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The Cape May Kiwanis Club’s Volunteer Reading Tutors recently
finished working with individual students in Grades 3 and 4 at
the Maud Abrams School in Lower Township for the second year in
a row.
This Kiwanis Club initiative has been very
effective and both volunteers and students have benefited a
great deal from the program.
Our 8 volunteers included
Mary Hendrie, Dawn Hynes, Jeff D’Aoust, Betsi Parker, Barbara
Martin, Peg Fraatz, Jim Fraatz and program organizer, Kathleen
Finley.
The efforts of the Cape May Kiwanis Club and also Helaine Mario, a local author who made a generous donation
towards the purchase of the Toe by Toe manuals are sincerely
appreciated.
If you are interested in volunteering 1 hour a week to be a
Reading Tutor, please contact Kathleen Finley at:
mfinley37@comcast.net
for more information.
It’s a great experience touching a child’s life!
By KAREN KNIGHT,
CAPE MAY COUNTY HERALD
CAPE MAY – Cape May Kiwanis Club members are "trying to make
a difference" in the lives of several third graders at Maud
Abrams School by helping improve their reading skills.
Organized by Kiwanian Kathleen Finley, seven tutors are using
a book called "Toe by Toe," which provides easy-to-follow
instructions for phonetically teaching reading skills.
"It's called 'Toe by Toe' because that's the smallest
increment, and even a small improvement in the ability to read
can make a big difference in a child's life," Finley said. "The
book can be used to help a wide range of reading needs, from the
need to get a little boost all the way to dyslexia, from
eight-years-old to adult."
Finley, who spent 17 years teaching kindergarten and first
grade and another 15 years as a reading specialist in
Williamstown schools, understands how reading is the basis for
everything in life. She also understands how schools sometimes struggle to
deliver services. She saw this reading remediation effort as a
good way to match Kiwanians, "who care about their community"
with school needs.
"I'm also related to the authors," she admitted. "They are
teachers in England and found through their teaching experiences
that about 20 percent of children have trouble reading. As a
teacher, she would offer after-school tutoring to the children,
and tried a variety of ways to help improve their reading
skills. She figured it out, and her headmaster encouraged her to
publish how she did it."
As the U.S. distributor of "Toe by Toe," Finley got support
from the Kiwanis Club and then met with area elementary school
principals offering to work with their students. Maud Abrams
School Principal John King took her up on her offer.
"I wasn't familiar with 'Toe by Toe' before meeting with
Kathleen, but after meeting with her, our school advisors and I
liked what we heard," King said. "It also fit with one of our
district goals, which is to increase community involvement with
our programs.
"We also thought the volunteers were a good resource for our
students to take advantage of in our community," added the
principal, who is in his second year at Maud Abrams.
King said he liked the program's "intimate, one-on-one
approach" because the students in the program respond well to
it.
"The program is very structured, so it works very
sequentially," he said. "The students can work at their own
pace, which is less stressful for them. In addition, the
volunteers have the flexibility in the program to work at the
pace which works for the student, so they can proceed quickly or
slowly as needed."
The tutors, three are Kiwanians and the others are spouses,
are paired up so they spend two days a week each at the school,
working with the children for about a half hour. Because the instructions are provided within the context of
the work, Finley said it's a matter of reading and following
directions for the adults.
"This supplements what our students are learning in the
classroom," King noted, "which is an additional bonus. This
program is not taking away from any classroom time."
"It's pretty easy to follow so a parent could do this at
home," Finley added. "Sometimes parents like to keep their
children occupied during the summer, so this could easily be
built into your day.
The program recommends 30 minutes five days
a week, but that can be a lot for some children, so it's very
flexible. It can also be used if you are home-schooling your
children. It can meet the needs of anyone."
"Sometimes when you bring a program like this into a school,
there can be logistical challenges, which we did have along the
way, but we worked it out," King said. "The volunteers have been
incredible, and the students really look forward to working with
the volunteers and some nice relationships have developed along
the way.
"This is an awesome way to involve the community in helping with
our students," he added.
Anyone interested in learning more about the "Toe by Toe"
program may contact Kathleen Finley at
mfinley37@comcast.net.
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Maud Abrams School - Jeff D’Aoust,
Tutor
Maud Abrams School - Mary Hendrie,
Tutor
Kiwanian Kathleen Finley started a
reading remediation program with a local elementary school as
part of the club's community outreach programs.
Jim Fraatz, a member of the Cape
May Kiwanis Club, follows an
easy-to-use reading remediation
program to help elementary school students with their reading
skills.
Mary Hendrie, a member of the Cape
May Kiwanis Club, works with a third grader at Maud Abrams
School to improve her reading skills.
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