Reading Volunteers: Building a Community of Readers

Reading Together

"Dear Diane, (All names are pseudonyms) Your time spent reading with me has been invaluable. I

know that we haven't had as much time to read together this spring as I would have liked. ** But the

lessons you have taught me about reading have made me grow as a reader, and the discussions we have

had have brought me new insights. I have also enjoyed your companionship. I value our talks about

current events and life, and your perspective is always interesting. I am sad that our time at Odyssey is

drawing to a close, but I hope our friendship can continue on.

Thank you for all the good times,

Michael Frank

[**Michael had a shattered ankle that semester and spent a couple of weeks out of school.]

This note was written by Michael Frank, an eighth grade boy to his reading volunteer, Diane, just

before his graduation from the Odyssey School. Diane is an Odyssey parent, who also happened to be a

professor of literature. Michael is a proficient reader who enjoys all kinds of reading. Diane had read

with Michael as her volunteer job at the school for five years.

The Odyssey School is an Expeditionary Learning charter school in Denver Colorado serving 226

children and 156 families in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. The school's population consist

of forty-six percent minority with thirty-three percent of the children provided free or reduced lunch.

The Odyssey school is a community of learners and readers. Each classroom is full of good books.

Students have regularly scheduled sustained silent reading during the week. Teachers and students look

forward to and enjoy read a-loud times. Into this solid philosophical framework where reading real

1

books is prized, parents, grandparents, staff members and community are invited to share reading with

their own and others' children.

An invitation to read and to converse with a child about a book is an excellent way to bring parents,

grandparents and community members into the classroom. There is the presence of a story, the guiding

interpretation of the illustrator, and the thread of common interests that bind the readers together

across generations.

In the kindergarten and first grade, shared reading happens in the flow of each day's schedule. Every

morning parents are encouraged to stay and read with their child for fifteen minute and most do.

Children, whose parents cannot stay that day, bunch around the parents who are there. Once a week,

volunteers stand in for parents who can only rarely be there. The classroom buzzes softly with groups of

parents and children huddled around favorite stories. After that, parents kiss and hug the child who

then joins the opening circle of the school day.

For second through eighth grades, volunteers commit to share reading with one child or a small

group of children for the first forty-five minutes of the day, one day a week throughout the whole year.

This year Odyssey has 105 reading volunteers. Of these, forty percent are Odyssey family members

(about a third of all Odyssey families). Thirteen percent are staff, seven percent are former Odyssey

parents and grandparents and the rest are community volunteers.

Unlike other reading volunteer and tutoring programs as documented in books such as Book Buddies

(Johnston and Invernizzi, 2009) and Literacy Tutoring that Works (Richards and Lassonde, 2009) a

student does not have to be an emergent or struggling reader or even at risk of failure, to be able to

have a volunteer. In fact, this year, in second through eighth grades ninety-seven percent of our

students read with a volunteer either one-on- one or in a small group. Volunteers do not like to

disappoint a child, so except for illnesses, out of the ordinary work obligations and an occasional short

2

trip, volunteers’ attendance is remarkably dependable. Since friendships bonds are formed, it is not

unusual for a volunteer to stay with a child year after year. Also, unlike many other reading mentoring

program, the times for volunteers are not before or after school, but during school so that the work that

the volunteers and the buddies do together can support or be supported by the work that goes on in

the classroom.

The list of benefits for students of all ages is clearly evident and long. A volunteer can help the child

sustain enthusiasm for a book, offer background knowledge, help interpret vocabulary, provides focus,

decrease self-consciousness around reading outloud, suggest decoding strategies, connect to other

books, provide a friendly audience for a retell, guide students to recognize the important parts,

promote thoughtful questioning, extend the memory of the story due to the emotional tags of sharing

the story with a caring friend, establish the practice of conversing about books, initiate the idea that

adults can be intellectual friends, help to extend inferences , and, perhaps most importantly, increase

the number of books that a child completes and understands deeply.

*******************************

Yet the program only works because the volunteers themselves receive ample benefits. The first and

foremost benefit is sharing the absolute wonder of books across generations. Pause here a moment to

picture any time in the history of mankind before the invention of movies, T.V. and the computer. What

I hope you see in your mind's eye is groups of people gathered together in moments of restfulness

between the duties of the day. What I hope you are imagining is stories being shared.

