Washington Reading Corps: Impacts of National Service and the ...

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tutoring sessions stimulating. This parent had a great deal of praise for the AmeriCorps membersin Pateros who had set up and run the after-school program. “They are models to our kids,” shesaid. “My own daughter’s reading level has been raised. Also, because of them, I was avolunteer for the carnival.”Several Reading Corps sites have tapped into an important resource by using tutors fromnearby high schools. At Monte Cristo Elementary in Granite Falls, the number of high schoolstudents wanting to assist the AmeriCorps members with tutoring is so great that there is even awaiting list. At Arthur H. Smith Elementary in Grandview, 12 varsity basketball players from thehigh school were recruited and trained by the VISTA.Mt. View Elementary in Burien, outside of Seattle, has implemented a promising model ofcross-age tutoring between high school and elementary students. The Integrated TutoringProject in the Highline School District is a service learning project that involves 70 students fromEvergreen High School. Four days a week, the high school students provide tutoring andmentoring to Reading Corps students in the first grade. At the same time, the tutors are allenrolled in a Home/Family Life class at the high school, where they receive training on tutoringschool-aged students. Mt. View's reading specialist provides oversight and training to the tutorson-site one day per week.Fifteen-year-old Christmore Garcia, one of the students from Evergreen, is enthusiastic aboutthe first graders she tutors. “I love working with people, young and old. My help made a bigeffect in my students’ reading, writing, and also social skills. They have greatly improved on theirtests. At first they told me they didn’t want to read but when I gave them my 100% attention,they would give me the same. One of my children was really shy but now is coming out andbeing more open.” Other high school tutors echo this. Jessica Eaton, 17, reports that animportant bond has formed between the tutors and the “youngers.” Francelia Salgado, 15, saysshe’s definitely seen an increase in the students’ reading and test scores.In addition, the tutors report that they have grown from the experience as well. Dat Mai,another tutor, plans to become a teacher, and feels that this is good preparation. Jessica says,“Being a tutor helped me talk one-on-one with students and also talk in large groups.”Christmore adds, “It has really made me a leader. I have improved in my social, communication,and public speaking skills. This program is great and will definitely benefit and support my futuredreams and ambitions.”Washington Reading Corps StudentsDuring the 1998-99 year of the Washington Reading Corps, over 22,000 students were tutoredone-on-one or in small groups. In 1999-00, the number rose to nearly 24,000. If all 24,000 ofthese students were to gather together, they’d form a community roughly the same size asMount Vernon or Wenatchee.48
The personal attention these students have received has had an impact on raising reading levelsand test scores. Behind each statistic, however, is an individual student, a person with a story ofgrowth. Here are some of these stories, as recorded by the volunteers who worked with thesestudents.David, a student at Ridgeview Elementary in Yakima, was a reluctant reader who read very fastwithout comprehension. For him, reading was something he did because he had to, not becausehe enjoyed it. His tutor, a retired widow who volunteered with the Reading Corps, helpedDavid slow down and listen to what he was reading. She found books that would interest himand shared related experiences with him. By the middle of David’s second year in the ReadingCorps, he was checking out books weekly, wanting more on the same subjects or by the sameauthor. He had been transformed into an enthusiastic reader. As the volunteer coordinator at hisschool says, “He would come up to me just bubbling all over to tell me about the story he hadjust read.”When an AmeriCorps tutor at Mary Purcell Elementary in Sedro-Woolly first met Travis inOctober of 1999, his reading level was zero—meaning that Travis was reading at a level toolow for the computer to even register for the reading assessment. He was obviously a very lowreader, but the tutor felt that Travis’s attitude toward school in general was the main problem.“Travis tried his hardest to not try at all,” she says. “My initial tutoring sessions with him were alesson in patience and perseverance.” Yet the harder Travis tried to make the tutor give up onhim, the less she was likely to do so. By December, her philosophy regarding Travis was toexpose him to so much reading that he had no choice but to learn. Using the school’s readingcurriculum, she began tutoring him 45 minutes a day and assigned one of the high school tutorsto read books with him for an additional 30 minutes every day. Travis progressed slowly at first,but once he realized that his tutors weren’t going away, he finally began to read. He noticedquickly that the more he read, the better he got. The better he got, the more praise he receivedfrom his teachers and tutors. The more praise he got, the better he started doing in his othersubjects. For the first time, he tried on the role of “star student” and realized he loved it. He hasbecome so self-motivated that now he reads at home and during several recesses. His readingfluency has increased from 10 words per minute to 36 words per minute.An AmeriCorps member working in Palisades Elementary had a similar experience with one ofthe students she tutored. Palisades is one of the smallest, most rural schools that the ReadingCorps serves. The town itself consists of little more than a post office and the tiny elementaryschool. Houses are scattered throughout the orchards where most of the students’ familieswork. Nick, a fifth-grader, was one of the more challenging students that this tutor was facedwith. He didn’t like to read and he let everyone know about it. At the beginning of the year hewouldn’t read at all. Gradually, though, this began to change, and by the end of the year, he gota reading award for the number of books read that year. This change had happened sogradually, though, that, as the tutor said, “He was as surprised as everyone else that he hadgotten an award.”49
Page 1 and 2: Northwest Regional Educational Labo
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe would like to th
Page 5: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn 1997, Washingto
Page 8 and 9: INTRODUCTIONIn 1997, Washington adm
Page 10 and 11: • What role do national service m
Page 12 and 13: During our site visits, we had inte
Page 16 and 17: Volunteers feel like they are seein
Page 18 and 19: During our interview with him, Step
Page 20 and 21: Harney ElementaryBackgroundBefore g
Page 22 and 23: work!” the reading specialists to
Page 24 and 25: Other Community InvolvementIn addit
Page 26 and 27: Lacey ElementaryBackgroundPosters w
Page 28 and 29: Tracy learned about the WRC after h
Page 30 and 31: • They feel that fewer of the stu
Page 32 and 33: • Supplies and Miscellaneous Supp
Page 34 and 35: Kiwanis club provided funds toward
Page 36 and 37: PROFILESStudents, parents, local ci
Page 38 and 39: As for future plans, I am going to
Page 40 and 41: and AmeriCorps people there for the
Page 42 and 43: started to come out, and the rates
Page 44 and 45: major prior to entering the US Army
Page 46 and 47: members insight into various tutori
Page 48 and 49: I truly believe in this program and
Page 50 and 51: information back to Tillicum as the
Page 54 and 55: A tutor in Wenatchee began working
Page 56 and 57: the beginning of the year. By the e
Page 58 and 59: Table 2Summary of Slosson Scores* b
Page 60 and 61: THE WRC KEY AREA COODINATORS,COMPON
Page 62 and 63: TrainingThe following list outlines
Page 64 and 65: • Inviting parents to observe tut
Page 66 and 67: One key area coordinator said that
Page 68 and 69: • Participation in the WRC also b

Washington Reading Corps: Impacts of National Service and the ...

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