My Minnesota Reading Corps Experience
After moving back home to Minnesota, I started my year of service with Minnesota Reading Corps, a statewide AmeriCorps program. Minnesota Reading Corps tutors serve at a school in Minnesota, working with students in one-on-one sessions for 20 minutes a day, until the student reads consistently at or above their grade level. The students Minnesota Reading Corps members work with are what MRC calls “the bubble kids.” They are the ones who are below grade level, but not so far below that schools put them in special classes. These kids often fly under the radar with overstretched teachers hoping they will catch on eventually. Unfortunately many of these students never catch up, and by the time they leave 3rd grade it becomes harder and harder to ever reach their peers. According to MRC, students in grades K-3 learn to read, and students in grades 4-college read to learn, which is why it is so important to reach the 3rd graders and bring them up to grade level before 4th grade.
During my term, I served at a charter school in Saint Paul, where the student body consisted mostly of Hmong and Karen immigrant children, and many knew little to no English. Approximately 90% of the students received free or reduced lunch and several families were homeless.
I learned so much from this year in Minnesota ReadingCorps. Firstly, I knew about the word gap and the importance of the 6 skills outlined in ALA’s first round of Every Child Ready to Read, but it wasn’t until I worked with students who obviously lacked attention in this area, that I realized just how important they are to development. After working with these children, early literacy development became my passion, and I began pursuing a second masters in Children’s Literature.
I also learned so much about the Hmong and Karen culture, while serving at the charter school. Many of the staff are also Hmong or Karen, and had so many interesting stories. One teacher, not much older than me, told about her family escaping and crossing the river, but the boatman was actually an informer. She watched as her aunt and uncles and cousins were killed, but her immediate family escaped and eventually made it to Minnesota. In a first grade history class, students learned about the past and present (in the past, people traveled in wagons, in the present we travel by car. In the past, people used candles for light, in the present we use light bulbs, etc). However, many students shared that in refugee camps they too used candles for light.
While I no longer work in an urban setting, or in a school setting, the year serving in Minnesota Reading Corps taught me so much about early literacy and the multitude of cultures that make Minnesota.
