Negaunee Middle School eighth-grader Joshua Frederick, right, mentors NMS fifth-grader Camrin Ruohomaki in a reading lesson on Friday. The school has a new mentoring program in which eighth-grade students help fifth-grade students in English language arts and mathematics. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

Negaunee eighth-graders help younger students

By CHRISTIE MASTRIC

Journal Staff Writer

NEGAUNEE — It’s a classic example of the young learning from the old, although in this case, the “old” is only the eighth grade.

Negaunee Middle School eighth-graders are providing a range of skill-building activities to fifth-graders in English language arts and math, with the older students mentoring the younger ones. They read to them and practice math facts, for example, to help them intellectually.

NMS Principal Mike McCollum is enthusiastic about the activity, which is in its first year.

He called it “an extra little boost” for the kids.

Eighth-grade mentors were picked to mentor fifth- graders who needed a boost in English or math, he said. The eighth-graders then were trained in two basic intervention strategies, one of which is an oral reading fluency exercise that involves a “cold read” when a student reads a new text for the first time, and a “hot read” when a student rereads a text several times.

“It’s just where they do a hot and a cold read every day for a week, and then they record their scores as far as how many words per minute they can read,” McCollum said.

Another training exercise uses basic flash cards with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Every day, the students have a 15-minute block called SSR, or silent sustained reading time, he said. This is when the students pair up and have their “interventions.”

A Northwest Evaluation Association assessment tracks their reading and math fluency throughout the year, McCollum said, with one test coming up.

“We’re excited to see our interventions are starting to pay off with these kids,” McCollum said.

The activity also provides a way to create peer connections.

“For the eighth-graders, it gives a leadership role to work with younger kids as a mentor,” McCollum said.

For the “littles,” it gives them a chance to look up to superior role modeling, he said, and be driven toward that success and approval.

“Without the data, we still have these unintended consequences of a good relationship builder and to help develop little bit more responsibility for our eighth- graders,” said McCollum, who said the bonding can help empower the fifth- graders as well.

In fact, certain bonding traits have been noticed.

“All of a sudden, the buddies will wear a Michigan shirt or a Michigan State shirt, and then they’ll say, ‘Hey, look, we both got our Michigan State shirts on,'” McCollum said. “Just from a mentorship and a relationship standpoint, it’s just been a cool, cool thing as well.”

For example, on Friday, the duo of eighth-grader Joshua Frederick and fifth- grader Camrin Ruohomaki sat in the hallway to work on reading skills.

“I just kind of like helping people,” Frederick said, and Ruohomaki chimed in, saying he likes to help people too.

“They have a reading passage, and they read the same reading passage each time throughout the course of the week,” said McCollum, who pointed out that Friday marked test time so improvement can be gauged.

“Once they get that done, they take turns reading back and forth on SSR books, things like that,” McCollum said.

And then, he noted, the conversation could switch to another topic — like the weekend.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.