Berkeley Pledge Special: Pioneering Academic Success in K-12 Schools Madrid Guides Pledge Programs Tutoring First-Grades Changes Jamison's Life Math Tutoring Program Breaks the Cycle of Failure Diversity Project Examines Racial and Economic Links to Student Achievement Using the Internet to Connect High School and College Students Undergrads Build Bridges from Minority Neighborhoods to Berkeley Classrooms Showing Inner City Youth the Wonder of Bugs Major and Career Exploration: Introduction to College Helping Underachievers Improve Their Reading Sharing His Love for Math The Berkeley Pledge Web Site		Tutoring First-Graders Changes Jamison’s Life posted June 16, 1998 Berkeley freshman Gionna Jamison needed a job. She wound up on a mission. “I am on work study, so I needed to work,” says Jamison, an undeclared major. “I’ve always liked kids so I thought tutoring would be fun. It has been, but the experience has also opened a new world for me.” Jamison spends eight hours a week at Hoover Elementary School in West Oakland, tutoring first-graders in reading and math through the Reading Through Science and Technology Program. She says the experience has taught her more than effective pedagogy. “I’ve learned a lot about the lives of some students,” she says. “When I was growing up, I didn’t have to face the kinds of problems some of these kids do.” “These tutors are giving these kids what most of them don’t get at home,” says Marie-Eve Thomaes, a first-grade teacher at Hoover. “These tutors help fill that gap.” As part of the program, Hoover first- graders are learning about weather patterns by exchanging email with first-grade students in Massachusetts. Says Thomaes: “At first, the emails were just one sentence, but the length of the correspondence – as well as the students – have really grown through this program.” [ Back to top ]

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