Reading, Writing, & Gingerbread Houses

When my daughter Lori graduated from Covenant Day School three years ago, she challenged me by saying, "Mom, you've got a lot of time now. I think you should volunteer somewhere." I don't know about the "lots of time" -- but I did agree that I could be more involved on a volunteer basis in the community. Since my love is literacy, I approached Covenant Day High School and volunteered to coordinate a tutoring program. Together with volunteers from Christ Covenant Church, we are now in our third year. Last year we added a monthly trip to the school library as well as playing educational games when the students are done their work. Here is a slideshow including one of the library trips, tutoring, and our recent holiday party.



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Reading, Writing, & Gingerbread Houses

When my daughter Lori graduated from Covenant Day School three years ago, she challenged me by saying, "Mom, you've got a lot of time now. I think you should volunteer somewhere." I don't know about the "lots of time" -- but I did agree that I could be more involved on a volunteer basis in the community. Since my love is literacy, I approached Covenant Day High School and volunteered to coordinate a tutoring program. Together with volunteers from Christ Covenant Church, we are now in our third year. Last year we added a monthly trip to the school library as well as playing educational games when the students are done their work. Here is a video showing one of the library trips, tutoring, and our recent holiday party.




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Haiti Relief Update

On December 16 I blogged about a Haiti Relief project that Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC sponsored. Yesterday, I received the following e-mail from Diane Dworek, of the co-coordinators:

"So what all did God send to Haiti through your generosity and giving spirits? Well would you believe…..?

"1469 full size bars of soap, 16 boxes girls clothing, 10 boxes boys clothing, 137 underwear/training pants, 16 boxes women clothing, 14 boxes men’s clothing, 5 boxes misc kids shoes, 4 boxes adult shoes, 3,000 pairs of Crocs, 850 back packs, 1916 washcloths, 1737 toothbrushes, 737 toothpaste tubes, 449 full size shampoo + conditioner and hair products, 5 boxes other toiletry items, 60 enamelware mugs, 1182 rolls of toilet paper, 163 gallons Clorox, 100 first aid kits for each orphanage room, 1,200 pounds + medical supplies, 5 boxes misc. hygiene items, 117 Igloo coolers, 100 pre-cut cooler stands w/nails, 2 dry erase boards, 9 boxes towels & sheets, 3 boxes school supplies, extra lumber, 1 TV, ! new sewing machine, cloth, 2 stainless steel industrial tables, a 6 ft. folding table." Diane Dworek

It's wonderful to be a part of a community who has reached across cultures to help people recovering from hurricanes and floods. Image courtesy of Endeavor to Develop Education. Technorati Tags:
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Help for Haiti

“Cupboards were nearly bare before the winds started whipping, the skies opened, and this seaside city filled like a cauldron with thick, brown, smelly muck.”- Marc Lacey

Storms heighten Haiti’s suffering, Charlotte Observer, September 12, 2008.

I used that quote this fall to demonstrate to teachers how image-driven writing should include specific nouns ("cupboards, seaside city, cauldron"); image driven adjectives ("thick, brown, smelly muck"); and figurative language ("winds whipped") to grab a reader's attention.

I didn't know then that I would be able to participate in an opportunity to help the people of Haiti. As followers of this blog know, I generally blog about issues related to literacy. Today I'm taking a detour to let you know what I did yesterday instead of write.

Covenant Day School, a ministry of Christ Covenant Church, announced last week that they were working with the church to provide volunteers, medical goods, and clothing to help fill up a 53-foot trailer. The school specifically helps a school in Gonaives and some of the Crocs, medical supplies, and school supplies were going directly to orphans there.

When I arrived yesterday afternoon, this is what the trailer looked like on the inside:

I had the opportunity to not only interview Della and her father, but I also spoke with Susie Austin who has traveled to Haiti several times. She is returning in February to give hygiene training in three areas: hair care (so they don't get scabies), oral hygiene, and using Clorox to disinfect the children's bedding. Bed wetting is a big problem because there is no indoor plumbing and the children are afraid to go outside at night (tarantulas and the dark are two common enemies). Shoes are extremely important because without them, the children frequently get worms (intestinal parasites) and sand fleas.

