Making friends with each other and with books - includes related information

Children Today, Jan-Feb, 1992 by Joan Schine, Diana Bianco

Juan and Tara listen intently as Jaheem, a 14-year-old Child Care Helper, reads to them from one of their favorite books. Jaheem asks the children questions about the book to ensure that they not only enjoyed but understood what they heard. Later, Jaheem will encourage the children to discuss the books they have read together. Did they like them? What was their favorite and least favorite part? Jaheem will offer her opinions too. Would she read it again to young children? Why or why not?

Jaheem, like other Reading Helpers, will write down these shared conclusions. The final result, a joint accomplishment of the four-year-olds and the young adolescents, will be included in the Helper Review of Books, published by the Early Adolescent Helper Program, the action arm of the National Center for Service Learning in Early Adolescence. Each year these reviews cap the Helpers Promoting Reading project.

Since its inception in 1981, the Early Adolescent Helper Program has initiated programs that respond to the unique developmental needs of early adolescents. The Helper Program provides young teens with opportunities to perform meaningful and responsible tasks in their communities. Working in child care centers, after-school programs, and senior centers, Helpers test their skills, relate in new ways to individuals and institutions and try on adult roles as they connect classroom learning to "real world" experiences.

In 1988, with support from the Robert Bowne Foundation, Helpers Promoting Reading began as a way to encourage a love of reading and to develop reading skills for both young children and early adolescents. Helpers Promoting Reading introduces Helpers and children to a variety of children's books. As they become familiar with books that reflect their own interests, appeal to their sense of fun, and help to make sense of a puzzling environment, both groups come to see reading as fun and interesting, as recreation rather than another adult-imposed chore.

Reading Helpers are usually already involved as Helpers in early childhood or after-school centers, and participate in weekly seminars where they learn about child development and about the setting where they work. The seminar, led by a Program Leader--a trained teacher or guidance counselor--also gives Helpers the opportunity to learn from each other in discussing the problems and successes they experience at the placement site. The Program Leader is familiar with the materials and approach of the Early Adolescent Helper Program, and with the special seminars that have been developed for Reading Helpers.

In these sessions, Helpers learn how to choose, critique and read aloud children's books. Through discussion, practice, and role playing, they learn how to capture children's interest, how to help children discuss and understand the books and stories being read. As they use their new skills at the placement site, they enjoy a sense of mastery and are able to analyze the strategies and practices they employ. In their seminars, several groups of adolescents came up with "Tips for Reading Aloud." According to these Helpers, when reading aloud to young children:

* Read clearly and slowly but

enthusiastically;

* If you don't know a word, substitute

another;

* If children don't know a word, explain it:

* Don't be boring; use different voices and

overexaggerate certain words;

* Make eye contact with the children;

* Ask what they liked and didn't like and

what they learned;

* Read loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Program Rationale

Scarcely a week passes without some expression of alarm in the media or from prospective employers concerning the low level of skills exhibited by the young. There is little doubt that, for most young people, reading lags far behind TV, spectator sports, movies, and "hanging out" as a leisure time activity. Remedial programs seem only to dull still further any motivation to turn to books for fun. If we want to motivate young people to develop "literacy skills," we need to find ways to make the acquisition of such skills rewarding.

Helpers Promoting Reading encourages middle school students and the preschoolers or elementary school youngsters with whom they work in Child Care and After-School Helper Programs to see reading as a source of pleasure, an experience to enjoy and to share. At the same time, it motivates both Helpers and the younger children to explore the world of books and reading in a non-threatening environment.

Helpers Promoting Reading aims to move both young children and early adolescents towards an appreciation of books and reading as a personal resource, a source of pleasure and a tool for communication. It also encourages both groups to think critically, enabling them to make their own judgements about books rather than unquestioningly accepting a "voice of authority."

At the placement site, the Helper's activities develop into explorations of skill. As these early adolescents "flex" their reading "muscles," they are investigating the adult role of teacher or child care worker. Reading then becomes not a prelude to a test, or an adventure in embarrassed mispronunciation, but rather part of an adult role, a connection with another individual, and an experience of mastery.