Understanding the effort put into—and rewards that come from—this resource available to English Learners
Staff Writer
The tutoring program for English Learners at AHS was born out of student initiative. “I had a student in one of my English classes who came up to me and said that she had been an English Learner when she was in elementary school and remembered people who had helped her,” Mrs. Smith, an ELD 3 teacher said. “And she wanted to know if we could set up after school peer tutoring to give students an additional way to get help from other students.”
“The tutoring program is open to all of our designated English Learners and those who have been reclassified as fluent English proficient in the past year,” said Mrs. Smith.
Safeullah Safi (12), an EL student and tutee, briefly summarized how he heard of the tutoring program. “I’ve come here for around two years. My teacher told me that I can come here, and they’re going to help you in every subject in your own language.”
Raveeha Rabbani (12) helps coordinate EL tutoring. She said, “The goal is to help English Learners progress through high school with the least amount of setbacks, and we do that by giving them weekly help. Basically, there are a lot of people here who speak a lot of different languages, and we try to have tutors who can speak different languages as well so they can communicate and help students.”
EL tutoring is not only limited to receiving help with English itself. Rabbani said, “We’re helping students in all subject areas, but the main focus is language. If someone speaks Hindi and then the person tutoring them speaks English, even if they’re studying math, their English is also improving.”
Facilitating connections over shared language is also a focus of EL tutoring. “We try our best to make pairs language-based so that it’s easiest for everyone to communicate to each other because that’s the whole point,” said Rabbani.
Helping students is rewarding, as tutor Akshath Prakash (12) described. “I came here from a different country, and I didn’t know about this when I needed help. So I wanted to offer it. The fact that I’m helping people with the same struggles I once had is a really good feeling.”
Of course, there are more concrete incentives to learning and helping others in the program. Mrs. Smith said, “Certain teachers will offer extra credit for students who come who need help. We don’t offer extra credit for tutors, but because tutors are providing a service, they can earn service learning hours.”
There are no requirements to become a tutor. Prakash said, “If you want to be a tutor, all you need to do is just know some stuff, right? There’s not a minimum level of education or anything.”
Due to the focus on shared language in the program, multilingual students are especially welcome to help, according to Mrs. Smith.“It is certainly an advantage for our particular program if you have a language other than English that you’re fluent in. We’re always in need of Spanish speakers. But we have a wide variety of languages and a wide variety of subjects that students most enjoy tutoring in.”
On the tutees’ side, Safi recommends the tutoring service to English Learner peers. “Come here—learn from here in your own language!”
A sign on Mrs. Smith’s door advertising EL tutoring. “The tutoring program is open to all of our designated English Learners and those who have been reclassified as fluent English proficient in the past year,” Mrs. Smith said (Photo Credit: Aruna Harpalani (11)).
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