Reading Corps

The Arlington Communitys Push for Early Literacy

According to the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, one of the biggest factors in scholastic success is
the ability to read on grade level by the third grade. Children who fall behind early face a difficult climb
to catch back up with their peers: they are expected to read to learn, however, they still face the
struggle of learning to read. Children from lower income families are more likely to face this problem
than their peers. This can be attributed to several causes, including hearing nearly 30 million words
fewer than their peers by kindergarten, difficulty maintaining an excellent record of school attendance,
and a lack of access to the same types of extracurricular programs that their peers attend. Reading
Corps was founded by the Arlington Public Library to help these young learners face and overcome
these challenges.
Reading Corps has taken up the standard of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading with a mission to see
all children in Arlington reading on grade level by the third grade. To achieve this, the programs goals
are two-fold. Reading Corps seeks to build pre-literacy and early literacy skills in all of the participants,
but above and beyond this, Reading Corps seeks to foster a love of reading and learning in its students.
The program does this by pairing a child with a volunteer Reading Buddy in a one on one setting. The
volunteer Reading Buddies are the crucial hinge of the program they lead by example, exhibiting an
excitement for reading that the students pick up on and emulate. By building a relationship with the
student, the Reading Buddy becomes a trusted friend and source of inspiration, encouraging students
who may otherwise be reticent about reading to come out of their shell.
While fostering this excitement for reading is the major goal of the program, the secondary goal of
building literacy skills is also critical. The student and volunteer pair does more than just read books
together. Reading Corps provides educational activities and games to help build the skills that students
are missing, and because each student is paired with one volunteer, that volunteer can discover which
areas are in need of the most work and target them specifically. All of this is done in a fun and casual
atmosphere, which bolsters the fun of reading for the young learners.
Reading Corps has two specific age groups that it seeks to serve, pre-K and K-2. The program is largely
the same, but the structure varies slightly to accommodate learners of different age groups. For
example, in acknowledgement of their shorter attention spans, the pre-K students work with their
Reading Buddy for thirty minutes each session instead of the full hour that the K-2 students spend with
their volunteer. The pre-K students are also read to whereas the K-2 students read to their Reading
Buddy if they are able.
The activities and assessments are also age appropriate. A pre-K student will receive a journal with a
large space to draw. Their Reading Buddy will encourage them to draw a picture, perhaps about their
favorite part of the story. After theyve drawn their picture, their buddy will ask them about it, and as
the student says important key words, the volunteer will write them beneath the picture to tie it back to
reading. The students are also encouraged to trace over the letters written by their partner to improve

their alphabet and fine motor skills. Games like Alphabet Bingo and Puzzle Words reinforce the idea that
learning is fun.
The K-2 sites are based off of the same concepts, but are tailored to the appropriate age group. Student
journals focus more heavily on the writing aspect for this group. The children also read to their Reading
Buddy when they are able. If they are behind, and struggle with reading, their buddy will help them by
taking turns reading, helping to sound out words, and helping build confidence. The K-2 sites also place
more emphasis on group activities. Readers Theater is an ever popular activity that keeps the students
engaged while building both comprehension and social skills.
Reading Corps has an enormous, measurable impact on the students enrolled in the program. To track
their progress, students take an assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the twelve week
semester. This both helps the volunteers pinpoint areas in need of greater attention and helps the
library gather information about the effectiveness of the program. The data collected from the
assessments shows that Reading Corps is an amazingly effective program: 97.75% of students show
improvement after working with their Reading Buddy and the average improvement across all sites is
74.5%.
But the effectiveness of Reading Corps on the community as a whole hinges on the reach of the
program, and that reach hinges on volunteer and community participation. Because each student works
one on one with a volunteer, the number of volunteers with the program has a very direct impact on
how many students Reading Corps can help each semester. Most sites run with a constant waiting list of
children looking to get in. The library and the site coordinators recruit volunteers for the program
tirelessly throughout the year, however, the demand for the program always exceeds the current
volunteer capacity. This demand has led the library to seek new ways to continue to enable the growth
and good work of the program.
The current structure of Reading Corps has AmeriCorps VISTAs working with the library heading up each
of the Reading Corps sites as site coordinators, however, the Arlington Public Library is looking to
transition the sites from being entirely library run to being coopted by the community. To this end, the
library is currently pursuing partnerships around the community with groups including senior living
homes, local churches, student groups, and volunteer or community organizations. By having a group or
organization adopt or sponsor a Reading Corps site, the program will be able to expand its reach,
strengthen literacy partnerships in the community, and have a bigger impact on the students of
Arlington.
Reading Corps is always looking for volunteers invested in the future of the Arlington and its students. A
perfect Reading Corps volunteer is someone who has about two hours of time a week to donate, has a
strong interest in working with children, and is invested in the future success of each student they work
with. Reading Corps is located at a variety of sites across the community and has both morning and
afternoon times in need of volunteers. In addition, any group interested in adopting or sponsoring a
Reading Corps site is encouraged to contact the library to find out more.