ABOUT

 

Tutor in a Bag was founded by an elementary education sophomore, Lillie Hoskinson, for her honors thesis.The program started from when she was assigned  to tutor a struggling Kindergarten student in reading while she was in her first Literacy course in college. She felt overwhelmed and did not know how to help her student. Then the idea of having the materials provided in a backpack with training  and support along the way would be a great way to provide resources and encouragement for people to successfully tutor students.

​

Tutor in a Bag is a tutoring program designed to match novice adult tutors with struggling early readers. The program trains tutors with varied backgrounds to work with struggling readers using evidence-based instructional strategies and data collection methods. Tutors attend an initial training  session to receive materials, practice each component of the lesson plan, and  to receive fundamental training on use of reading games and strategies supporting solid reading instruction at a brisk pace. Each designated struggling reader was paired with a tutor for 10 weekly, thirty-minute sessions driven by student's individual needs. Support for the tutors was provided at each session. Data collection included pre and posttests, tutor feedback and student interviews. 

​

​