Wilmington Rotary Club

Building literacy:
Tutoring Grade School Children and Buying Books
By Joe Walser and John Meehl
The Wilmington Rotary Club started a formal Literacy
Committee at the beginning of the 2012-13 year. The
committee’s mission was to focus efforts to help reading
and literacy in New Hanover County elementary schools
which had poorer populations, defined as schools with at
least 90 percent of the students getting free or reduced-price
lunches.
Volunteer tutoring in our city’s schools is an important
part of the Literacy Committee’s twin goals: to increase children’s
level of reading ability and to provide reading materials
for all students in our elementary schools.
That first goal is especially important for second-graders.
During that year, children are expected to develop their
reading levels and comprehension sufficiently to pass the national
reading test, which is given in the third grade.
The second goal, of providing
books for all children, will
be accomplished when every
elementary student in the New
Hanover County schools, regardless
of family resources, has
ready access to reading materials.
As of 2015, the Wilmington
Rotary club is working to supply
six of the county’s 25 elementary
schools with books and with
money to buy books.
The first year, the Club supported
two such schools, the next
year four, and this year is supporting
six: Wrightsboro, College
Park, Gregory, Sunset Park,
Mary C. Williams, and Rachel
Freeman elementary schools.
Sunset Park and Williams have
been in the program all three
years. We are focusing on just six
schools to ensure we have sufficient
resources—time and money—to
serve them well.
Rotarians provide help three
ways: members tutor students;
the club gives grants of $800
to each school to buy books for
their libraries or individual teachers’
classroom libraries; and by individual members donating
books or money. The objective of these gifts is for students
actually to own a book of their own. Often these children
have never owned a book that they could keep at home.
In 2014, the first year our club tutored elementary
school students, 19 Rotarians made 48 tutoring visits to four
schools from January through May. In the first three months
of the 2014-15 school year we have recorded 40 visits from
20 members, with three months to go on the school calendar.
The tutoring process, and volunteer tutors, are important
to meeting our literacy goals for two reasons.
First, an adult working oneon-one
with a student in English,
math, science, social studies, music,
art, and all the others, establishes an
important learning relationship. For
example, in tutoring a second-grader
in reading, the tutor asks the child
to read a page. The tutor notes any
words the child missed, has the student
look at those words and repeat
them several times, and then re-read
Rotarian volunteers Gary McNair and Sandra Kalom work one-on-one
tutoring pupils in New Hanover County elementary schools.
2012-
2015
Literacy:
tutoring
and books
the page correctly. The process
locks new vocabulary in the
child’s brain! When the student
has read an entire book, the tutor
says: “Close the book and tell me
what it was about. Who or what
was in it? What did they do?”
After the child answers
some of those questions, the tutor
goes a little deeper: “Great!
Now tell me what the story made
you think about, about today and
tomorrow in your life, in the life
of your family, or your friends.”
These questions, and the resulting
conversation with the tutor,
are vital to reading comprehension.
This is an important variable
in how we all think, make
decisions and act in daily life.
A second way tutoring
meets our literacy goals is by
providing financial help for public
education. State-mandated
budget reductions and restrictions
have resulted in the loss of
teachers and teachers’ aides. That
has resulted in largest classes
and, likely, lesser quality education.
Volunteer tutors help to fill
this growing gap and do so every school day.
The schools and the community very much appreciate
this service. We believe tutoring is a vital way that Rotarians
can follow Rotary’s calling to provide Service Above Self.
Rotarians Joe Walser and John Meehl are retired educators
and are active members of the club’s Literacy Committee.
42 Wilmington Rotary Club: 100 Years of Service Above Self