Language is learned in much the same way that tracks through a field become a path, and later a road. Repetition is key. When intelligent children have trouble reading, it’s often because their circumstances interfere with the concentrated reinforcement of sounds, sights, and interactions that leads to reading.

Parents who read to their children, ask them questions, and speculate about ideas ingrain patterns in the brain that can be accessed without conscious thought. Imagine how hard it would be to provide that kind of interaction if you are homeless or moving from hotel to hotel. Putting your child on a school bus might not seem like a good idea if you’re not sure where you’ll be in the afternoon.

The size of a child’s vocabulary is another factor in how easy or difficult it is to learn to read. Children from non-English speaking families and children from families where parents speak non-standard English have similar challenges – the words on the page do not match the words they hear at home.

Specific learning disabilities, which range from dyslexia, to impaired short-term memory, to problems with motor coordination, are other factors the Augustine Project addresses through its multi-sensory approach to teaching literacy skills.

Augustine tutors help students see and internalize the patterns in our language: sounds can be manipulated to create words, words combined into sentences. Equally important, tutors provide intensive interaction for their students, asking questions in ways that students learn to express abstract ideas – even something as simple as telling their tutor what they did over the weekend.

–Virginia Brien

Originally published Thursday, January 28, 2010
by Ellison Clary, For The Charlotte Post

Tutor Paula Lombardi and Malik Gibson work on reading skills as part of the Augustine Project, a literacy program for at-risk children.

A Charlotte youth was struggling with his studies, repeating third grade. His mother was desperate to find him academic help, but her finances were limited.

Rhonda Caldwell learned about The Augustine Project at St. Peter’s and soon tutor Paula Lombardi was making a difference for her son Malik Gibson.

Five years later, Gibson is performing on grade level in the seventh grade at Sedgefield Middle School. He quarterbacked the Spartans this fall and hopes to play football for a college team.

“If I hadn’t met Paula Lombardi, I would probably be halfway losing my mind,” said Caldwell. “Working with her has been a bundle of joy.”

Lombardi is a volunteer tutor with The Augustine Project whose slogan is “changing lives two at a time.” “That’s because,” Lombardi says, “the project helps tutors as much as it aids students who are challenged with reading.”

With one-on-one, Orton-Gillingham-based instruction, The Augustine Project trains tutors to work with low-income children and teens who struggle with literacy.

Candace Armstrong, a retired Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher, is director of the Charlotte chapter of The Augustine Project. Its results for the 2008-09 school year: 22 tutors provided more than 700 hours of literacy lessons and 26 low-income students showed improvement in reading.

“An Augustine tutor’s efforts help a child develop survival skills for the 21st century, not to mention the sense of self-esteem that comes with literacy competence,” Armstrong said. “Here we have a mother who cared, a trained tutor willing to share time and expertise and a youth who recognized his problem and was willing to work hard. Anyone can be proud of that.”

Malik, now 13, said he knew he needed special help. When he began twice-a-week sessions with Lombardi, it gave him hope.

“I thought I could be a success in the classroom, and I proved it every year,” he said.

For Lombardi, teaching reading comes naturally. She had trouble when she was a student and her parents found her a tutor. She graduated from South Mecklenburg High School, majored in English at UNC-Chapel Hill and fashioned a career in both public relations and the travel industry.

While working as an assistant for The Rev. Gary Gloster, now retired bishop suffragan of North Carolina, Lombardi learned of efforts of Armstrong and Adele Hagood to start an Augustine Project program. She signed on as a tutor as soon as possible.

She began working with Gibson in January 2005, halfway through his second year in third grade at Elizabeth Traditional School.

She recognized that Gibson was having trouble both in reading and writing. She used the Augustine Project’s twin precepts of teaching with phonetics and doing it in a multi-sensory way to ignite Gibson’s improvement.

Now Malik is making Bs and Cs. He continues to meet Lombardi two times a week at her home for an hour of tutoring.

“I’m not going to tell you he’s a star pupil,” said Lombardi, “but he is a young man with a lot of commitment to what he does and he works very hard. As long as he is willing, I am willing.”

Malik is sure he wants to continue with Lombardi through graduation, which for him probably will be at Myers Park High School. He’s hoping to attend college and play football.

He enjoys pleasing both his mother and his tutor by telling them the gist of what he’s read.

“Being able to give the gift of reading is to me the best gift in the world,” said Lombardi.

Caldwell recently lost her job but she is joining the board of The Augustine Project.

Twelve new Charlotte-area volunteers completed The Augustine Project training program in September. Armstrong said The Augustine Project is accepting applicants to learn the tutoring process and also is seeking donations.

To learn more, contact Candace Armstrong at armstrong4300@bellsouth.net or at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, (704) 332-7746.