Posts from the ‘Chit Chatting’ Category

Chit Chatting with New Haven Reads

Earlier this Fall we participated in your 1^st Annual Walk for Literacy.  So let’s start here.  Tell us more about your Walk for Literacy.

Thank you for participating! The Walk for Literacy was the brainchild of one of our volunteers, Tom Schrader. His mom runs our Kindergarten program and Tom definitely shares her passion for education and service. Tom wanted to do something to help us raise awareness, attract volunteers and try to also raise some money. We felt that the walk was a big success and are working with the Yale McDougal Public Service Fellows to plan next year’s walk.

Now before we get any further, fill us in about New Haven Reads.  You know, the basics like who are you and what do you do?

The New Haven Reads Community Book Bank (NHR) increases access to books through our book bank and is complemented by our after-school tutoring program that teaches children how to read and enjoy those books. NHR’s goal is to connect people with the materials and the training they need to break the cycle of illiteracy.

Our program goal is to help children in the Greater New Haven area increase their literacy skills by providing free after-school tutoring services in three locations. Currently, we occupy a building in the Dixwell neighborhood in New Haven that has a front “bookstore” area for browsers, and a larger backroom for tutoring. Our second venue is a citywide Literacy Resource Center at Science Park that has been set up through the cooperation of the City of New Haven for job counseling, Literacy Volunteers of Greater New Haven for adult tutoring, Concepts for Adaptive Learning for a computer training program, and New Haven Reads for tutoring young people. NHR has also expanded to the nearby Dixwell Yale University Community Learning Center (DYCLC). These expansions have allowed us to tutor significantly more children thereby decreasing our waiting list, which currently has more than 200 children.

Reading is a life long gift that I personally am passionate about.  I know you are, too.  How did New Haven Reads get started and how long have you been around?

Our mission is to “share the joy and power of reading.” We started out in 2001 as a community book bank that provided free books to the community. One day, a homeless family with ten children came in requesting homework help and that need launched our tutoring program, which has ballooned into our organization’s most popular activity. Now, over 450 children come in each week for free after-school tutoring with a dedicated volunteer tutor six days a week. We are the size of a small school!

We continue to send regular deliveries of books to over 25 organizations in New Haven, including schools, soup kitchens, job centers, hospitals, and daycare centers. In 2005, NHR was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. NHR’s formula – collect free new and used books and distribute free books – is simple and effective. We give an average of 100,000 free books to the community each year.

Our mission is to share the joy and power of reading. Our goal is to connect people with the materials and the training they need to break the cycle of illiteracy.

Let’s talk tutoring.  Your free afterschool tutoring has become “the heart of your activities.”  What kind of tutoring do you offer?  Who is eligible?  Who does the tutoring?

Our tutoring model is simple and straightforward: every student receives at least one hour of one-on-one instruction each week with a dedicated tutor. We serve students who live within the Greater New Haven area and are in grades K-12. 96% of our students go to New Haven Public Schools, where 77% of the student population is eligible for Free/Reduced Lunch. We have no income requirements or restrictions, but provide service on a first come, first serve basis, with some preferential treatment given to children from families who are homeless.

The program content and volunteer tutors are chosen and monitored by the NHR team, which includes several staff members with extensive tutoring, mentoring, and teaching experience. NHR actively recruits volunteer tutors through both word of mouth and community outreach activities such as volunteer fairs. Many of our volunteers come from Yale, Quinnipiac, and the University of New Haven. We also have some work study students who help us. Several high school students also volunteer. Additionally, we work with local businesses, retirees, teachers, and police officers. We have over 300 volunteers who come in weekly.

NHR provides tutor training throughout the year to communicate teaching strategies and general reading goals for each grade level as well as daily feedback from NHR staff using the tutee’s lesson notebook (updated at each session). Our program-wide tools allow NHR to monitor the progress of each child individually and the effectiveness of the program as a whole. Working individually with the students allows tutors and staff to recommend additional activities and support offered by NHR or our community partners geared towards helping the student succeed in school and life.

My guess is that you have a whole slew of success stories!  Tell us about one (or two, or three!) of your students you’re most proud of.

