Recommendations
A coordinator relays a conversation she had with an RSVP volunteer who called to tell her about a tutoring session: Her student, a second-grade girl, came to their tutoring session wearing a new dress. The volunteer said, "That's an awfully pretty dress you have on. You look wonderful." The little girl immediately began to cry, telling the volunteer that she didn't feel good or wonderful at all. "My Grandma tells me I'm stupid because I can't tie my shoes," she said.
Nearly in tears herself, the volunteer set to work. They worked on their reading and spent the last five minutes of the session practicing tying shoelaces. In only two sessions, the girl could tie her own in perfect bows.
"The volunteer called to tell me what she had done," the coordinator says. "I'm always saying, 'literacy, literacy, literacy' to the volunteers and teachers to keep them focused, and she felt bad that she had taught the girl to tie her shoes. I said that was okay. That was a breakthrough!" Children bring an array of experiences and expectations to the tables they share with senior tutors that can positively or negatively affect their reading and learning during a session, as well as the whole school day. A senior's willingness to listen, empathize, and help a child with something as seemingly simple as tying a shoe can provide the groundwork for learning. Those moments build the confidence and trust that help senior and student turn other challenges into successes.
Not all school partners have the resources to create what might be considered an ideal tutoring environment, i.e., a reading specialist, a dedicated reading or resource room, a research-based curriculum used. Without those resources, they then may not be able to provide carefully planned tutoring sessions or consistent tutor-child pairs. Indeed, schools may not want volunteers to take on such duties, opting instead to allow seniors to connect with as many children as possible in ways that do not restrict their activities and do not require extensive teacher coordination and supervision. Second, some seniors do not want volunteer experiences that are so structured or intensive. Jane Frotton, director of the Ocean Township (NJ) RSVP relayed the story of a retired banking executive who wanted to volunteer in a thrift shop. "'I've worked 35 years in a bank,' he said. 'This kind of volunteer work makes me very happy.'" In schools, basic, indirect service can make volunteers feel good and provide valued help to teachers.
However, with careful design and thoughtful practices in management and service delivery, volunteer programs can positively impact students' reading attitudes and performance. By providing senior tutors with training and ongoing support, programs can help seniors not only feel good but learn new skills and ideas, grow personally, and become engaged in their neighborhoods and communities. FGP and RSVP prove excellent homes for these programs because of the backdrop of support-design, training, and ongoing support-they provide to both senior volunteers and school partners.
This study helps to define elements of design and practice that contribute to students' attitude and performance improvement, volunteers' feelings of effectiveness, and programs' success. These recommendations will help programs enhance student learning, support seniors in a variety of ways, and help programs effectively report their impact to stakeholders. They are geared toward program directors and coordinators, but partnering teachers and schools, as well as funders and policymakers, may also find them instructive as they consider elements of effective programming and practice.
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