A high point of the afternoon was the delivery of donated Crocs. Volunteers of all ages helped to unload the FedEx truck.

The shoes came in lots of colors and sizes, and the volunteers who had been to Haiti were excited about seeing the children's faces when they received them.


By the end of the afternoon, the trailer looked a lot different than when I had arrived.




Click here for more information about ministry to the Haitians or here for specific information about helping orphans worldwide.Technorati Tags:
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Celebration Time

I was the proverbial kid in the candy shop picking out books for the tutoring group that I had organized and which was sponsored by Christ Covenant Church. Not too many things can make me happier than being told I could spend whatever I wanted to on books—besides giving the books away and seeing the children's excited responses. On Monday as I headed towards the cash register at Border's with two large piles of books, I hoped that I had chosen ones that would interest the kids—you never can tell if you'll hit home or not. I picked some of my and my own children's favorites—The Yearling, Artemis Fowl
(now in a graphic novel), a collection of Tintin stories, and Shiloh
were among the stack.

Tuesday afternoon we held our end-of-the-year-celebration at one of the tutor's homes. Each child had the opportunity to ride a horse, which was no doubt the highlight of the party. However, I think a close second was that everyone received one or two books. Quoting Linda Gambrrell's message in a recent Reading Today,I told them that one of the most important things they could do over the summer was to read. I hope they got the message!

One of the youngest, a struggling kindergarten reader, looked at his new collection of Frog and Toad and said, "We have these books in school." His little face scrunched up and he seemed confused as to why he was receiving a book that obviously belonged in his classroom.

I squatted down next to him and said, "Now you have your own copy." After that, he walked around showing it to his friends and promised me that he would read it to me in September. I wish I had thought to take his picture, or one of the boy leafing through his book on dinosaurs, or one of his friend who was looking at a book about cars and trying to figure out what a Mad Lib was. I was too busy giving out books, happy that my selections had found new homes with growing readers.

This time of year, many of you receive thank you notes from students and parents. Here are three that made my time with these students worth every minute:

"A simple thank you does not seem to be enough words to say how much we appreciate you and all you've done week after week." (From the parent who weekly brought the 12 students to the church.)

Without editing, from two students:

"Thank you for helping me with my homework and stuff and reading homework to. It was really fun having a tutor for me." A 4^th grader.

"Thank you for doing so much for us. We all know it's the last time we will come to tutoring. We loved your tutoring. I hope you injoyed our company. And I want to wish you all a happy and safe summer vacation." A 4^th grader.

Makes me look forward to September. How about you?

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Teaching Tutors

This year I initiated a tutoring program at the high school my children attended. Several student volunteers from Covenant Day High School as well as adults from Christ Covenant Church have been meeting weekly with 12 elementary school students to provide homework assistance. The children have required help with a variety of academic needs and flexibility has been an indispensable part of making the program work. Along the way I have learned the art of training individuals who cared enough to give up an afternoon a week, but weren't sure how to translate that concern into effective tutoring. With an emphasis on helping students learn how to solve problems themselves, here are some strategies which we improvised as needs surfaced:

• When a kindergarten student didn't bring in a book to read or homework to complete, I encouraged his tutor, a high school freshman, to help the student compose a simple story. With that idea, the kindergartner enjoyed dictating and helping to write several sentences.
  
• Creating math drawings supplemented flash cards and helped students to "get" multiplication tables.
  
• Tutors needed to learn how to stretch their students' writing. For example, an adult sat and watched a child write a simple paragraph about a book he had read without providing any input. Although the sentences were adequate, words were misspelled, sentence syntax needed improvement, and there was a repetitious overuse of pronouns. The adult needed to see these problems herself in order to provide correction and instruction.
  
• Tutors frequently needed to be reminded to let their students read (and to not read for them!). Similarly, tutors needed to make sure the students comprehended what they had read. Reluctant readers can be coaxed to read aloud by taking turns—the student one page, the tutor the next. Readers also took turns reading different characters' dialogue.
  
• When reviewing spelling words tutors needed to find out if the student knew the word's meaning.
  

  
  

  For more information on training tutors, see:
  

  http://www.nwrel.org/learns/trainingopps/training/index.html
  

  http://www.educ.uidaho.edu/bestpractices/training.html
  

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