We do have a whole slew of success stories! Here are a few:

Several students with whom we work increased their grades as a result of working with their tutors. A first grade student on our waiting list was attending homework table on a regular basis. As soon as we had an available volunteer tutor and available space, we were able to schedule her twice a week to help this ELL (English Language Learner) student overcome reading and writing challenges. At the end of the school year, her father came into the office to inform us that his daughter was being promoted to second grade! He felt that this was only possible thanks to the help his daughter received at NHR. He now refers to our staff as family.

You may know the bleak statistic that currently fewer than half of African-American young men graduate from high school. We have two examples of middle school boys who will surely beat this statistic. They have been coming to NHR for several years and come in everyday to work on homework and school projects. When they are through working, they volunteer by helping out around NHR. These young men are beginning to see the rewards of self-motivation and dedication in their academic standing and in their social lives. We look forward to the great successes that await these young men and are so happy to offer them support and encouragement.

Some of our stories include innovative tutors who make learning fun for students. One such story includes a tutor who used her own American Girl doll as an incentive to get her student to read a stack of books. This tutor knew that her student loved the American Girl dolls and gave her student her doll when she completed reading the books. The student not only received a special gift in the doll, she also increased her reading skills and had a great time doing it!

With the pressures schools feel to “achieve” in Literacy and Math thanks to No Child Left Behind, what role do you believe you play in this formula?

Given that less than 25% of New Haven third graders are reading “at/above goal,” we feel a great sense of urgency to help students as soon as we can and for as long as we can. Our role is to support the work of the schools and to ensure that children succeed. Because our tutors work one-on-one with the same student on a weekly basis on reading, math and by providing homework help, this additional educational help improves students’ reading and math skills. We test a sample of students at the beginning and end of the school year using a standardized reading test. Based on these results, on average 77% of our students improved their reading levels. We are proud of these numbers and are constantly striving to increase them. We also feel the pressure of demand from parents whose children are on our wait list.

Speaking of schools, what do you think of the recent announcement about New Haven Promise – New Haven Public School’s promise to provide scholarships for kids to attend a public college or university in Connecticut for free (or pay up to $2500/year to attend a private university).

We are thrilled about the New Haven Promise! This is a wonderful incentive for students and we have posted information for families to learn more about it. We are talking to some teachers and parents about our role in helping students academically as well as with their volunteer obligations in order for them to be eligible to participate in the New Haven Promise.

We are also starting to help students prepare for college in other ways. Last summer we launched our SAT prep course and had great success. Our students, on average, improved their scores by 300 points! We are looking forward to offering more SAT prep classes and are planning to partner with the organization Ready, Set, Launch that helps kids with the college application process.

The saying goes that parents are a child’s first teacher.  What’s your laundry list of things parents can do at home to promote a literacy-rich environment?

• Talk to your child! Talk about the world around you, talk about the food you eat and the things you like to do, and ask about things they are doing.
• Help children learn new words by using lots of language in conversation.
• Work on recognizing letter names and shapes. Practice the alphabet by pointing out letters whenever you see them.
• Listen to the sounds of spoken language, especially the beginning and ending sounds of words and rhyming words.
• Read to children everyday and let them see you reading.
• Talk about what you read and ask lots of questions.
• Ensure that there are books in the home for children to read. NHR provides free books to help parents build home libraries. Also, studies show that the more books a student is exposed to at home, the better that student does in school.

Finally, it’s important to reiterate that New Haven Reads is powered by its volunteers.  How can folks become more involved with New Haven Reads?

We definitely rely on our wonderful volunteers and could not operate without them. Anyone who is interested can email our Volunteer Coordinator, Leslie Derr, at leslie@newhavenreads.org, stop by our location at 45 Bristol Street or call us at 203-752-1923. We need volunteers to help us with tutoring, books, our front desk, IT support, website, and general administrative duties. Please visit our website, www.newhavenreads.org for more information.

Many thanks to Chris Alexander and Kirsten Levinsohn, NHR’s Co-Executive Directors as well as Tanya Smith, NHR Education Director and Catherine Strickland, NHR Assistant Director for all their time and effort with this interview.  ~kim