Teaching reading skills to K-3 students with volunteers
Abstract
SMART (Start Making a Reader Today) is a book and reading program in elementary schools throughout Oregon. The program matches children one-on-one with adult reading volunteers and provides free age-appropriate books the children can take home to share with their families. This effective practice is excerpted from the paper, Success with SMART: One Child at a Time, written by AmeriCorps*VISTA member Alatasi Clancy, which won the Jury's Choice Award at the 2001 Northwest National Service Symposium, hosted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.Issue
Oregon schools were faced with two significant problems in the early 1990s: educators expressed their frustration that many students were entering elementary school one to two years behind their peers in reading skills, and the number of volunteers involved with schools was on the decline.Action
The mission of the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) Project is to "enable adult volunteers and communities to experience the rewards of enriching young lives while enhancing the reading skills, attitudes, and life prospects of children who need assistance."
If someone can read, she or he is a potential SMART volunteer. Volunteers are asked to serve one hour a week, one half hour each for two children. To ensure safety and quality, volunteers go through a background check and an orientation.
Volunteers and students share their time reading aloud and discussing the stories they read. While students gain from increased literacy, they also receive regular attention from a committed adult, an experience that may otherwise be missing from their lives.
Through local and statewide donations, SMART gives each student two new books per month with the hope those students will carry their new eagerness for reading to their family members at home.
SMART is based on the precept that reading aloud to children from early infancy is vital to literacy development.
The communities themselves provide the funds and volunteers to operate the SMART program, enabling schools to foster good reading habits without a monetary strain.
Context
The SMART program is the brainchild of former Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt and the law firm of Ater, Wynne, Hewitt, Dodson & Skerritt. In 1991, they created the Oregon Children's Foundation to address the growing needs of Oregon's youth. The SMART program was borne from this foundation. Teachers choose students for SMART based on the following criteria:
- The student is within the lowest 25 percent of the class in reading skills.
- There are limited books in the student's home.
- The student is in need of a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult.
- Other programs are not meeting the student's needs.
Citation
Clancy, Alatasi. "Success with SMART: One child at a time." Stories of Service: National Service in the Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2001.Outcome
In January 1992, the SMART program was first implemented in eight elementary schools. It is now active in 216 schools throughout Oregon.
Students make gains in self-confidence and in their passion for reading. Volunteers become introspective about their role in decreasing the illiteracy rate.
Bunker Hill Elementary School Principal Gael Berhow, who was initially unsure about the SMART program, now emphasizes the school staff's excitement about the program. Children who have not been chosen by their teachers to be in the program want to be involved. Parents call the school to ask if their children can be added to the program.
Posted On
July 3, 2001Resources
Read "Success with SMART: One Child at a Time" by Alatasi Clancy.
From The Resource Center library:
Stories of Service: National Service in the Northwest
Item number: M1857