To love stories is our nature. Here in the hallways and classrooms of Odyssey, we continue that

tradition through books. The striking thing is how mutual the sharing is. Predictably, many adult

volunteers bring the books they loved best as children to share with their buddies: My Father's Dragon

by Ruth Stiles Gannett (Yearling, 2007), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (Puffin, 2007),

3

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder( Harperfestival , 2005), Harriet the Spy by Louise

Fitshugh (Yearling, 2001) and of course To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Popular Library, 1988).

Rereading these books through the lens of life's experiences with students a generation or two later,

adults often have painful or reassuring revelations about the books themselves. They rediscover Wilder

as a writer with virtuoso clarity and simplicity. Fitshugh's Harriet attracts more sympathy as one sees

her as a lonely child growing up to professional parents in New York of the fifties. Harper Lee's six year-

old Scout's stands out glowing with innocence against the violent racism of a small town which would

knowingly convict an innocent man.

I would never have predicted, however, how frequently the adult becomes caught by a book in which

the child is engrossed. A volunteer leaves Odyssey with J.K. Rawling's Harry Potter (Scholastic

Paperbacks, 1998) under her arm. Another finishes all three tomes of the Christopher Paolini's

Inheritance Trilogy, Eragon, Eldest and Brisinger (Perfection Learning, 2005) before her buddy is done

with the first. A non-believer in modern teen fiction cannot put down Rick Riordan's The Lightening

Thief (Miramax Books, 2006) . The list goes on. A volunteer who is tight on time to get to work, cannot

make himself leave without first examining the conversation that he and his boy bookgroup just had

about child clone raised for spare parts in Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion (Simon Pulse,

2004).

Thoughtful volunteers often have a mental exploration of the signifying characteristics of this

generation as compared to their own as buddies and volunteers have conversations around old and

new books. They comment on their own horror and the students' nonchalance at the premise of

Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2008) where children fight each other to their deaths.

Volunteers marvel at how the kids move from eager absorbers of action in Frank Beddor's The Looking

Glass Wars (Speak, 2007) inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland to probing difficult questions

4

and mature language in Sherman Alexis's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown

Books for young Readers, 2009) . Collectively, we adults paused and took a small breath, when a group

of four middle school boys started the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Back Bay Books, 2009) where are

a young girl is brutally murdered and then is portrayed in heaven looking down on her family as they

struggle to rebuild their lives. We collectively exhaled when the boys, unanimously, decided that it really

was not to their taste and put it down.

This is a social network for both the adults and the kids. Groups share out the high points of the

books that they have read in a special classroom event with a structure something like a farmer's

market. Except here what is bought and sold is not the garden's harvest, but book recommendations.

First, one half of the groups, the presenters, talk about their favorite books to their classmates. The

other half, the planners, strolls from table to table. They ask questions and take notes in order to

construct a list of books that they hope to read next. Then the presenters switch with the planners.

This is a social network. It is as wide and deep as the global community of readers.

***********************************************************************************

OK, so it is not all that rosy. There are times when a child loves a book that a volunteer finds

repetitive and trivial. Realistically, not all children's books are David Wiesner’s Tuesday (Sandpiper,

1997) or Gary Paulson's, My Life in Dog Years (Yearling, 1999). Still the volunteer keeps coming. The

adult is willing to work through a goofy cartoon book or another vampire romance because they know

that the child has made a choice that is important to him or her. The child is enjoying the chosen book.

The child is exercising agency and the volunteer is the one who can give the child the assistance or the

capacity to get through that book or help the child see more than the child would have understood on

his or her own. The adult greatly values building a close relationship with a child in a safe environment.

5

Also, although, we would prefer it never to be the case, there are groups that just do not work

initially. There are insecure and reluctant readers who avoid reading by mumbling and trios of girls that

bicker. Sometimes volunteer expectations and kid personalities just clash. Then there is work to be done

to make the reading pair or bookgroup work. We have to work harder to find the perfect book. We

have to work through everyone's expectations. We have to find a new cozy reading space. We have to

remind ourselves of the power of celebrations and remember to bring bagels and hot chocolate. Time

after time this work is rewarded by renewal: reinvesting in books and recognition of commitment in the

friendship.

Sharing books and building a close relationship with a child are the main volunteer benefits. However,

most volunteers do not sign up conscious of seeking something for their own good. Most volunteers

sign up because they want to make a difference in the ability of a child to sustain reading and to

comprehend books. Volunteers often ask me, "Have I made a difference?" The answer is always, “yes".

