Library tutors offer after-school help and continuity

Goshen Heard was a member of the library's book club at Fairfax Elementary School. He made a video review of the book Dog Man by Dav Pilkey.

Nine-year-old Goshen Heard is a student at Fairfax Elementary School and an enthusiastic library user. His mom, Loretta Heard, said she and her son are at the library most weekdays—reading, attending programs, and checking out lots of books. That’s how they learned about the library’s afterschool tutoring program at the Lee Road branch.

“When Ms. Ericka told us about the tutoring program, it was a no-brainer for us,” said Loretta Heard. “We jumped right on it.”

Ms. Ericka is Ericka Hogan, known to the kids as just “E.” Hogan oversees the tutoring program at the library’s Lee Road Youth Services Department. Tutoring in math, science, history, and language arts is offered in partnership with Cleveland State University’s (CSU) Office of Civic Engagement and Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) Center for Civic Engagement and Learning. Hogan reached out to the schools after learning about their successful partnerships with other libraries.

“We've been very impressed with the college volunteers that have visited for tutoring—since they commit for the whole semester, young patrons are often able to work with the same tutors on a regular basis,” said Hogan. “We've been impressed by their commitment to service and the rapport they build with young patrons.”

Heard agreed: “He had the same tutors with every session—Luke from CWRU and Candice from CSU. This was greatly appreciated because it allowed Goshen and his tutors to truly build a relationship where he was comfortable with them, and allowed the tutors to know his strengths and challenges.”

“The tutoring services were extremely instrumental in two ways,” Heard continued. “Goshen received help with math and ELA [English Language Arts] for class, which [then] really helped him reach his goal of obtaining really great scores on the MAP [Measure of Academic Progress] and state testing.”

Goshen loves to read, according to his mom, and was a member of the library's book club at Fairfax last year. He even recorded a video book review of the Dav Pilkey book Dog Man.

Tutoring is available this winter at Heights Libraries’ Lee Road branch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., starting Jan. 16; and at the temporary Noble Neighborhood branch location at Disciples Christian Church, 3663 Mayfield Road, every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., starting Dec. 5.

More information can be found at https://heightslibrary.org.