Oakland Reads 2020

Lately, I've been reading about the positive changes that Oakland's Operation Ceasefire program has been bringing to our community. At first, people were doubtful that this initiative would be effective--after all, the same program had been invoked in 2009 with little results. This time around, the public is seeing results in the arrests of gang members, and traffic stops that provide leads to seizure of drugs and illegal firearms, mainly because law enforcement is enforcing the law.

In the midst of these flashy triumphs comes the news of another initiative: Oakland Reads 2020. Though less sensational than busting drug dealers and pimps, increasing literacy in our schools will have a profound effect on future crime rates. Inadequate reading skills are such a strong indicator of future delinquency that the California Department of Corrections uses 3rd grade literacy rates to determine the future capacity of our state's prisons.

Oakland Reads 2020 is an eight-year initiative that is part of a national vision to bring kids up to reading at grade level. While the ceasefire's goal is to immediately squelch violence in our streets, improving literacy for Oakland schoolchildren and their families will hopefully counter truancy and crime 10+ years before they happen. With the power to read, kids are more likely to stay in school and pursue higher education.

The Oakland Literacy Coalition started Oakland Reads 2020 as a part of fulfilling their mission statement to "increase the capacity of literacy providers to improve early learning outcomes in order to ensure that all Oakland children are reading at a proficient level by the end of third grade. We fulfill this mission through collaboration, promotion of effective practices, resource development and policy work." Not surprisingly, one of their collaborators is (...you guessed it) Faith Network. Additionally, the program is receiving financial support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Rogers Family Foundation, and the East Bay Community Foundation--all champions of early literacy and also funders of Faith Network's Succeeding by Reading program. We are grateful for their support and glad to do our part!

If you would like to help a child with reading this summer, please contact varetta@faith-network.com. It will be an investment into our future.

Celebration!

We had our last day of tutoring two weeks ago, and our celebration day was last week.

Erick was able to get a prize from the prize box for reading another twenty books. He seemed a little discouraged by the choices that were left in the box (many kids have been earning prizes!). I held up a rubber popper and asked him if he knew how to make it jump.
Erick shook his head, so I turned it inside out and placed it back on the table.
"Now you have to wait for a little bit," I said.
After a couple seconds, the popper flipped and surprised quite a few of us by flying up close to the ceiling and landing on the floor.
"I want it! I want it!" Erick yelled, his face completely alight. Scooping up the popper, he pocketed it immediately. And so it was that Erick's final reading prize was the most powerful rubber popper I have ever encountered.

When it was time to give out certificates, Erick was quite embarrassed, but I also think he was also rather proud of his accomplishments. I congratulated him on finishing all the boxes of sight words while he ducked his head and blushed. I also gave him a copy of Frog and Toad are Friends--this is the last book that were we reading together and we didn't have a chance to finish it.

All the reading students and tutors ate strawberries, cherries, and grapes, and we handed out certificates of achievement to each student. Each tutor gave words of encouragement to their students and the students had words of gratitude for their tutors. Most simply said, "Thank you for reading with me each week."

It was a sweet time, and I will definitely miss Erick next year.

I like to think that our picture together reflects how sad he is about our time being over, but I think he might just be hamming it up for the camera.

Animals besides spiders

This week, Erick read a book about various semi-scary animals, including the great white shark, desert scorpion, grizzly bear, king cobra, crocodile and hippopotamus.
I thought the inclusion of the hippopotamus was a little strange since they are vegetarians, but as Erick turned to the hippo page, he was somewhat horrified. Staring back at us was a giant hippo with its mouth gaping wide, showing us all its huge teeth and a pale, wrinkled tongue.
"Do these eat people?" Erick asked.
I assured him that hippos do not eat people and pointed out that the (very) large back teeth of the open-mouthed hippo were quite blunt.
"I think they eat grass or water plants," I said.
After that, we started a book about fire fighters.

But...the hippopotamuses in the book did pique my interest. In the animal book, they were simply described a large animals that like water. After some research, I discovered that hippos are one of the most feared animals in Africa. They are quite strictly herbivores (mostly grass), but they cause more human deaths than any carnivore. Even crocodiles will avoid attacking hippos and their young despite living in the same body of water.
I found out that hippos are very territorial and their primary defense is to charge their massive, three-ton bodies at a threat while gnashing their teeth. While many carnivores will ignore humans and some will even run away, hippos will attack with little provocation.

