Our Programs
The Learning Trail offers academic support for children from preschool through eighth grade at the Nature Trail Mobile Home Park in northern Chatham County. The community residents are primarily low-income Latino families. Programs take place in two buildings that the site's owner has provided free of charge, demonstrating the value he sees in our programs for the residents.
The primary focus of The Learning Trail is to address the academic gaps the immigrant children living at or near poverty experience, such as the lack of English language skills, exposure to vocabulary, adults who can provide homework help and culturally relevant background knowledge. Specifically, our goals are to:
The Learning Trail's tutoring programs are provided by volunteers, all of whom have college degrees. While many volunteers have teaching credentials and experience, it is not necessary to have had a career in education to be involved. All programs have a lead tutor who plans the lessons and activities to be undertaken each session and helps the tutors work with the children. Tutors in the after-school program generally work one on one with a child, although some small group sessions may also occur occasionally.
Tutoring services are tailored to the specific academic needs of each child and developed in close consultation with the administrators and teachers of North Chatham Elementary and Pollard Middle Schools. This information sharing and collaboration ensures consistency between what is happening in the classroom and in our after-school programs.
Importance of Early Childhood Education
Research has shown that reading at grade level by third grade predicts a child's academic success. The North Carolina Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Initiative found that the overwhelming majority of North Carolina children from low-income families are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. To address this problem, they created a multi-disciplinary framework that takes a coordinated approach and focuses on learning environments, families and child development. Using this framework, The Learning Trail's early childhood programs offer high-quality early education, positive learning environments, support for families to ensure skilled and knowledgeable parents and emphasize the importance of reading with children.
Preschool Program
Three and four year old children participate in a language-enriched program that emphasizes developmental and pre-academic skills. Coming from low-income Latino families, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home and many of our students arrive with little or no English language skills. Left unaddressed, these children would start kindergarten academically behind their peers and are likely to struggle in school and remain academically behind their classmates as they advance through the grades. Early childhood teachers, some of whom are bilingual, provide a variety of activities to prepare the children to enter North Chatham Elementary School. Beginning in September, 2018, the preschool program will expand to five half-days a week.
Parent Education - Trail Blazing Achievement (TBA) for Latino Families
Recognizing the importance of parental involvement in children's education, The Learning Trail is collaborating with the University of North Carolina's Graduate School of Social Work to enhance parental support of early reading, a critical ingredient to help children reach grade level reading by third grade. The families we serve at Nature Trail, primarily Latino, experience high stress due to low income, immigration issues, and limited English, all factors that may limit parental engagement in education. Our prior work shows that these families are highly invested in their children's long-term education but may not understand the role of early childhood reading programs in supporting those goals. The TBA collaboration will promote early childhood education through fostering social support among parents, guiding parents to other support services when needed, and coordinating services for families. This program will begin in September, 2018. Two professors at UNC's Graduate School of Social Work, graduate student interns and The Learning Trail's Early Childhood Specialist will provide direct services to parents and bring other UNC Chapel Hill student resources to this community.
Elementary Program
Children attending North Chatham Elementary School receive tutoring once a week after school. Emphasis is placed on basic reading and literacy skills, vocabulary development, basic math skills, and background knowledge acquisition in conjunction with homework completion. Continuing the increased emphasis on early childhood education, in September, 2018 we will add a new kindergarten after-school program and further enrich the curriculum for students in first and second grade so as to increase our students' ability to be reading at grade level by third grade.
Middle School Program
After-school tutoring is offered to children in grades 6-8 at Pollard Middle School. The main activities are homework completion and supplemental work on vocabulary enrichment, basic skills in reading comprehension, writing and math, as well as filling gaps in background knowledge. Additionally, students learn to do research and work with computers to complete school assignments. This is particularly valuable as many students do not have access to computers or internet at home and schools are increasingly using web-based services, such as Google Classroom.
Support and guidance are also given to eighth grade students applying for the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, which starts in ninth grade. This selective, national program is designed to assist children from low-income and ethnic or linguistic minority backgrounds who have high academic potential prepare for entrance to colleges and universities. In the last few years, four of the 8th grade students participating in our program were accepted into the AVID program.
Summer Enrichment Camp
A summer enrichment camp is offered for four weeks in June and July. The curriculum for the summer enrichment camp is focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and designed by a team of volunteer educators. The curriculum is enhanced by weekly field trips and, in 2018, by the creation of a garden for the children to plant and nurture. The camp is run by adult volunteers assisted by several paid teenage camp counselors, most of whom have participated in our after-school tutoring programs and live in Nature Trail. A hot lunch is provided by Chatham County Schools.
Collaborations with Community Partners
The Learning Trail's work is supported and enhanced by our collaborations with other community partners. We host parent evenings at Nature Trail for teachers and administrators from North Chatham Elementary School and Pollard Middle School to help build school-family communication. Our partnership with the University of North Carolina's Graduate Schools (School of Social Work, Law School, and Public Health) has brought significant resources to the Nature Trail community. We have also partnered with El Futuro, a non-profit organization that provides mental health and support services to children and their parents. Our work with Chatham Reads and the Chatham Literacy Council helps to address the literacy needs in the community.
