SANTA ANA : Teens Enlisted as Tutors, Role Models

Seated at a desk next to tutor Luis Reyes, 12-year-old Robert Diaz read a few lines from his book “Robert the Rose Horse,” then looked up for a quick critique.

“Very good,” said Reyes, a 16-year-old sophomore at Santa Ana High School.

Robert smiled. He said later that hearing such words of encouragement has helped him improve his reading as well as his outlook on school work.

“I feel happy for myself. I used to be bad in reading. I used to get D’s, but now I’m starting to get B’s,” he said.

Robert is one of 120 children participating in a program at Martin R. Heninger Elementary School designed to boost the reading and writing skills of students who are often years behind their classmates academically.

Called “Helping One Student to Succeed,” the program offers individual tutoring and a detailed study plan for each of the children, who are third-, fourth- and fifth-graders.

At the beginning of the program, students take a 10-page reading test to assess their skill levels. The test results are entered into a computer database, which generates a list of specific exercises designed to improve their weak areas, said Anita Ford, who coordinates the program.

Because of their poor reading skills, students in the program often do poorly in other subjects as well.

“You have to read to do math, you have to read to do science, you have to read to do everything,” Ford said.

The program has been in use for more than a decade in some areas of the country but is new to Orange County. Heninger is one of only three schools locally which participate, along with Robert P. Heideman Elementary School in the Tustin Unified School District and El Camino Real Elementary School in the Irvine Unified School District.

All three began earlier this school year, Heninger Principal Kathy Sabine said.

Where the program has been employed elsewhere, students several years behind their classmates can usually catch up in one year, she said.

At Heninger, most of the tutors come from Santa Ana High School across the street. Ford said they serve as role models as well as tutors for the children.

The children “really appreciate that there is a person waiting to help them. I have children who didn’t like to read, but when they come here, it’s the first thing they want to do,” she said.

During one recent session, about a dozen pairs of students and tutors performed vocabulary crossword puzzles, read aloud and played word games on classroom computers.

After finishing her crossword puzzle, 10-year-old Yolanda Duarte said she loved the program.

“They teach you things that you didn’t know,” she said. “It’s cool, it’s exciting.”