Math and Literacy Tutoring – WE NEED YOU!
Our Math and Literacy one-on-on programs have become high demand. We need volunteers to TUTOR! Please note: tutors must be ages 16 or older.
The Spring session will run January 26th – April 25th
In Person Tutoring Sessions will be scheduled once a week at the same day/time for one hour during these time:
- Mondays 10am-4pm
- Tuesdays 5:30pm-7pm
- Wednesdays 9am-7pm
- Thursdays 10am-7pm
- Fridays 9am-1pm
- Saturdays 10am-11:30am
Tutor Applications for Spring 2026 are OPEN NOW until January 5th! If you miss the application deadline, please email us to chat at volunteermadison@gigisplayhouse.org.
Links to learn more and apply:
Literacy: Literacy Tutoring Information
Math: Math Tutoring Information
We KNOW what you’re thinking.. ‘there’s no way I can be a tutor’:
- It would never fit in my schedule
- I’ve never done it before
- I don’t know anything about people with Down syndrome
- I don’t have any idea what my plans are
- I’m sure someone else will do it
We are here to tell you why none of that is true and you CAN be a successful tutor!
Myth: It would never fit in my schedule
Fact: Total weekly commitment is 1.5-2 hours each week. When you apply to tutor you share the days and times that work for you! We then match you with a student who has the same availability. Of course, we understand that a work trip may come up, you have a planned vacation or illness hits; we are flexible! Our goal is to get 10-12 lessons in for each session. You and your student will meet the same day and time each week for your sessions. Sessions last 1 hour and preparing for your session takes 15 min – 1 hour each week. We give you all the necessary tools and resources to prepare for your sessions.
Myth: I’ve never done it before so I shouldn’t even try
Fact: 95% of our tutors have NEVER tutored before! They just had a desire to want to help their community. We welcome tutors ages 18+ and have had high school seniors, college students, working professionals and retirees who have ALL had incredible tutoring experiences. We provide all of the training.
Your training will include: a one hour virtual volunteer orientation for all of our volunteers, 2 hours of self-led training modules and 1-1.5 hours of an in-person training with Anne and/or Regan (our tutoring coordinators) to make sure you know where all your resources are and to answer any additional questions you have
Myth: I don’t know anything about people with Down syndrome
Fact: Our program is built based on the ways in which individuals with Down syndrome learn best. The majority of people that come to volunteer with has never even met someone with Down syndrome before. The training and resources we provide you are robust and easy to understand and will teach you all about Down syndrome and how our students learn.
We use a methodology with documented success based on research by professionals in the field. Knowing that our participants vary greatly in their abilities and challenges, we combine multiple approaches that utilize multi-sensory teaching. You will use purposeful progressions to lead your student to an increase in skills and self-confidence while using their interests to motivate them.
Myth: I don’t have any idea what my plans are
Fact: You can CHOOSE how you want to spend your time. We hear time and time again how impactful the experience is for both tutors and students. Here is one of our favorite quotes from our last session when the student was asked what his favorite part of tutoring was: “My favorite part of tutoring is YOU” (meaning his tutor).
The pride and excitement our students feel with increasing their skills AND forming true friendships with each other is magical. Having solid one-on-one time each week allows for a special bond to form.
Myth: I’m sure someone else will do it
Fact: We NEED YOU! We are 99% run and can’t offer our programming without our incredible and dedicated volunteers. We also have returning tutors from session to session!! We love this because it shows they are having a great experience.
Additional Information:
- On Boarding:
- You will receive digital volunteer on-boarding forms to sign
- We will run a background check on you- all volunteers that work with participants are background checked to ensure the safety of our participants. There is no cost to you- you will receive an email and you’ll only need to submit a couple pieces of information. A third party conducts the check and informs us of the results.
- Curriculum
- Literacy:
- We use Raising Robust Readers, a phonics based curriculum, to teach letters and their single or multiple sounds and how to blend these sounds into words.
- Pre-readers are taught how to match, name and select using both pictures and words.
- As our participants learn to read, we work on parts of the book/story and comprehension skills.
- Math:
- We initially teach pre-math skills to develop concepts of patterns, colors, shapes, size, 1 to 1 correspondence and more.
- A multisensory approach is taught by using Numicons and TouchMath to solve early addition and subtraction problems.
- Early addition and subtraction work on single digit numbers and slowly work up to 20s, 50s, then 100s.
- Multiplication and division are taught as patterns of repeated numbers.
- Literacy:
- Technology
- Microsoft Teams: Used to collaborate, share resources with tutors, and access Progress tracker.
- Virtual tutors will hold their weekly tutoring sessions in a private Microsoft Teams channel
- Microsoft Excel: Used to document student’s progress on their progress tracker and help tutors plan the best lesson for their student’s level. Tutors will use links within their excel progress tracker to access additional training materials throughout their session.
- You do not need to have experience with Excel or Microsoft Teams to be successful but you must be willing to learn. Please let us know if you might need additional training on the technology.
- Their is no cost to using these applications, but they do work best on a computer, not a tablet.
- Microsoft Teams: Used to collaborate, share resources with tutors, and access Progress tracker.
THANK YOU for considering taking this leap of faith and trying something new. You will not regret it and will have changed for the better by the end of the session.
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