For most of the children we saw significant improvements at all levels measured. Teachers make comments on the improved self-confidence of the children.

Say the word “huge” three times.

Break it down by saying the first letter, identify its rhyming pattern, and use it in a concrete sentence. That is what many of the tutors involved in the SPARK early literacy program do to assist struggling readers in some Milwaukee Public Schools.

The Spheres of Proud Achievement in Reading for Kids (SPARK) early literacy program introduces emerging students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee into a positive environment to assist children who have been identified by their teachers as struggling readers in kindergarten through third grade.

UWM School of Education student Abbey Sonnenberg was one of these tutors to take advantage of the program in 2006 and called her experience a success.

Sonnenberg worked for the Roger & Leona Fitzsimonds Boys & Girls Club which is attached to the Ralph H. Metcalfe Elementary School, one of the first schools that the program had started in.

At the school, students came from their classrooms and worked with her, either in the library or in the halls, for one-on-one tutoring sessions.

“I think it was reassuring for the tutees to have someone that they could feel comfortable with and be open in their learning processes,” said Sonnenberg. “It is amazing what 20 to 30 minutes can do for a child.”

The SPARK program, which began in 2005, is also run in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, the United Way and AmeriCorps.

With the additional help from the Boys and Girls Clubs, tutors assist 320 students at four schools for around 20 minutes during the middle of the day, in addition to before or after school, according to SPARK Program Director Patricia Marcus.

“People are slowly but surely learning who we are,” said Marcus. “The teachers in the schools are starting to become more accepting. We need to dance around things and be as unobtrusive as possible.”

The program strives to get 75 percent of participating children to achieve standardized testing levels that are at or above the reading level by the end of the third grade, according to a SPARK program newsletter.

UWM Associate Professor Ruth Short, who helped develop SPARK, considers the program a success.

“For most of the children we saw significant improvements at all levels measured,” said Short. “Teachers make comments on the improved self confidence of the children.”

With around 50 tutors already in the SPARK program for fall 2007, these members provide one-on-one or small group activities that focus on the four key reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonetic skills, passage reading, and vocabulary.

UWM’s involvement with the SPARK early literacy program has been an important part of this reading “arch” since 2005. UWM joined the partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee and AmeriCorps in the planning of SPARK because the program needed to have an institution of higher learning to collaborate with, according to Short.

In addition to UWM, the warm reception of AmeriCorps by members such as SPARK Program Director Patricia Marcus has allowed students to get involved with the community they may work in after college.

The state-funded AmeriCorps Vista program that SPARK is in partnership with provides living allowances for tutors hired in the program, a paycheck every two weeks, and education awards to help pay off student loans, said Marcus.

“I think AmeriCorps is fabulous,” said Marcus. “It tries to fund projects that are community based.”

AmeriCorps members can choose between part time work that provides a living allowance of $4,586 in benefits, or quarter time work which provides a living allowance of $3,057, according to a SPARK letter issued by the UWM School of Education and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee.

Members who serve as part of SPARK also have the option to apply for full-time, reduced half-time, or quarter time service over the year that support the variety of schedules tutors or students face.

SPARK anticipated $259,000 in funding from the AmeriCorps Vista program for the 2006-2007 school year and 32 School of Education students were placed within the schools to provide over 170 hours of combined tutoring every week, according to a SPARK program newsletter.

> Comments