The Portland Reading Foundation (PRF) is proud of our successful Reading Intervention Program that works in partnership with the Portland Public Schools to help at risk children improve their reading skills. With the support of Spirit Mountain Community Fund and other key foundations and donors, our professionally trained reading tutors provide struggling young students with individualized and evidence-based instruction helping them become proficient readers at or before the third grade.
We are also excited with the results of a pilot project started in the fall of 2007 with a generous grant from the Spirit Mountain Community Foundation. As part of the pilot, Portland Reading Foundation began training school parents to work as reading tutors. Two bilingual parents whose children attended Clarendon/Portsmouth Elementary School in North Portland were given ten hours of training from a PRF instructor in reading intervention strategies for young children. Then each trainee was assigned students to tutor under the supervision of PRF reading specialists. Additional training was ongoing during the school year.
Ruth Ponce was one of the trainees. Ruth grew up in Oregon, graduated from Roosevelt High School and speaks fluent Spanish. Her children attend Clarendon/Portsmouth, and she had done some volunteer work at the school. However, when she took the PRF training she had no real experience working directly with students. Once the training was completed, Ruth began working one-on-one with first graders identified by classroom teachers as being at risk for failing to learn to read. She was paid $15 per hour for her tutoring work, but all the lesson planning and preparation was done on her own time.
Ruth is a natural teacher, patient and caring, designing lessons that allowed each child to be successful. She worked with her students three times per week for thirty minutes per session, and each student she worked with showed significant gains in their reading, spelling and writing scores on the school’s end of the year assessments. Her bilingual skills were important in working with several students for whom English is a second language.
In 2008 Ruth continued her work for PRF. One of the students assigned to her was a second grade girl that had been home schooled in kindergarten and first grade. After the school completed its evaluation of this child (we will call her Alice), they were extremely concerned about her low reading skills. Alice tested below kindergarten level in letter recognition, phonemic awareness, reading of individual words, and spelling. Alice was a behavior problem in the classroom and was even struggling in a small, “pull out” reading group of six children taught by the Special Education teacher at the school. According to the teacher, “She just put her head down on the table and would not participate.”
But Ruth developed a wonderful rapport with this young girl, working slowly and deliberately, teaching her one vowel sound at a time and introducing short words that Alice could read successfully. Alice used every excuse possible to try to distract Ruth as they worked together, but Ruth kept her on task. Ruth encouraged and complimented Alice when she worked hard and learned new concepts. Slowly Alice’s skills improved and so did her attitude. As Alice’s self esteem improved, she found she could pay attention for longer and longer periods. Ruth gave her more difficult concepts and tasks, and Alice liked being challenged. By the end of the school year, Alice’s test scores had improved dramatically. She tested at 2nd grade level on phonemic awareness, above grade level on her ability to read individual words, and was at grade level in spelling. Her classroom teacher reported that her behavior and participation in the classroom had also improved.
The principal at Clarendon/Portsmouth was so pleased with Ruth’s work and her commitment to the school that he found a part time job for her in the school office. Now between her tutoring and office work, she has almost full time employment.
Ruth has found that she loves working with children and has started back to school this year to begin work on a college degree. She hopes to become a teacher herself one day.
Portland Reading Foundation is proud of both Alice and Ruth for what they accomplished this year and grateful for the support of SMCF!