Motivating Young Readers

At the Clemson Elementary School after-school care program, nearly 60 children ages 4 – 8 learn how to read alongside 18 – 22 year old college students. Instead of playing outside or coloring, the kids open new books and begin to read with their much older tutors. Impressive, right?

America Reads is a Federal work-study program that was created in 1997, after President Clinton proposed that college students serve as reading tutors to help all children read well by the end of third grade. Since 2011, two Creative Inquiry projects have been dedicated to the American Reads program.

The mission of co-directors Deanna Ramey and Anastasia Homer is to make America Reads more accessible to all college students who wish to be involved – not just Federal work-study students – and to revitalize the program by conducting experimental research.

“There’s no overarching curriculum for every school involved with America Reads. Every school is different,” Ramey said. The idea for the Creative Inquiry started when Ramey was flooded with emails and phone calls from students asking how they could volunteer or somehow be involved.

“There was no way for people to participate unless they were eligible for Federal work-study, and I felt like it was a real shame,” Ramey said. With 50-70 children selected for the program each year, the more helping hands the better, especially those with diverse backgrounds like Homer.

Teachers, parents, or after-school care directors recommend students for America Reads. Most of these students are currently struggling in reading, or may need a mentor. Ramey and Homer both stress the importance of a positive relationship between the tutor and student—to motivate children who may need more guidance in their education.

“America Reads is important because there are services for struggling kids such as Reading Recovery, but that still leaves a lot of kids without that extra push that might a difference in them becoming a successful reader versus a struggling reader down the road,” Ramey said. “The more kids are motivated to read, the more they read, and the more they read, the better readers they become.”

Homer explained, “For me it’s all about the connections the students make with their mentor. When you see the kids running down the hall and hugging their tutors and liking to read books and bringing books to sessions saying ‘Oh I found this book. Let’s read this book!’—that makes this opportunity really special.”

America Reads student coordinator and sophomore sociology major, Jordyn Hughes, loves seeing the change she’s helped make in a child’s attitude about learning “I like seeing the kids improve and get happy when they accomplish something they’ve been struggling with,” she said. “I’ve been with the same kid for two years now and watching him get better every time really makes me feel great.”

Ramey, Homer, and the American Reads team are also working to improve America Reads by studying the young readers. “Creative Inquiry has really helped us think more about it from a research perspective” Ramey said.

Research topics have included: children’s attitudes and interests regarding informational (non-fiction) and narrative (fiction) text; parent and child attitudes towards required reading logs; and ways to improve the lesson plan used to organize every America Reads session. There’s an old saying that says that from kindergarten to third grade you’re learning to read, and from then on you’re reading to learn—and you need to be reading to learn from a much younger age.” Ramsey said. A study that the team conducted showed that when the kids were asked to name their favorite book, 31 out of 33 named a narrative (fictional) book. However, when children were presented with a selection of books that were half-informational/half-narrative, the students’ selections were even. Ramsey believes that experiments such as these are significant because they show what keeps the kids motivated and interested in learning to read.

The children are not the only ones who benefit; some of the Clemson Creative Inquiry students who are not education majors, such as Hughes, have discovered their own passions for teaching. In fact, tutors from diverse backgrounds sometimes make the best mentors.

Although the program changes and grows each year, America Reads and its Clemson supporters are here to stay.