Reading Tutors so Popular, APS Needs More

By Susie Gran SGRAN@ABQTRIB.COM / 823-3682

Volunteer reading tutors are so popular at three Albuquerque elementary schools that children don’t want them to miss a day.

Absent tutors are a problem, said Bernadette Sanchez, the Albuquerque Public Schools administrator for Albuquerque Reads, a volunteer tutoring program that helps kindergartners read.

“We need more tutors who will show up,” Sanchez said.

When tutors don’t show up, children “get this sad little face,” said Sally Giannini, Bel-Air Elementary School coordinator for the program. “I had one who cried.”

Needed are tutors committed to regular attendance and substitute tutors who can be on call at a moment’s notice, Sanchez said.

Target groups include schooldistrict employees who work in offices, the University of New Mexico, and AOL.

“Attendance is one of our problems,” Giannini said Thursday. “We don’t want to chastise our volunteers, we appreciate them, but we need more. Seven children did not get tutored today.”

Tutors and substitute tutors are needed at Wherry and Atrisco elementary schools as well as Bel-Air. In total, 255 children at the three schools receive tutoring through Albuquerque Reads, the largest volunteer tutoring effort in the city.

Sanchez said that when Albuquerque Reads counted more than 650 volunteers this school year, she thought the program was fully staffed. AOL and UNM were discouraged to send more volunteers; now, Sanchez needs them.

She’s also turning to colleagues at the school district.

“I’m starting to make the calls,” she said. “We can take more volunteers.”

A group of volunteers was being trained Friday at Wherry, and another group was scheduled for Nov. 2 at Bel-Air Elementary School. A total of 62 signed up for training.

Sanchez said another training will be scheduled as soon as possible as volunteers express an interest.

When tutors are absent, children don’t get one-on-one tutoring, which amounts to reading and writing with adults trained to help by Albuquerque Reads coordinators.

Volunteers help kindergartners 30 minutes three times per week.

Tutors read to students, students read to tutors, students dictate sentences for the tutor to write and students read their own words to their tutors. Students also write their names and other words for the tutors.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Beth Everitt, a former reading teacher, said she’d like to tutor, but it’s hard to find the time.

“I have the same problem as our business partners,” she said. “We want all of our volunteers to know we appreciate their time. They are doing a great service.”

Albuquerque Reads is a venture between the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the school district. The business community has provided many volunteers, allowing them to take the time off work.

The effort has helped hundreds of APS kindergartners improve reading skills, according to data gathered at the three schools from the first two years of the program. This is the program’s third year.

After nine months of tutoring, 72 percent of the children were reading at or above grade level. Another 21 percent were on the verge of reading at grade level.

HOW TO HELP

To become a volunteer for Albuquerque Reads, call Angie Gurule, 855-5275, or visit www.abqchamber.com. Tutoring starts in October and goes through May.