Stormee Campbell, a struggling reader, needed some additional support. In January 2008, Dan Coffey, GEAR UP Tutor, started helping her to understand and apply reading comprehension strategies. He showed her techniques that all good readers use, such as, asking questions to yourself while reading, using fix-up strategies, and creating a moving picture in your mind of events and details taking place in the selection. After only one quarter, her Accelerated Reading test scores improved, reflecting her increased comprehension and word fluency.  Stormee now enjoys reading and has been helping to share these reading strategies with other struggling readers. Stormee’s career goals include earning a degree in Criminal Justice and working as an Animal Control Officer for the Police department. She has gained the confidence that is needed to pursue a post-secondary education and is thankful to Dan for his encouragement and teaching instruction.

Tutor Gloria Carbajal, has been working with Brandi Price in her Reading class for the past two months. Since then, Brandi has gone from failing, to earning an “A” letter grade. Gloria and Brandi started reading together in the hallway to catch up on her Accelerated Reading. Gloria challenged her to do read-alouds, check for comprehension through questioning, make predictions, and use context clues when she did not understand a word or concept. Brandi’s Accelerated Reading scores have increased and her attitude towards reading has changed. She now encourages other struggling students by sharing her accomplishments and enthusiasm for reading, she tells them, “If I can raise my grade in two months, then you can too!” Brandi plans on attending college and is interested in becoming a nurse. Through working with Gloria, Brandi now understands the importance of working hard and will continue to utilize the reading comprehension skills that she has learned for continued success.

At the beginning of the school year, Tallie McFeron and Lexie Mahan felt overwhelmed in their Social Studies class. With so much information they were being given, they often felt lost. Tutor Amanda Weiman, realized that she needed to provide additional learning strategies in order to create a successful educational environment. Amanda was able to ask the students questions in order to activate their prior knowledge and to help the students make inferences. She also taught them how to read informational text and determine the importance of the overwhelming information being given. Tallie said, “Amanda has helped me by clarifying directions, in turn, my understanding and grade has improved.” Amanda stated that, “Clarifying is needed by several students, by getting them to tell me what they already know; I am able to help fill in the gaps.” Lexie adds, “Amanda helps make learning interesting and fun. She knows how to explain things in a way that everyone will understand. Since having her in class and learning new strategies, I have not only been able to bring my grade up in Social Studies, but in my other classes as well!” Both Lexie and Tallie are now at the top of their Social Studies class and enjoy learning about history. They are able to use the 7 Keys to Comprehension Strategies in other classes as well to improve their overall grade point average.