In the post-No Child Left Behind educational climate of today, conversations about reading often

focus on progress, the movement of a child from one level to the next. Yes, we do want children to

progress in the difficulty of what they can and want to read. But perhaps even more importantly, we

want them to grow into seeing the depth of what they read. We want them to see more and deeper

layers in all that they read.

We want them to move from the early joy of rhythm and rhyme to the multifaceted appreciation of

how words sound and flow together through alliteration, beat, phrasing, and word choice. We want a

child to appreciate silliness but grow to understanding satire, comedy and irony. We want children to

not be able to put a book down, but we want them to grow to understand a genre's antecedents,

assumptions, and structure.

6

What most parents consider "learning to read" is that first stage when a child learns to associate

specific sounds with individual and groups of letters. The acquisition of those skills occurs and is most

easily measured and documented only in the first stages of a child's reading path.

The real rub, however, comes in for most children sometime in second or third grade, after the child

can comfortably read and enjoy John Peterson's The Littles (Scholastic Paperbacks, 1993) or Barbara

Park's Junie B Jones (Random House Book for Young Readers , 2001). Then parents, teachers and

volunteers begin the continuous work of guiding kids who can read to become readers. This is a lifelong

process which involves developing and sustaining interests, creating quiet space and time, associating

with others who talk about articles and books, knowing how to alter reading approaches with different

material, and incorporating the ideas in what we read in our own mental dialog. This is often the work

that schools and even families cannot always do for their children. Yet it is the work that safeguards the

strength of our democracy. A reading friend, over time, can at least accompany a student on that path

to becoming a lifelong thoughtful reader.

Each volunteer steps into the child's reading life at a different place and each child responds

differently. A teacher just does not have the time to do that for each child. There is not one goal and not

one outcome. These multiple outcomes are not all capable of being measured by a letter grade, a rank,

or a test score. Volunteers touch the student at the point where they need it. That is the reason for an

individual volunteer for one student or a small group of students. Yes. Each volunteer contributes to the

reading life of a child. The benefits are often deeper and more diverse than even the volunteer can

imagine.

*********************************************************************************

Volunteers do not ask if they have benefitted the school as a whole, but they should. Schools create

a space with very clear expectations of conduct and required work. In that space, children are assessed

7

and ranked according to their performance against those prescribed expectations. Immediately,

discomfort exists for the students who cannot or do not perform to the exact standards as set. Yet

much of the child's life will take place where their own choice and with whom they associate will not be

made with external concrete goals in mind. Absolute, frequent, and public rankings are for the most

part, a school artifact. Those artificial motivators are just not present for the life of the mind after most

children leave school. The interests and skills learned at school often do not transfer to life habits.. This

is true especially when the habits learned at school have no congruence with the duties and structures

of the child's home. Volunteers provide an unschool-like space within the boundary of a school. It is,

however, not the culture of home either. Expectations for reading and talking about reading are high

and socially endorsed by the administration, teachers, adults, and peers. Yet when the child is with his

or her volunteer, the teachers do not make the choices, establish the parameters or set the goals.

Conversations are not directed by the teachers or the state standards. The conversations flow from the

impetus or whims of the group and are not judged. To use a phrase that Sheila Benson borrows from the

works of H.K. Bhabba, a "third space" is created. According to Benson, " Bhabba (1994) argued that

there are two cultural spaces: one created by the majority groups and imposed on the minority groups

and one that minority groups see as their actual culture. Minority groups reclaim their identity by

creating a third space: a space within the already-determined first space that speaks back to the first

space stereotypes." Benson lays the groundwork for this to be applied to schools when she writes,

"because third space is part of both other spaces and yet new, it allows the creator of the third space to

detach temporarily from already existing parameters and examine them with newer eyes. An individual

can never detach completely from the systems within which the individual already exists, but third space

allows important breathing room." Benson (2010)

The analogy here is that regular school norms is the dominant culture imposed upon the

students. The student's own culture is set by their peers and family. But In reading volunteer time,

8

school does not feel like school. There is a sense of warmth and caring, but it does not feel like home

either. Being in school provides the volunteer session with the required tension and context needed to

push the children into participating. Then the child uses that push to begin to make his or her own

choices. Sometimes students make book choices which extend what they have learned in school by

choosing books along content lines established in the classroom. After the seventh and eighth grade

students finished a semester on the conflict between Palestine and Israel, a number of students chose

to read Suzanne Fisher Staple's novels Shabanu (Laurel Leaf, 2003) and Havili (Laurel Leaf, 1995)

about a Palestinian girl who becomes a bride and then a mother. Their interest had been piqued by

their studies and they chose to deepen their understanding. At the same time, another group was

intrigued by the Autobiography of Malcolm X as t old to Alex Haley (Mass Market Paperback, 1987)

because they wanted to explore something different than what was being taught. Students often have

a striking feeling of possibility, almost power, that an adult will support their choice, even follow their

lead. This is especially important since books are a powerful way for all children to explore their own

inner and outer paths on the road to constructing their identities.

