Grant could fuel growth at YES Reading Grant could fuel growth at YES Reading (January 07, 2004)

** Staff at children's literacy program hope to expand to Selby Lane School.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

People who teach children to read and expand their vocabularies find out quickly that you never know where words will lead you.

"I have been known to run around the classroom and jog around the classroom to illustrate the difference," Lee Swedenborg, a tutor with the YES Reading program in Menlo Park, said, chuckling. "You should see me when I get to the word 'sob.' "

There are also harder lessons. "With one of my students, I was teaching the word 'lack,' and I asked, 'What do you lack?' " Ms. Swedenborg recalled. "She said, 'My dad.' "

The toughest lesson of all, though, is learned every year by students who get to high school and realize that they don't have enough words to lead them to academic success. If you read far below grade level, classes can become an agony of frustration, and it's tempting to just give up.

This is the situation the tutors and staff at YES Reading work every day to head off while kids are still young. Volunteers from the community work one-on-one with the students, providing personalized guidance in phonics, reading comprehension and vocabulary that they can't get in busy classrooms.

On average, students move up one grade level in reading after three months in the tutoring program, executive director Sarah Almy said.

Now, four years after the Belle Haven Elementary School-based program was founded, a $150,000 grant has brought the tutoring program one step closer to a long-held dream: expanding to another campus.

Selby Lane School in Atherton is the top possibility for a new location, which ideally would become a reality during the next academic year, Ms. Almy said. Although more fundraising is still needed, the grant would cover a large portion of initial expenses for an expansion, she said.

The grant, awarded by the philanthropic Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, which has offices in Palo Alto and San Jose, will be given out over a three-year period.

Mary Shaw, who founded YES Reading with volunteer tutors Molly McCrory and Jean Bacigalupi, said she was thrilled at the prospect of an expansion.

"I always felt that the model wouldn't be complete until we had shown how to replicate it," she said.
Clifford and Amelia

YES Reading began as a tutoring effort by Ms. Shaw for at-risk students at Costano elementary school in East Palo Alto, then moved into the Belle Haven library in 1999. While many reading programs operate out of libraries and schools, YES Reading has had a home base in a portable classroom on the Belle Haven campus since 2001.

About 65 students are taking part in the program this school year, assisted by around 50 volunteer tutors, Ms. Almy said.

The goal is to tutor 100 students this year, the same number as in 2002-03, so program officials are always looking for more volunteers, she said. Having tutors from the local area is a key component of YES Reading, she added: "It's community investment in public education."

About 70 percent of the students in the program struggle with reading because they have a different mother tongue than English (typically Spanish), while others are simply slipping through the cracks at school, Ms. Almy said. Tutors also have a span of backgrounds, from young professionals to retired teachers.

One thing both students and tutors had in common at a recent YES Reading graduation ceremony for youngsters now reading at grade level was a wide smile. Tutors bore proud-parent beams as the 14 graduates read from "Clifford's Happy Easter," "Harry Potter," and other books.

Practically wallpapered with books, the classroom included phonics readers ("The Same Game," "Dave and his Raft") and Dolores Hiskes' "Phonics Pathways" series, featuring such sentences as "Glen gladly plucks plump plums."

Afterwards, 8-year-old Zhane Wilkerson of Menlo Park personified the ultimate success story: a child who scorns television for Amelia Bedelia.

"I love YES Reading," she said, adding that the scatter-brained literary heroine with the rhyming name is her favorite. "Now I don't sit on the couch and watch TV any more. I love to read."

How does a tutor facilitate that kind of transformation? Ms. Almy says the program follows a set structure of phonics, reading and vocabulary, which also makes it easier for new volunteers to learn the ropes.

Tutors can supplement that backbone with their own pieces, such as workbooks and games. In addition, a "home connection" program brings in parents once a month to watch their children go through a tutoring session.

"It's become more comprehensive, more inclusive," Ms. Shaw said, remarking on how YES Reading has changed. "We started out focusing on basic phonics, and then we recognized that we needed curriculum for reading comprehension."

Progress shows up clearly in book choices, said tutor Christine Shipp, recalling a boy she tutored last year: "He was reading Dr. Seuss, and by May he was reading 'Harry Potter.' "

These days, Ms. Shaw and Ms. McCrory are less active in YES Reading (Ms. Bacigalupi died in 2002) than they were in the days of finding the classroom and creating a board of directors. Ms. Almy was hired about six months ago, and Ms. Shaw and Ms. McCrory meet regularly with her.

"It's a transition I understand," Ms. Shaw said. "The founders created and then the new board carries on."
Future growth

Selby Lane Principal Bernie Vidales said he would be happy to have YES Reading carry on at his school. Although the school already has a partnership with Project Read, Mr. Vidales said there's room for another program because different children would be served by each organization.

Selby Lane and Belle Haven students have similar language issues; about 65 percent are learning English, a number that has held steady in recent years, Mr. Vidales said.

"There certainly would be a demand (for YES Reading) at the school. We just need to work out the details," he said.

Meanwhile, Belle Haven third-grade teacher Juan Arana wishes YES Reading could grow at his school as well, because some of his students had to wait a few months to get in, he said.

Mr. Arana brought his class to cheer on the graduates at the recent ceremony, including a girl who used to be afraid to read aloud in class.

"She was really struggling when I was her teacher. Now she's gone up at least a grade level in reading," he said.

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