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The Goal:

L2L's goal is, in collaboration with the schools, to offer informed and affordable tutoring those students who are failing to meet the provincial standards of literacy and numeracy. Here is how L2L does that.

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The Training

L2L trains and certifies volunteer student tutors in middle and secondary schools. The pairing and supervision of the tutors and students is the responsibility of the schools.

The Tutor: Thought of as an L2L Personal Academic Trainer
The L2L tutor takes on a 20 hour co-curricular 'course' for each level of certification. The basic certificates are interim and full certificates at the Junior and senior levels. Students and teachers can also gain certification as trainers and trainers of trainers. The goal is for the schools to take on their own training in collaboration with L2L.

Middle and High School Tutors (Grades 7 through 12)
The L2L Course - basic: 20 hours for certification

• 2 one-hour introductory sessions explaining the purpose and benefits of the program plus two key topics:
• Roles and responsibilities of all students in the program
• First coverage of L2L?s Personal Learning Profile
• Learning Styles
• Multiple Intelligences
• Then the tutoring begins. There are 3 5-session tutoring blocks in each course. After each 5 tutoring sessions the tutors complete L2L online feedback journals reflecting on the process and on their student's progress. The results of this feedback will be summarized and fed back to the schools and L2L for validity and quality assurance. This process is monitored and refined by an outside professional education program evaluator.
• Tutors must have high standing in the subjects they tutor in. L2L training is one of learning environment and conditions. A key incentive for extra help has been proven to be cookies!
• Each tutoring session has a specific learning goal, and tutors track the progress of the students in class assignments and tests. The object is to 'Hit a Higher Mark!' This is tracked in the journals.
• After each 5 tutoring session block, the tutors meet to reflect and compare results of their experience.
• If all is complete and satisfactory, the tutors receive their certificates, community service hours where relevant and thanks from their schools. Not surprisingly, tutors' marks often go up, too.
• Subsequent levels of courses include the same basic routine but incorporate L2L's Personal Productivity Program : the skills of learning.

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Secondary School Curricular Course

L2L has also collaborated very successfully in the Ontario secondary course GPP30: 'Leadership and Peer Support'.

L2L's Personal Learning Profile Kit, Leadership Definition and Evaluation Tool, Personal Productivity Program and Web site resources form the basis of four very strong units that emphasize student tutoring, participation and engagement. With one semester of collaboration completed, L2L will pilot a test course with the TDSB with the prospect of building a model course for full Board use.