Through participating in one of these bookgroups, there is the possibility for students to find a deep

pleasure in losing themselves in a book. It can happen. I know. Last year Ali was a new sixth grader in

our school. He was so quiet and reserved that the staff was watching him carefully for some organic

cause. Then one day, about a week after I had handed Ali and his volunteer Hoot by Carl Hiasson, amid

the bustle of kids changing classes, someone loudly called my name. I looked back to see a very tall child

of Iranian descent yelling to me above the heads of his classmates "Julie! Thank you. I LOVE that

BOOK." We, the community of Odyssey readers, agree with the ideas of Thomas Newkirk when he

writes in his book Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting

For, "unless we can persuade students that reading is a form of deep sustained pleasure, they will not

choose to read, and because they will not choose to read, they will not develop the skills to make them

9

good readers" (p. 117; emphasis in original). Don't all schools, all literacy classrooms, want every

child to find what Ali found?

************************************

Of course schools receive more obvious benefits too. Parents nervous about a role in the school find

reading with one child to be an easy entrance to taking part in the culture of the school. We want

parents in the classroom so that their children see that their parents believe that reading and school is

important. We want parents in the classroom so that the parents can soak up the words and lessons on

the classroom walls. We want parents in the classroom so that the chasm that exists between school

and home cultures can be breached. We want volunteers from the broader community in the classroom

so they can be ambassadors back to the neighborhood about the students and the character of the

school. At Odyssey, visitors to the school first thing in the morning are always struck by the good

feeling in the classrooms and halls as kids and adults are perched in nooks and crannies reading to one

another.

The school also receives the benefit of the additional eyes and ears caring about each student. At

the end of each volunteer session, the volunteer writes in the child's documentation folder what

happened as well any questions. These folders are open to the child's parents, the child's teacher and

the volunteer coordinator. Once a year, all the volunteers of each class meets with the teacher to

discuss what each volunteer sees as the arc of their reading year. No child can hide from notice. No child

is left behind.

A parent who volunteers to read with a child other than his or her own sees the school in a new light.

That parent is more able to take disinterested advice about how to read with a child. That parent can

pick up new habits of playfulness and enjoyment in reading that he or she can transfer to his or her own

10

children. The volunteer can better understand the spectrum of students and needs in a classroom that a

teacher faces each day.

Imagine the web of caring that grows in a small school when each week a significant portion of the

parent population reads with someone else’s child. That web of caring is once again reinforced by

celebration. At the end of the year, parents and volunteers all come together to celebrate books and

reading together over coffee, fruit, juice, bagels and muffins. And to each other, everyone promises that

they will do what they can to be back next year. This is a moment of magic.

***************************** ****************************************************

A successful volunteer program is not a quick fix for anything. Successful volunteer programs take

time to build and grow.

If a school is interested in inviting their own community of families into the hallows of the school as

volunteers, they need to make sure that the volunteer program has certain supports. The volunteers

must have a clearly defined role in which they have some autonomy. Their time must be used

efficiently. They must be welcomed by staff, students and teachers. They must feel that their work is

valued and valuable. The times must be consistent and convenient. They must get the training that

they need to be able to do their job well and there must be a point person who has time to answer

questions and suggest approaches or activities knowledgably. They must have access to multiple copies

of good books. They can never feel that they are placed in situations where they are responsible for

decisions involving disciplining a child. It is a plus if they can make connections and friendships with

other volunteers who are involved in the same work as they are. Finally, volunteers are happier if the

relationship to the school has the possibility for a long term growth.

11

Most school administrations will think that having a committed cadre of volunteers is too much work

for their already burdened budget and staff, but if you can be a school with the desire, capacity and

ingenuity are there, the rewards are great.

This letter was written by an 82 year-old volunteer on the occasion of the graduation of her buddy

from the Odyssey School.

