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August 11, 2000/10 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.48
Tutors teach book smartsHelping children to read 'rewarding,' say volunteers
TAMI BICKLEY
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 A student at Solomon Schechter Day School in Boston, left, tutors a pupil at Pauline Shaw School in Roxbury, Mass., as part of a Boston literacy program. Photos courtesy of the Greater Boston Jewish Coalition for Literacy |
Chances are, at least a few pupils in a class of 25 require more individualized training than group instruction allows.
Some children get this extra instruction at home. Others don't.
Tami Schultz, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, relays a favorite quote:
"Before third grade, children learn to read. After third grade, they read to learn."
Schultz does not remember where she first heard these words but says they made a tremendous impact on her.
"If we don't get to kids before they reach third grade, they are going to fall far behind," she says.
Last year, Schultz and Rick Naimark, volunteer chairman of the JCRC, attended a plenum in Baltimore of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), the national umbrella organization for JCRC. There, they learned about a reading literacy effort begun nationally three years ago. They decided to initiate a program in Phoenix.
The National Jewish Coalition for Literacy organizes Jewish community volunteers to tutor kindergarten through third-grade elementary school pupils at their local schools.
Boston initiated the program, calling it the Greater Boston Jewish Coalition for Literacy. Some 500 volunteers throughout the Boston area participate.
The effort now encompasses 36 communities, including Phoenix, where the local JCRC board and executive committee voted a year ago to start a Phoenix Jewish Coalition for Literacy.
Naimark chairs the local program.
From March through June, about 30 volunteers from throughout the Phoenix Jewish community spent one hour each week tutoring children in four Phoenix elementary schools: Sunnyslope, Esperanza, Mountain View and Longview.
A $5,000 grant from the Jewish Community Foundation funded the purchase of materials to publicize the program and to organize book drives and a kickoff event scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Burton Barr Central Library, 1221 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.
After the kickoff event, JCRC will resume tutoring at the four initial schools, plus Kuban Elementary.
Nearly 50 local volunteers are participating, and at least 30 schools have expressed interest in having their pupils tutored, Schultz says.
The response from teachers throughout Phoenix has been "very positive," says Naimark. "There is a tremendous need out there."
Jewish volunteers feel a need to reach out to children because "(Jews) are people of the book," Schultz says. "We often have an advantage (because we tend to be) highly educated. This is really a lesson in tikkun olam, trying to repair the world in any way that we can. What better way than to help others learn to read?"
Locally, each volunteer tutors the same pupil for one hour once a week for the duration of the school year. "This helps the tutor and child form a relationship," Schultz explains.
Teachers recommend for inclusion in the program pupils who have difficulty reading and are "most at-risk," Schultz says.
Volunteers attend one two-hour training session taught by elementary-school educators at the federation office. They then are assigned to a group, unless they already belong to a participating Jewish organization - JCRC; federation's Young Leadership Division or Women's Department; and Temple Chai.
Volunteers request a school location and time that works with their schedules.
Robert Mautner, a Phoenix attorney in private practice, took an hour out of his work schedule last spring to drive to Esperanza Elementary School to tutor Nikki, a first-grader.
He says the experience not only had a noticeable effect on Nikki, but changed his life, too.
"Initially, she was shy and somewhat reserved...but as the weeks went on, she became more active" and enthusiastic about learning, Mautner says. "I definitely got reinforcement from her and her teacher. Her teacher made a point of telling me that Nikki talked about me and looked forward to the time we would have together in the upcoming week, and (liked the fact) that someone was paying specific attention to her."
In the early weeks, Mautner found himself coaxing Nikki into reading when she instead wanted to play or color. But when he helped her understand that "the more she would read, the more she would know," she became serious about their sessions together.
Mautner says he looks forward to the opportunity to help improve another child's reading skills again this year.
Volunteer Helen Kriegsfeld says that she and her designated pupil both gained from the literacy program experience. Kriegsfeld, a JCRC board member and former Glendale College teacher, tutored Phillip, a first-grader at Esperanza.
"His teacher said that I made a difference, so it made me feel very good. I am very pleased with the entire experience," Kriegsfeld says.
Kriegsfeld found the training for the literacy program to be helpful because "teaching in a place other than elementary school is different," she explains. "Your approach to the students is different, and I did not teach reading (at Glendale College)."
Moreover, the manner in which students are taught to read these days is very different from 10 or 20 years ago, Schultz says.
"There are some educators who still deal with phonics, and there are some who deal with visual ways of reading. It's very interesting," she says.
Mautner had to learn how to communicate reading skills to young children in a way they could comprehend.
"There are things that don't come naturally to you when you have been reading for 30 or 40 years," he says. "It's hard to get (your mind) back to that stage when you didn't know how to pronounce words."
When volunteers discover that they have helped to improve their pupils' reading skills, "it's really rewarding," Mautner adds.
And not only did Kriegsfeld view her tutoring experience as positive, but she also found the training itself to be "very interesting and informative."
"It gave me insight into what's happening in the elementary schools, and what approaches they're using to teach reading," she says. "I now feel like I can be a better voter when I am voting on issues that affect the schools."
Though volunteers are primarily adults, older students are also welcome to participate. Schultz says the JCRC hopes eventually to follow Boston's model, involving Jewish day-school students in tutoring at public elementary schools. This, say Boston-area educators, not only helps to improve children's reading skills, but also promotes communication between Jewish and non-Jewish children, who often are from different cultural backgrounds.
Meanwhile, volunteers are needed for the Phoenix literacy program. For more information, call Schultz at 602-274-1800, ext. 135, or e-mail tschultz@jewishphoenix.org.
"This is community relations at its finest," Schultz notes. "This is the Jewish community going into the non-Jewish community and helping to build bridges and relationships."