The primary focus of The Learning Trail is to address the academic gaps the immigrant children living at or near poverty experience, such as the lack of English language skills, exposure to vocabulary, adults who can provide homework help and culturally relevant background knowledge. Specifically, our goals are to:
- Reinforce concepts in language arts and math
- Develop and extend vocabulary
- Teach organizational and study skills
- Build self-esteem and confidence as learners
The Learning Trail's tutoring programs are provided by volunteers, all of whom have college degrees. While many volunteers have teaching credentials and experience, it is not necessary to have had a career in education to be involved. All programs have a lead tutor who plans the lessons and activities to be undertaken each session and helps the tutors work with the children. Tutors in the after-school program generally work one on one with a child, although some small group sessions may also occur occasionally.
Tutoring services are tailored to the specific academic needs of each child and developed in close consultation with the administrators and teachers of North Chatham Elementary and Pollard Middle Schools. This information sharing and collaboration ensures consistency between what is happening in the classroom and in our after-school programs.
Importance of Early Childhood Education
Research has shown that reading at grade level by third grade predicts a child's academic success. The North Carolina Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Initiative found that the overwhelming majority of North Carolina children from low-income families are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade. To address this problem, they created a multi-disciplinary framework that takes a coordinated approach and focuses on learning environments, families and child development. Using this framework, The Learning Trail's early childhood programs offer high-quality early education, positive learning environments, support for families to ensure skilled and knowledgeable parents and emphasize the importance of reading with children.
Preschool Program
Three and four year old children participate in a language-enriched program that emphasizes developmental and pre-academic skills. Coming from low-income Latino families, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home and many of our students arrive with little or no English language skills. Left unaddressed, these children would start kindergarten academically behind their peers and are likely to struggle in school and remain academically behind their classmates as they advance through the grades. Early childhood teachers, some of whom are bilingual, provide a variety of activities to prepare the children to enter North Chatham Elementary School. Beginning in September, 2018, the preschool program will expand to five half-days a week.
Parent Education - Trail Blazing Achievement (TBA) for Latino Families
Recognizing the importance of parental involvement in children's education, The Learning Trail is collaborating with the University of North Carolina's Graduate School of Social Work to enhance parental support of early reading, a critical ingredient to help children reach grade level reading by third grade. The families we serve at Nature Trail, primarily Latino, experience high stress due to low income, immigration issues, and limited English, all factors that may limit parental engagement in education. Our prior work shows that these families are highly invested in their children's long-term education but may not understand the role of early childhood reading programs in supporting those goals. The TBA collaboration will promote early childhood education through fostering social support among parents, guiding parents to other support services when needed, and coordinating services for families. This program will begin in September, 2018. Two professors at UNC's Graduate School of Social Work, graduate student interns and The Learning Trail's Early Childhood Specialist will provide direct services to parents and bring other UNC Chapel Hill student resources to this community.
Elementary Program
Children attending North Chatham Elementary School receive tutoring once a week after school. Emphasis is placed on basic reading and literacy skills, vocabulary development, basic math skills, and background knowledge acquisition in conjunction with homework completion. Continuing the increased emphasis on early childhood education, in September, 2018 we will add a new kindergarten after-school program and further enrich the curriculum for students in first and second grade so as to increase our students' ability to be reading at grade level by third grade.
Middle School Program
After-school tutoring is offered to children in grades 6-8 at Pollard Middle School. The main activities are homework completion and supplemental work on vocabulary enrichment, basic skills in reading comprehension, writing and math, as well as filling gaps in background knowledge. Additionally, students learn to do research and work with computers to complete school assignments. This is particularly valuable as many students do not have access to computers or internet at home and schools are increasingly using web-based services, such as Google Classroom.
Support and guidance are also given to eighth grade students applying for the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, which starts in ninth grade. This selective, national program is designed to assist children from low-income and ethnic or linguistic minority backgrounds who have high academic potential prepare for entrance to colleges and universities. In the last few years, four of the 8th grade students participating in our program were accepted into the AVID program.
Summer Enrichment Camp
A summer enrichment camp is offered for four weeks in June and July. The curriculum for the summer enrichment camp is focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects and designed by a team of volunteer educators. The curriculum is enhanced by weekly field trips and, in 2018, by the creation of a garden for the children to plant and nurture. The camp is run by adult volunteers assisted by several paid teenage camp counselors, most of whom have participated in our after-school tutoring programs and live in Nature Trail. A hot lunch is provided by Chatham County Schools.
Collaborations with Community Partners
The Learning Trail's work is supported and enhanced by our collaborations with other community partners. We host parent evenings at Nature Trail for teachers and administrators from North Chatham Elementary School and Pollard Middle School to help build school-family communication. Our partnership with the University of North Carolina's Graduate Schools (School of Social Work, Law School, and Public Health) has brought significant resources to the Nature Trail community. We have also partnered with El Futuro, a non-profit organization that provides mental health and support services to children and their parents. Our work with Chatham Reads and the Chatham Literacy Council helps to address the literacy needs in the community.