Marilyn Grantham got up from the computer for another cup of coffee. She knew she should cut herself off or she’d have trouble sleeping again. But she needed a boost. She had been staring at that screen for hours, day after day, scoring third- and fourth-grade math tests for a company that oversees standardized testing.
These weren’t simple arithmetic problems.
She was grading story problems like: The teacher brings an aquarium to school. On Monday she adds five fish in the aquarium. On Tuesday she adds three more fish in the aquarium. On Wednesday she adds twice as many fish, and so on. The question is, at the end of the week how many fish are in the aquarium?
Depending on the child’s work, Marilyn assigned between zero and four points.
About half the kids got zero. Why? Marilyn suspected that the kids couldn’t read. And because they couldn’t read, they couldn’t do the calculations.
She started to believe that instead of working at the tail-end of the problem—scoring tests—she should be working at the front-end of the problem—helping kids learn to read.
As these things often go, it wasn’t much later when Marilyn saw an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about Minnesota Reading Corps, a tutoring program designed with input from University of Minnesota faculty.
“A lightbulb went off. I could look into the Reading Corps and do something positive instead of sitting there for 8 hours a day gnashing my teeth and swallowing a gallon of coffee to stay awake.”
***
These days, Marilyn sits at a desk in a hallway of Prodeo Academy, a charter school in Northeast Minneapolis, with a stream of first through third graders by her side.
She’s a tutor with Minnesota Reading Corps, a part of AmeriCorps—the domestic Peace Corps.
Marilyn’s been through the Minnesota Reading Corps training, so she knows the statistics: In Minnesota, one third of third graders are not reading at the level they should be.
She explains the problem: “Third grade is the last year that kids are normally taught reading. By the end of third grade you are supposed to know how to read. There is a saying, ‘up through third grade you learn to read. From fourth grade on you read to learn.’ Reading is the key. If you can read well, all your other academic work is going to be a heck of a lot easier. If you can’t read well…”
Marilyn doesn’t finish the sentence. She doesn’t have to. We all know that if you can’t read well, life becomes immensely harder.
The goal of Minnesota Reading Corps is to have all kindergarten through third grade students read well.
Marilyn is as surprised as anyone about how she is spending her retirement. She wanted an unconventional livelihood, so she purposefully chose not to work with children. Instead, she spent her career developing educational programs for farmers.
After she retired, she took the job grading tests for something to do and a little extra cash. And that led her to working with children. Now she tutors part-time, working with 8 to 10 children a day. It is a prescribed program, which includes testing, timed exercises, and entering data. “It is like research—you have to follow the protocol.” She admits that this kind of volunteering is “not for everyone.”
But here’s the thing Marilyn likes about the program: it works. She can see the kids improve. She knows she is making a difference.
And she says the kids miss her when she is gone. “You can’t buy that.”
“They become your kids. I realized that tutoring elementary students fills a hole in my heart. I can’t have the kind of in-depth, physically close relationship that I’d like to have with my grandkids. One lives in Virginia and two live in Germany. We stay in touch via phone and Skype but it just isn’t the same as having them nearby.”
She shares a story about a Somali boy she tutored for over a year. He transferred to her school halfway through second grade, reading only 40 words a minute, far below expectations.
“He just finished third grade and his teacher emailed me. The goal for third grade is to read 135 words per minute. He is reading 150 words per minute correctly.” As she says this, her voice quivers and tears well. She is moved—by what? His success? Her role in it?
Whatever it is, teaching a child to read is clearly more rewarding than sitting at a computer doling out zeros on standardized tests.
Marilyn is signing up for another year with Minnesota Reading Corps.
***
More information:
AmeriCorps members contract one year at a time, for up to four years, for part- or full-time positions. Members are paid a living allowance and at the end of the year they receive an education award. The education award is about $5,800 a year for full-time, and half that for part-time. People 55 and older can transfer the education award to a child or grandchild to be used within 10 years.
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