The Fresno Bee, Calif., Bill McEwen Column: Drive to Help Kids Learn to Read Better
By Bill McEwen, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
May 11–Vanessa Raso is tutoring three children in reading when I approach and ask one of the students to name a favorite book.
Jane Najera smiles, fidgets and eventually points to the “Henry and Mudge” book in the center of the table.
Stories about Henry and his 180-pound dog are popular with elementary school students in the reading-improvement program run by the Fresno Covenant Foundation.
And if people respond positively to the Tree of Knowledge Book Drive under way through May 21, Jane and other students will start the summer with a personal copy of a favorite book.
The idea was planted in December when Jenny Brietigam, community relations director for the nonprofit foundation, met Liesl Garner of Garner Tree Services at a Fresno County Women’s Chamber of Commerce event.
They hit it off and came up with a book drive sponsored by the company owned by Garner and her husband, Scott.
“We’re asking for new or gently used books,” Brietigam says. “They will be wrapped and given to the kids.”
The book drive is about more than rewarding kids and stocking tutoring-center libraries; it is an opportunity for the foundation to tell its success story.
Begun in 1999, the foundation strives to strengthen the community by tutoring students and mentoring parents. This year, there are about 500 students in the program for below-grade-level readers.
Volunteers work with a child up to four times a week on word and punctuation recognition, oral reading and comprehension. Each child’s reading is assessed upon entering the program and every nine weeks thereafter.
In short: This isn’t afterschool baby-sitting. Students are expected to read for one hour before they’re allowed to use the computer labs or get homework help. The foundation says 70% of students in the program for at least six months significantly improve their reading.
Raso, a criminology student at California State University, Fresno, has been a tutor for four years. She says she enjoys bonding with the youngsters.
“I had a third-grader who didn’t speak English and within one year he was reading at grade level,” Raso says.
Pao Vang, a junior at Fresno State, is majoring in education and plans to become a teacher. Volunteering is giving him an idea of what works — and doesn’t work — with kids.
“They are a lot different from what we learn in class,” Vang says. “You have to give them that feeling that you want to help them.”
The foundation, which is funded by state grants and community donations, appears on the right track. But it needs more tutors.
And it needs more books — the kind a grade-schooler might read on a summer day. Books such as “Frog and Toad are Friends,”"Good Night Moon,”"The Hungry Caterpillar,”"Flat Stanley,”"Charlotte’s Web” and “A Chair for My Mother.”
When making your summer list, add a children’s title for the book drive and know that it’ll be put to good use.
Book dropoff locations are listed at www.treebookdrive.com. Information on becoming a tutor is available at (559) 226-4672. The columnist can be reached at bmcewen@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6632. Check out his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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