By Dominik Lobkowicz
Blake Smith pores over a page in a book about dinosaurs he’s reading with volunteer Debbie Peck. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
Volunteers who work with students at Jefferson Village School on reading help not only with things like pronunciation and comprehension, but also reinforce a sense of caring and connection with the community, officials say.
“The biggest thing in my mind is the volunteers come in and show the students that they care about them, that they want to help them, and kids see that other people value reading and care about them and they really want to work together and gain those skills to be successful,” said Principal Peter Gallace.
Jefferson Village School has about 20 volunteers who regularly come in for about an hour a week, primarily to work with students on reading, according to Joan Jackson.
Jackson, the school’s volunteer coordinator and a member of the Jefferson School Committee, is also a regular reading volunteer with the school’s first grade.
At least one volunteer works with the first grade class every day to give each student about 10 to 15 minutes of one-on-one reading, which is important to the development of a love of reading, first-grade teacher Celeste Turner said.
“I absolutely enjoy having people from the community come into my classroom,” Turner said. “I invite parents in, I invite board members in, and just people from the general community because it makes such a difference, especially to children who are just beginning readers.”
“Sometimes they don’t get all of the practice that they need, and this assures that every child, every day, gets to read one on one with an adult,” she said.
Two volunteers, husband and wife Debbie Peck and Ralph Martin, were reading with Turner’s students the morning of March 26. Peck helped Blake Smith read a book about dinosaurs (his favorite is Tyrannosaurus rex), and Martin worked with Halle Jones on “Tiger is a Scaredy Cat.”
“I miss it,” said Peck, a former teacher. “I love working with the kids – they’re just precious – and I believe in a good foundation for reading at an early age.”
Volunteer Ralph Martin looks on as first-grader Wyatt Flagg turns the page in the book they’re reading. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
Martin said he has seen a lot of improvement with the students over time, though he does not ascribe it to his participation as a volunteer.
“Some of them are advanced, you can tell that they read with their parents a lot, but others not so much,” he said.
Jackson also sees a wide range in reading ability among first-graders and wanted to remind parents of school-aged children and younger kids the Jefferson Public Library, located in JVS, is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m.
“Some children need more help sounding out words, and some kids are over the top,” she said.
In first grade, the volunteers start off reading with groups of students and change over to one-on-one reading during the year. The students pick out a book at their level and read aloud with the volunteer’s assistance, Jackson said.
Volunteers regularly coming in to read with the students provides a constant in the students’ lives, Jackson said, which she hopes will help lead to a lifetime love of reading and learning.
“Hopefully we can all strive to make a difference in a young child’s life. That’s what I’m trying to do,” she said.
In the middle level grades, English language arts teachers Jeanne Main and Jennifer St. Cyr work with combined classes of about 40 students each for grades five and six and seven and eight.
The classes are broken up into reading groups of about six students each, and community volunteers help by doing the required reading and facilitating group discussions with oral reading and comprehension questions, Main said.
“They’re looking into the deeper meaning, they’re looking into inferences, they’re looking into why did the character do this, what’s the author’s point of view,” substantially the same way the teachers interact with the reading groups, Main said.
Main said the middle level’s volunteers are wonderful, and specifically mentioned Bob and Karen George, who have volunteered for years, and Josiah Winchenbach, who Main said has made strong connections with the older boys.
Chloe Bryant, a sixth-grader who worked with the Georges in reading groups last year, said it’s like having one’s grandparents come to class and share their own stories that relate to a book.
“It’s really nice to have them come in because you can go back in history a little bit,” Bryant said.
The volunteers not only bring in new perspectives based on their life experiences, but also bring in supplementary materials they find, like articles on the reading, Main said.
“They’ve really enhanced the program, that’s really the only way to put it. They bring so much into it and the students love them,” Main said.
According to Gallace, someone from outside the school coming in to encourage students to read and showing how they use reading in their daily lives gives the kids a new perspective on the importance of reading.
“They’re doing a great job and we value them immensely,” Gallace said of the volunteers.
Anyone interested in volunteering should call the Jefferson Village School at 549-7491.
