are short sentences in which you'll correct the underlined word."

The student, a woman in her mid-20s, reads a long paragraph on the development of the chocolate industry in the United States. Then the two tackle the first of 19 exercises.

In that exercise, the student is confronted with a run-on sentence: "Do you love chocolate do you think it's a heavenly treat?" The words "chocolate" and "do" in the center of the sentence are underlined, and beneath the sentence are five ways this pairing might be changed. The student picks choice No. 3: "chocolate? Do," which is the correct answer.

Carroll and the student meet each Wednesday evening at the library. For the last few months, Carroll and her husband, Dan, have volunteered as tutors in the Moraine Valley Community College Adult Literacy Program, which pairs literacy tutors with adults who need help in learning to improve their reading and writing.

Each of her sessions, Carroll says, starts with the student reading aloud from books provided by the program. The books feature short stories four or five pages long followed by brief questions. After that warmup, the two turn their attention to writing assignments.

"Her main thing is that she wants to get into writing," says Carroll of the student, adding that to pass the GED exam, students must be able to write an essay.

"She finds it difficult to write a full sentence right now. I'll have her write sentences, and we'll go over each one to see if it's a sentence or not and whether the punctuation is correct. She'll write five to 10 sentences a night, and to get the finished product--a short essay--takes two to three weeks."

After the writing lesson, the two work on spelling. Carroll will say a word from a list provided in a spelling workbook and ask the student to write it.

"We'll do 10 of those a week and then correct the spelling," she says.

The last 30 to 45 minutes are spent on lessons in addition and subtraction. Carroll is trying to help the student learn how to work math equations. "If I give her a question like 11 from 25, she can get the answer by counting backward from 25," she says, but adds that she wants the student to learn how to derive the answers to such questions with pencil and paper.

Dan Carroll works with a retired man in his early 60s each Monday from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Their tutoring sessions are held at the Chicago Public Library's branch in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood east of Oak Lawn. The student, who attended but never finished high school, reads at about the 7th-grade level, Carroll said.

"We usually have a warmup session, talking about what he did over the past week," Dan Carroll says. "We go over his mail, such as mail he receives from Medicare, and I help him understand it. Then we'll flip through 3-by-5 flash cards, and he'll say the word on the card. After that, we'll work on the (words on the) flash cards he doesn't know."

The next part of the session is devoted to the student reading aloud stories from a reading book provided by the program. It takes tutor and student about two hours over a couple of weeks to finish a five-page story.

"We'll talk out any paragraphs that he doesn't understand," Dan Carroll says. "At the end of each story are questions that help students retain what they've read. He has his own copy of the book, and he'll answer two pages of questions in his book during the week between meetings."

Dan Carroll's goal, like his wife's, is to help prepare the student to eventually take the GED test. "We're probably looking at a year or two in order for him to even be in a position to take the test the first time," Carroll says.

The volunteer effort has its rewards, he says. "You get satisfaction from seeing people do something they couldn't do before. That's gratifying. You can't change the world, but you can make it better (by helping others). And he (the student) takes instruction very well."

One of Dan Carroll's most memorable experiences in the program came when he complimented the student on an essay he had written. "This is really great!" he exclaimed after reading an essay the student had written about a story about a New York City snowstorm.

"His eyes lit up when I told him that," he says with a smile. "I think it was the first time anyone had complimented him on his writing."

Carol Carroll says her rewards come from knowing she's assisting someone who needs her help.

She also likes the opportunity to help the young woman realize her goal of moving up from her current job as a fast-food restaurant employee.