So Erick was correct to interpret the hippo's open mouth as a threat (that is how hippos intimidate each other). I will definitely have to share my discoveries with him next week.

Spider-Man II

Erick surprised me this week by picking out another Spider-Man book. He was curious to know more about this superhero. We reviewed a little about what we learned about Spider-Man the previous week, including why spiders are important and the web aspect. Erick was concerned that Spider-Man does not have flying capabilities.
"Spider-Man doesn't fly, but he can use his web to swing from high places," I explained. "So it's a little like flying."

We also talked about how Spider-Man's real name is Peter Parker, but when he puts on his costume, he is Spider-Man. Erick remembered many details about our costumed hero, and the most troubling thing to him was the fact that Spider-Man didn't want people to know who his identity. That is a hard thing to explain, and I thought it might take too long to talk about safety and the desire to live a somewhat "normal life." So we dived into the book.

With many colorful illustrations, the book showed many instances of Spider-Man saving people and fighting crime. We observed how Spider-Man helped police and firefighters do their jobs. The conclusion of the book was the basic message: If Spider-Man knows there is trouble, he is going to help.

Now that is something to think about.

Spider-Man vs. the spiders

Erick picked out a superhero book this week: The Amazing Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the book had quite a few words that Erick has not encountered before such as "radioactive," "goblin," "wrestler," and "skyscraper." Even understanding the purpose of an enemy was a little daunting. As he read and asked questions, I realized that Erick didn't know very much about Spider-Man. He asked if Doctor Octopus was one of Spider-Man's friends (no). He asked if Spider-Man could make webs (yes). He asked how Spider-Man became a Spider-Man (let's keep reading and find out!).

As we read on about Spider-Man, I could tell that Erick did not have the same enthusiasm for this superhero as he did for regular spiders and Super Mario. From his perspective, I think it might be confusing to have a fantastical character dwelling in the real world as Spider-Man does. After all, it did take Erick a long moment to get over the fact that Spider-Man lives in New York City. Perhaps he will have a greater appreciation for the messiness of the superhero world when he is older.

After finishing that book, we read the crocodile section of an animal book and then Erick did some word puzzles. As an extra challenge, I had him write the puzzle words on a white board without looking at the spelling. Then he checked his work against the puzzle pieces. He did pretty well, but still has some trouble with the silent 'e' that makes short vowels into long vowels (e.g.: how "can" becomes "cane" with that silent letter at the end).

We only continue to meet together for about a month-and-a-half more. I'm hoping that Erick will recognize short and long vowel patterns before summer comes.

Changes for OUSD

Right now, the biggest news in OUSD is the sudden resignation of superintendent Tony Smith. He and his family are moving to Chicago to be closer to his father-in-law whose health has been in decline. You can read his resignation letter here.

Now board members and officials are faced with the task of finding a new superintendent.

This interview can illuminate some of Tony Smith's accomplishments and controversies during his four years at OUSD as well as bring to light the difficulty of finding someone to fill his position.

We can only hope for stability and wisdom with OUSD leadership as the district moves forward.

No More Yawns!

This week, I picked two nonfiction books for Erick to read. One was titled Mighty Spiders! and the other, simply, Frogs!

The books did not need their exclamation points to draw Erick's attention.
"I love spiders!" he said, grabbing the spider book. Inside its pages we learned about different kinds of spiders. Some spiders are large enough to eat birds and frogs. Other spiders live under rocks. Some spiders can make air bubbles to travel underwater. Yet others have bright coloring and horns.
At the end of the book, there were small labeled illustrations of each spider that had made an appearance in the book. Erick pointed to each one, repeating, "I like this one! I like this one! I like this one!" When he pointed to the last one, he closed the book and said, "I love them ALL!"

I don't have half as much enthusiasm for spiders as Erick does, but I was excited to see him reading some of the harder words, like "creeping" and "catch" and "insects."

The frog book was similarly engrossing for Erick. Did you know that some frogs are large enough to eat mice and other frogs? Some frogs are also so small that they can sit on the edge of your fingernail. When we turned to a photograph of a frog puffing its throat, Erick cried, "Ew! That's so sick! Ew! I don't want to see that!"
"Well, if this book is too gross, we can pick a different one to read," I responded. I was a little taken aback because I thought the spiders had been much more disgusting.
Erick paused.
"No. I'm going to finish reading it."
"Well, if you see a picture you don't like, you can put your hand over it."
"No. I'm okay."

And he was.