Words of wisdom Words of wisdom (December 02, 2005)

Retired volunteers bring their literacy skills to MV-Whisman schools

By Molly Tanenbaum

Duane Stauffer only has two requirements for seniors participating in the Avenidas senior community center's Early Literacy tutoring program: "You gotta like kids and you gotta like to read."

Founded in Palo Alto in 1997, the Early Literacy Program -- which brings retired and senior volunteers to elementary schools to tutor struggling readers -- expanded to Mountain View in 1999. Now, 44 tutors serve nearly 100 first through third graders in every Mountain View-Whisman elementary school.

"We view our role as like the grandmas and grandpas that help children by being nonjudgmental, to instill a love of reading," said tutor Judie Fernandez, 67, a retired attorney who has begun her fifth year working with students at Castro School.

Stauffer runs the program along with Avenidas volunteer services manager Jyllian Halliburton. Last year alone, Early Literacy tutors spent over 3,000 hours helping elementary students improve their reading skills, Stauffer said. Classroom teachers give the tutors books and exercises to work on with the students, so each tutoring session fits in with the teacher's own lessons.

"They get undivided attention from one person for a half hour," Halliburton said. "It does wonders for their confidence, as well as the actual skill of reading."

After her tutoring session on a recent Monday, Fernandez proudly pointed out how much Castro third grader Reyna Castildo-Abad had improved since they started reading together at the beginning of the school year.

Reyna moved to the United States from Mexico this year and speaks very little English, so Fernandez brings books from home to spark the third grader's interest in reading, and rewards her with stickers. On Monday, Reyna read Fernandez' favorite story, "The Teeny Tiny Woman," with marked improvement.

Fernandez specifically chose Castro School because of the high population of recent immigrants and Hispanic students who need help with both English and reading. She thinks of herself as a "homework mom."

"A lot of them don't have books and, most frequently, the mothers aren't literate in English, even verbally. So if the children need practice reading at home, there's no help," she said.

At Castro School, Fernandez recently became a tutor for YES Reading, a nonprofit program new to Castro that also promotes early literacy with a structured curriculum.

Out of the 44 Early Literacy tutors working in the Mountain View-Whisman district right now, only nine are Mountain View residents, according to Stauffer, who is both program coordinator and founder. Current volunteers come from Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and even Los Gatos, to help struggling elementary students improve their reading skills.

It was Stauffer, 76, a Los Altos resident and retired sales manager at Procter & Gamble, who decided to bring the program to Mountain View.

"When I looked at the scores in testing, Palo Alto and Los Altos ranked among the highest of the state of California. It's sad when you have a community right next to it with some of the lower scores in the state," Stauffer said.

Stauffer introduced the program at Landels and it gradually spread throughout the Mountain View-Whisman district. In March, Early Literacy came to Huff and Bubb schools, which were the last two to receive the program.

He even talked the other three members of his morning walking group to volunteer. One of them -- his neighbor, Fred Van Kirk, a 78-year-old retired civil engineer -- has now been tutoring at Castro School for five years.

"He kept twisting my arm so I finally said I'd give it a try," Van Kirk said.

This year, Van Kirk tutors second graders Selena Cipres and Omar Euen twice a week. Their teacher, Miss Leiser, selects books and spelling words for them to work on, and Van Kirk begins each lesson with words, which Selena and Omar write out on a mini dry-erase board.

With seemingly endless patience, Van Kirk prompts his tutees to spell the words like "say," "here," and "good," sounding out consonants and vowels when they get stuck.

"It's more than just teaching someone reading or helping them build strategies for reading," said Jodi Maccini, a literacy coach and reading recovery teacher at Slater School. "It's about relationships too. They have that relationship with someone that can take the time to listen to their stories."

Maccini works with about five tutors from Avenidas who come twice weekly to read with two different students each for a half hour. She says she would love to get more tutors on board, and especially those who live in Mountain View.

"I know they're here. We just need to get them involved," Maccini said.

INFORMATION: For more information on the Avenidas Early Literacy tutoring program, call or e-mail Jyllian Halliburton at (650) 326-5362, ext. 12 or jhalliburton@avenidas.org. Those wishing to learn more can also visit www.avenidas.org.

E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com

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