Adopt A School

A

s a former reading teacher, Berta Molasky is ac-
customed to feeling a sense of accomplishment.
Her students' progress was justification enough
for the other frustrations that typically come with
teaching.
Yet, as a volunteer for the Ferndale Literacy Project, a pet
program of NCJW, her wonderment at a child's joy at learning
is as fresh as ever.
Ms. Molasky, who retired from the Oak Park School Dis-
trict last year, spends one or two hours each week reading with
kindergartners, first- and second-graders in Ferndale schools
who have little or no exposure to books at home.
"It is a wonderful sense of purpose when you walk out after
reading and realize, not only did you have a good time, but the
children have grown and you've grown. When I've read to my
last one that day, that's the way I feel," she said.
Educational research suggests that children who can't read
at the end of the third grade probably won't ever read. Chances
are they'll also drop out of school at an early age.
And there seems to be some evidence that reading aloud "is
the single most significant part of learning to read," said Judy
Samson, volunteer coordinator for the Ferndale Literacy Pro-
ject.
The project, taken on by NCJW in the past few years as its
Adopt A School program, is simple. Roughly 100 adult volun-
teers drawn from NCJW and the general community read to the
same 300-400 students every week in order to build an interest
in reading and a trust that will make it a good experience.

Berta Molasky and 5-year-old Benjamin McCoy of Grant School in
Ferndale read Strega Nona together.

"The whole objective is to have a good time with a child over
a book. If we can show children reading is a fun experience and
turn them on to reading, they will become readers. Volunteers
are not there to tutor or teach," Ms. Samson said.
At the end of a pilot reading program before the 1994-95 school
year, the number of children who couldn't read on the first-grade
level dropped from 36 to 21 percent, she said.
Along with the reading, the school district sends each child
home with a book every day to read with his or her parents.
Ms. Molasky said a dejected volunteer called her last year
to say she didn't feel she'd made any difference in the children's
ability to read, prompting Ms. Molasky to get the test scores of
the children before and after the pilot program.
`The test results reinforced her need to accomplish something,"
she said.
For other volunteers, the act itself is reward enough.
Barbara Mayer, a longtime NCJW member, has volunteered
for the Ferndale Literacy Project for the past two years. She
spends an hour every week with four children, reading with each
one for 15 minutes.
Some weeks are better than others. Ms. Mayer considers it
an accomplishment if the child is focused on the book and not
some other activity in the classroom.
Even so, "it's very gratifying. One of the reasons I do it is be-
cause my grandchildren all live out of town. This gives me a
chance to read to children. Because I love books so much, I hope
I am able to transmit some of that love, that books are very spe-
cial and very wonderful, to the children," she said. El

"The whole
objective is to
have a good
time with a
child over a
book."

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