This is the second year that there has been a Literacy AmeriCorps member at the Boynton Beach City Library helping with homework and summer reading. Last year was extremely successful for the first year, and this year the numbers have tripled. In 2010, Lindsay reported that she had helped 82 kids with homework help, while I helped 318 children throughout the year.
Here are some of the great success stories from the year…
Rockensley is a second grader who struggles with math and reading while having a genius brother. As a result, his brother is constantly bragging, making Rockensley feel terrible, as he failed the second grade. When Rockensley came to me in the beginning, he was very shy and quiet. I had to ask him several times what his name was. We bonded over my inability to pronounce his name (which I eventually learned) and I started by helping him with his math homework. It was quite apparent that his biggest struggle wasn’t the math itself, but understanding the directions. Rockensley was very consistent in the beginning, coming almost every day with his brother. Around Christmas time, he disappeared and didn’t come back until March. I continued helping him, working on his spelling and reading homework. Rockensley told me he was worried he wouldn’t be able to pass and would once again stay in the second grade. I knew that his brother didn’t help matters, and that he was ashamed to be the “dumb one” in the family. I reminded him that he was really good at basketball, and that it took a lot of work to get there. “We just have to keep working at this,” I told him. In June, as I was cleaning out the “Homework Help” room to change it into the “Summer Reading Help” room, Rockensley came in and asked if he could write me a note. He wrote “I got a A+ and I got a B+” with a giant smiley face. “Rockensley,” I said as he tried to hide, “that’s great! What did you get the A+ in?” “Math,” he said with a smile. “And the B+ was in Reading!” “That’s so awesome! Does that mean you are going to third grade?” He nodded. Then he said he had to leave for the summer, but he was really happy.
Maya is a first grader who came in almost every day for help with her homework. Although she is extremely smart, she struggles with being able to pay attention to the task at hand. Together, we worked on staying focused and understanding her homework. She would often get bored with her homework, but with my help, she found interesting and fun ways to learn. We used crayons to count with, wrote math problems on the board, and took turns reading. Her mother informed me that her grades have improved this year with my help, and she continued coming over the summer for reading help. Maya wrote me that she loves the program, and is so happy that Homework Help exists.
Anastasia and Priella are twins in the second grade. They both have a low attention-span, and their grandmother brought them to the library in hopes that I could help them. The twins were very fun, always trying to make jokes or color pictures, but seemed determined to avoid their homework. I figured out that if I let one of them color a picture while I helped the other with homework, and then they switched, they were more focused. A month or two after they first started working with me, Priella informed me that they were doing well in school. I continued working with them until February, when a family emergency caused them to have to stop coming. I hope they will be able to come back next year.
Sebastian is a third grader at Discovery Key who informed when he first started that he was being tested for ADD. “My parents want to put me on some medicine,” he said. “I can’t focus in school and my grades have been slipping.” We started by just working on his homework and when he would start to lose focus-I would read with him. For math, I found that if I worked with another student, he would first try it on his own. Then, when he got frustrated, he would ask me for help. Sebastian came every day all year, and he told me at the end of the year that his grades had improved.
Shelsey and Lawuens are brother and sister. They started coming towards the end of the school year, after hearing about the program from a tutor. Shelsey told me that her mom saved money each week to try and take them to a tutoring program down the road from them, but that it was hard to make ends meet. “She couldn’t pay for it, and my grades weren’t very good anyway.” A month or two after coming to work with me, Shelsey said that her grades had gone back up to As and Bs and that she understand her homework much better now. “I love Homework Help,” she said. “Thank you so much!”
Cindy is a fourth grader who came for help with her math. I noticed that her biggest issue was she couldn’t understand what she was reading in the directions. I found a math dictionary in the library and showed her how to use it. By looking up words she didn’t know, Cindy could understand the directions better. I am really proud of the progress she made over the year, and I hope she keeps coming back to Homework Help next year.
Jones is a fifth grade student who struggles with low self-esteem and a negative outlook on the world. She comes from a broken family, and is constantly picked on for being a larger girl. When she first came to me, I didn’t know how to react. She defiantly needed help with her reading, but seemed determined to get in trouble. Despite her angry demeanor, I noticed that even when she got kicked out, she kept coming back for help. There was no parent pushing her to get help, but in fact, she once confided that her mother didn’t like her getting help with her homework. We slowly developed a friendship, and I noticed her listening to my advice. She was constantly saying sorry, and trying to be nice to others. Once, I noticed that she kept all the free books I had given her throughout the year for good behavior in her backpack. She carried all of them around with her! She also wrote a very sweet note to my boss asking if he could get a recycling bin for the Homework Help room. He wrote her a very professional letter back, which she read to everyone who came into the room that day. Even though there were some hard words, she made it through the letter every time! Over the summer, she would ask me, “Can I read with you Miss Kristine?” and she also told me that she passed fifth grade! I am very proud of her new attitude, her willingness to try, and her ability to write me a letter telling me she loves me and that she is going to miss me very much.
Maria and Andrea are sisters. They are very quiet, and their mother can’t speak English. In the beginning, only Maria came for help with her homework. She really enjoyed it, and her homework started improving. Once, after giving her and her sister a free book from the Literacy Coalition, Maria’s eyes lit up. “This is for me?” she asked with genuine shock. I nodded, and she ran to tell her mom. Her mom tried to give it back at first, but then her sister translated what I had said and her mom smiled at me. A month or two later, Maria and I were working on her project about animals. I found a book on pandas, and she told me she wished she could take it home. I explained to her that she could check it out. She got so excited and I had her translate to her mom how to check out a book. She has now checked out books and movies, and I am so happy that their family learned how to use a library!
Totals:
Number of total students helped from September 2010-July 2011: 318
Number of total students who participated in just homework help: 262
Number of students who participated in just summer reading help: 39
Number of students who participated in homework help then continued to participate in summer reading help: 17
