Ten-year-old Malachi Henry helps his classmate 10-year-old Nicholas Corey with vocabulary in Libby Findley’s Custer Baker Intermediate School classroom on Sept. 24, 2013, in Franklin.
Daily Journal Archives
News from around Johnson County as reported on Sept. 26 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 112 years.
On this day in 2013, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about a peer-tutoring program benefiting students at Custer Baker Intermediate School in Franklin.
The program, which was new at the time, tasked 20 high-ability fifth graders who had shown advanced math or language arts skills with 20 other fifth graders selected by teachers who felt their students would benefit from one-on-one time spent reading with their classmates.
For 40 minutes each day, the students read stories, answered in-depth questions about what they’ve read and defined new vocabulary words together. If the students who needed extra help struggled, the high-ability students could help answer their questions.
One of the students taking part was Barrett Daily, who helped one of his classmates with reading Betsy Byara’s “Pinballs” faster than they did before.
“It’s just become fun to help kids my age become better readers,” Barrett said.
The goal was for the students receiving the tutoring to become stronger readers, while the peer tutors started developing leadership skills. The program was organized by teachers Mandee Walls and Libby Findley.
Both teachers were seeing leadership skills and initiative from the high-ability students, such as Barrett’s desire to make sure the student he was working with was improving.
“He’s recognizing what good reading is. And (he’s) in tune with what his partner needs next,” Walls said.
Walls and Findley also heard from other Custer Baker teachers that students receiving the extra help were starting to read faster and with more confidence.
—
Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2014
A new $84 million new barracks and railhead complex opened at Camp Atterbury.
2003
A Greenwood woman was arrested after her two preschoolers ran unsupervised in a parking lot for an hour while she was asleep.
1994
Businesses were backing Walmart’s plans for an expansion in Franklin, despite a flyer going around implying otherwise.