Dear Julie, To the Captain of the Reading Crew of the venerable ship, Odyssey. Your teaching program

is one of the most valuable parts of the Journey. Thank you for giving me Matt Merton as my reading

buddy. It has been 7 years of sheer Joy. With Fond memories and Love, Esther

12

The following are the 2009-2010 eighth grade bookgroups. (Four seventh graders are mixed in.) I have

chosen to present the eighth grade bookgroups as opposed to a sample of all grades in response to the

current national concern about reading among adolescents, particularly adolescent boys.

Each caption includes: 1. The role of the adult in the Odyssey community. 2. How long the group has

been together. 3. The books that the bookgroup has read this year.

1. Middle School humanities teacher 2. First year 3. Coraline (Neil Gaimon), I am the Messenger (Markus Zusak), Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury), Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Susanne Collins), The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton), Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger), The Illustrated Man (Ray Bradbury).

1.Odyssey intern 2. First year 3. Daniel's Story (Carol Matas), Feed (M. T. Anderson), To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton), Crank (Ellen Hopkins) .

1 An Odyssey couple takes turns meeting with this group. 2. One student for five years. The other two students joined this year. 3. Night (Elie Wiesel), Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins), Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A. Heinlein), Feed (M.T. Anderson), Looking Glass War (Frank Beddor).

1. Spouse of an Odyssey teacher 2. First year Sunrise Over Faluja ( Walter Dean Myers), Hunger Games, Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins), NIght (Elie Wiesel) The Maze Runner (James

13

Dashner), American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang), Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor).

1. Odyssey Parent 2. Four Years 3 Dropping in with Andy Mac (MacDonald and DiGeronimo), Slam (Walter Dean Meyers), Peter and the Star Catchers (Pearson and Barry), Fallen Angels (Walter Dean Myers), Daniel's Story (Carol Matas).

1. Community volunteer 2. Seven years 3. Maus 1 (Art Spiegelman), Sunrise Over Faluja (Walter Dean Myers), Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins), Bad Boy (Walter Dean Myers), American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang), Life Sucks (Abel and Soria).

1.Odyssey Office Manager 2.One student for two years, the other two students joined this year 3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Suanne Collins), The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin), Through the Gate (Janet Anderson) This group also met to read Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins) as soon as it came out last summer.

1. An Odyssey Grandparent. 2. Seven years. 3. Daniel's Story (Carol Matas), Enders Game (Orson Scott Card), I am the Messenger (Marcus Zuzak), A Hole in My Life (Jack Gantos).

14

1. Community volunteer. 2. Two years for three students. The fourth student joined this year. 3. This group was unusual because it was put together so the students could follow their love of poetry. They read and wrote poetry. Some of their favorite books were Poetry in Motion ( Molly Peacock (Ed.)), The Invisible Ladder (Lis Rosenberg (Ed.)), A Kick in the Head (Paul B. Janeczko), New and Selected Poems (Thomas Lux ) , Haiku Anthology (Cor Vander Heuval (Ed.), Elephant Rocks (Kay Ryan).

1. Middle school Science teacher 2. Second year for two of these student, third student joined this year 3. Daniel's Story (Carol Matas), Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes (Maureen Johnson), Money Hungry (Susan Flake), The Cage (Ruth Minsky), Looking for Alaska (John Green), Dr. Franklin's Island (Ann Halam), Hunger Games and Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins), Catalyst ( Laurie Halse Anderson) .

1.Community volunteer and therapy dog 2. One student for three years, second student for two years 3. The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), I Have Lived 1000 Years (Livian Bitten Jackson), HalfBroke Horses (Jeannette Walls), Marked, Chosen and Betrayed (Cast and Cast), American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang).

1.An Odyssey parent. 2.Three years with one student. two years with the other. All But My Life (Gerda Weisman Klein) Next (Michael Crichton), Catcher in the Rye ( J.D. Salinger) , The Outsiders ( S. E.. Hinton) 1984 (Geoge Orwell), American Born Chinese ( Gene Luen Yang) Pyongyang (Guy Delishe), The BFG (Roald Dahl).

15

References

Benson, S. (2010). "I Don't Know if That'd Be English or Not": Third Space Theory and Literacy Instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53 (7) 555-563.

Johnston, F.,& Invernizzi, M., Lewis-Wagner, D., (2009) Book Buddies A Tutoring Framework for Struggling Readers, second edition New York: Guilford

Newkirk, T. Holding on to Good Ideas in A Time of Bad Ones: Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For (2009) Portsmouth, NM: Heinemann

Richards, J., &Lassonde, C., (2009) Literacy Tutoring that Works A Look at successful in-school, after-school and summer programs Newark, DE: International Reading Association

16