ReadersPLUS Creates a Book Guide Created by Tutors, for Tutors

When Melissa Montoya, a ReadersPLUS tutor at Foshay, started last year, she remembers feeling uncertain about which books would resonate with her elementary student. What reading level was appropriate? Which stories would engage and excite? These questions are familiar to many new tutors navigating their first semester.

This semester, those questions became easier to answer thanks to a new assignment from the ReadersPLUS team. Instead of one of their traditional reflection essays, tutors created book recommendations for their peers, sharing titles that had worked well with their students and explaining why.

“We were aiming to create assignments that were relevant to the work that they were doing, and also fun and useful to fellow tutors,” explains Tina Koneazny, Associate Director of JEP and head of ReadersPLUS. The idea came from Program Administrator Beth Levinson, who saw an opportunity to make the required paperwork both creative and practical.

Melissa chose “Fox Counting Leaves,” a book her student had loved the previous year. “The art and illustrations was something that my student was really happy about. She loves animals,” Melissa recalls. But what made the book especially valuable was its versatility. The story about a fox trying to keep leaves from falling as seasons change became a springboard for math activities.

“I had her make her own tree, and then we counted how many leaves there are. That can be really transferable: addition, multiplication, and more. For example, I asked her if her tree had 4 branches and each of them had 4 leaves, how many leaves are there in total? It is really adaptable to different math problems.”

For Tina, certain book recommendations stood out not because they were new, but because they had endured. “I love when there are books that are still appreciated and still useful,” she notes. One example: “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” by Jon Scieszka, told from the wolf’s perspective. “I remember reading it when I was a teacher to my kids, I used it for training here and to my children growing up. So, I loved it when I saw that one being recommended.”

The so-called “book promotions” now line the JEP stairway leading up to the ReadersPLUS library, creating an informal library guide for anyone looking for book ideas. Several JEP program assistants have brought their students to the JEP library to explore titles and stopped to take a look at the variety of recommendations.

For Melissa, the value was immediate and practical. “Having recommendations from other tutors tells me that these books were successful, that the students were engaged with those stories, and that they liked those activities. So it’s nice to be able to have different options to look at that are already peer reviewed.”

The assignment achieves multiple goals at once. Tutors fulfill their writing requirement while reflecting on what worked in their sessions. Creative tutors can design eye-catching posters. Less artistically inclined tutors can still share valuable insights. And everyone benefits from the collective wisdom of peers who understand the specific challenges and joys of elementary literacy tutoring.

Looking ahead, Tina sees potential to expand the reach of these recommendations beyond the hallway posters. Sharing them more widely with all JEP programs and students through Slack or social media could help even more tutors find the right book for the right moment with the right student. In a program built on the power of stories to connect tutors and elementary students, it makes perfect sense that tutors would now share stories about stories, building a resource that grows richer with each semester’s contributions.