Luring Students to Literature

What motivated 12-year-old Marquis Jefferson to plow through 10 books in the reading club over the last two months?

A trip to Disneyland.

Why is 10-year-old Briana Diaz choosing reading books over hip-hop dance and painting?

A $10 gift certificate for more books.

Field trips and prizes are just a few of the incentives that instructors at the Los Angeles Center for Education Research’s Stars Afterschool Program dangle in front of the 750 students to encourage them to increase their reading.

The Stars program, which takes place at three Hollywood middle schools, has been focusing on reading and homework for the last year to improve the students’ reading comprehension. In the most recent tests last fall, their reading levels were several grades below what they should have been.

“We’re trying to incorporate reading and writing into as many parts of our programming as possible,” said LACER Executive Director Sharon Stricker. “It isn’t our place to teach phonics, but we’re reading with them individually so they want to read and love books.”

Although after-school programs are more common in elementary schools, national researchers estimate that only 5% to 10% of middle school students have access to such programs. And most of those are not at the school but at a Boys and Girls Club or YMCA. “Lots of parents think that once children are in middle school, they can make really good decisions, so they don’t get baby-sitters,” said Pat Edwards, associate executive director of the Flint, Mich.-based National Center for Community Education. “Kids bring home other kids, which can lead to problems. It turns out middle school after-school programming is more important than at perhaps any other level.”

Recent legislation has provided impetus for more after-school programming.

Gov. Pete Wilson last fall signed three bills that will funnel $50 million to elementary and middle school after-school programs. Bills co-sponsored and tentatively passed last year by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) could bring another $20 million into California after-school programs. And the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, which will give 893 middle school after-school programs more than $200 million this year, has been touted by those following the issue.

“It’s great to have recent interest,” said Adriana de Kanter, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Richard W. Riley’s special advisor on after-school issues.

The STARS program was created four years ago by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg and Stricker to provide a haven for two hours, four times a week, while supplementing the curriculum with artistic and literary activities. The program’s $260,000 budget this year is funded by the city’s community development program, as well as private donations.

Stricker plans to expand the program to the council district’s remaining two middle schools by the end of next year. She also hopes to make the programs more accountable by tracking students’ grades.

The bulk of the students attending Joseph LeConte, Washington Irving and Bancroft middle schools come from more transient, immigrant families, she said.

Compared to the more popular acting and guitar lessons, the reading programs have a challenge attracting students.

“It’s not an easy sell,” said William Seymour, who runs the program at Bancroft Middle School, “but if you sell it the right way, the kids will come to anything.”

Instructors hand out free journals, stock their libraries with bestsellers, pick books based on movies and sports stars, and offer nontraditional reading activities such as scavenger hunts at libraries and crafts-oriented projects.

LeConte reading club leader Marian Peck said she creates activities that engage students in the act of reading more than focusing on the rewards.

“I don’t like to push that aspect of the club,” she said. “It’s nice to just enjoy reading.”

At a recent reading club session, three students at Bancroft Middle School gathered around a table to read author Jane Yolen’s “Piggins” picture book.

The room was filled with the energy of children reading intently, their eyes racing through the pages of their books, their legs shaking with excitement. The students took turns tackling the fourth-grade book, mostly coasting along but occasionally tripping over the longer words.

“Who stole my la . . . la . . . lavleer?” Jennifer Lazarovich read, trying unsuccessfully to pronounce lavaliere.

Her next attempt was a bigger effort. The 11-year-old pronounced the word slowly, as if she were preparing to eat steamed vegetables.

“La-va-liere,” she read slowly. “I did it! I knew I could,” she said, beaming.

Eventually the group made it through the mystery, pointing out colorful details and making their own guesses as to who committed the crime.

At the end, each student received another star next to their name on the reading chart. Ten stars mean a $10 gift certificate to Borders.

Briana Diaz, a student at LeConte, has already bought a joke book with her gift certificate. She still attends the reading club for its weekly session.

Victor Rivas, 13, sat next to her, reading Shel Silverstein’s “A Light in the Attic,” and R.J. Sunga, 11, flipped through a children’s version of National Geographic.

“For those kids who aren’t very good readers, or just aren’t interested, we try to get them reading activity books or bringing something home,” Peck said. “At least that gets them reading. I’ll give joke books to people with shorter attention spans--whatever it takes.”

* QUALITY BOOKS FOR KIDS: How to build a “magic bookshelf” and introduce your child to the pleasures of reading. Book Review