An awesome twosome: First-grader hones reading skills with help of principal

By Bob Dunn
Staff Writer

Published on March 09, 2007

It's not every first-grader who asks to spend time in the principal's office. But that's what 6-year-old Alex Martinez did when he sent a note to Crocker Farm Principal Paul Wiley.

The note read, "Dear Mr. Wiley, can I read with you some day?" It listed two boxes labeled "yes" and "no."

Wiley checked "yes."

Alex is part of Crocker Farm's Reading Recovery program, which identifies students who may be at risk for falling behind classmates in their reading abilities.

It provides one-on-one tutoring to bolster skills and bring students up to grade level, without placing them in special classes that aren't appropriate.

A little extra help

"Some children don't have special needs, they just need special instruction," said Janine Kelly, who teaches Reading Recovery at Crocker Farm and works with Alex for 30 minutes each school day.

Alex arrived at Wiley's office, sat at a table and read one of the books designed for the program, "Mushrooms for Dinner," aloud to him and Kelly.

Alex, a native Spanish speaker, sounded out the few unfamiliar words and carefully reread passages that gave him pause, using techniques learned in the program.

Alex is happy with the progress he's made and said he wouldn't have been able to get through the book a month ago.

Title 1 funds critical

Michelle Dufrense, district director for the federal Title 1, which helps fund the program, said identifying and intervening early with students who need assistance is critical in preventing them from falling further behind.

Title 1 funds are distributed through the U.S. Department of Education to schools based on the poverty levels of their students.

Crocker Farm and Mark's Meadow are the only Amherst schools that receive Title 1 funds, according to Elizabeth Devlin, a teacher and literacy coordinator at Crocker Farm.

Dufrense said state Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, has been instrumental in securing state funding that helps supplement the federal funds. The state money helps pay a portion of one of the teacher's salaries and training they receive.

Dufrense said it makes more fiscal sense to intervene earlier rather than later, when costs and the amount of work that is required increase.

"The longer you wait, the more apt students are to fall behind," she said.

Wiley said the program pays off in other ways as well.

By increasing children's reading comprehension, they are more likely to understand and be able to solve mathematical word problems on standardized tests, including the state MCAS exams.

"Reading impacts a lot of other areas," Wiley said.

Dufrense said she's preparing a report for the district that shows that students who have participated in Reading Recovery do, in fact, perform on par with their grade level on the MCAS exams.

The program was developed in New Zealand in the mid-1970s and introduced in the United States in 1984. Since then, over 1.6 million first-graders have gone through the program, according to the Reading Recovery Council of North America.

Alex received a high-five and a box of colored pencils from Wiley for his reading.

"Can we do this again sometime?" Wiley asked Alex.

Alex pointed to a copy of his letter hanging on Wiley's office wall - and read from it.

"Y-E-S, yes," Alex said.