Denison University has a federally funded work study program that is called America Reads. Denison trains their students to work with the elementary students on reading skills.
America Reads began in 1997 as a government initiative to increase the reading proficiency of America’s youth. Denison partners with 11 different schools in Licking County and Granville Elementary is fortunate enough to currently have twelve tutors working with our students. The trained tutors work directly with the children on a one to one basis in most cases, but may also work with small groups. It all depends on what the classroom teacher has assigned and what the students needs may be. The tutors may help the students to practice in many areas of reading like phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, phrasing, vocabulary and comprehension. When working with the younger children they also work on prereading skills like letter/sound matching, concepts of print, rhyming and more. The Elementary children look forward to working with their mentors and often develop a special bond with these college students.