THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512090309
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Pasquotank Elementary School second-graders struggling to keep up with their peers in reading have a lot to look forward to in the coming months.
Starting Monday, the 37 children identified as needing the most help will get it - from community volunteers.
Under a program called Helping One Student To Succeed, or HOSTS, students will be paired with four different volunteers for two hours of one-on-one reading instruction each week.
The goal is to guide students through reading and writing lessons tailored to their individual needs, and to push them up to their grade level for the coming year.
``Our efforts have been to focus on all the ones who are below grade level,'' program coordinator Catherine Mudra said after an information session Friday. ``Next year, when these children get to third grade, hopefully they're going to do better.''
So far, more than 70 volunteers have committed to 88 half-hour time slots, serving 22 kids four times each week. Mudra said she hopes to have mentors for all 37 students by the end of the month.
Volunteers include Elizabeth City State University students, Coast Guard members, parents, businesspeople and church groups, Mudra said.
Pasquotank Elementary is the first school in the district to try the HOSTS program, which was founded in Vancouver, Wash., in 1971. But it comes highly recommended.
Edgecombe County Schools embarked on the program in the 1994-95 school year and saw dramatic improvements in reading scores among its targeted students.
District administrators reported cases of nonreaders rising to the top of their classes and bad spellers turning in perfect papers after a few months of working with their mentors. Educators also noticed higher attendance and better behavior among student participants.
``We're just seeing miracles happen,'' said Betty Holland, HOSTS coordinator for Stocks Elementary School in Edgecombe.
Pasquotank Elementary officials visited the Edgecombe schools last year and came back eager to try HOSTS themselves.
``The statistics behind it is what made us go to it,'' Pasquotank Principal Cecil Perry said Friday. ``We have so many children who need positive interventions . . . I've been pleased with our response.''
Under the program, volunteers arrive in the HOSTS classroom to find their students waiting with a colorful work folder and a box of supplies. The coordinator already has determined the student's biggest weaknesses and assigned the story or word game that will best address them.
Mentors read with students, ask them questions, play instructional games and provide encouragement that the children can't get in a classroom setting.
``This program not only focuses on the academics,'' Mudra said. ``It focuses on building their self-esteem and self confidence.
``Sometimes, all that a child needs is to know that somebody cares.''
Teresea Harris volunteered in the Edgecombe program last year and signed on in Pasquotank shortly after moving here in November.
``It's real rewarding to go in and have a child that can't even recognize the word `the,' and at the end of the year they're even reading a little bit,'' Harris said. ``I'm real excited that they have the program here.''
For more information on the HOSTS program, call 338-6907. by CNB