Volunteers make reading fun
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer
Armed with a picture book and a blue apron, 17-year-old Melvin Mariano held the rapt attention of 20 Kapalama Elementary School second-graders.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Without a wiggle or a twitch, the students watched as Mariano, a Farrington High School junior, read from "Duck on a Bike." He moved characters around his apron to illustrate the story, a technique he learned in the 4-H Read to Me project. Afterward, Mariano and 16-year-old Jaedee-Kae Vergara read together from "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."
Melvin Mariano, 17, a member of the 4-H Read to Me project, gets his Kapalama Elementary second-grade audience involved in his reading of "Duck on a Bike" by wearing an illustrated apron that follows the storyline and holds their interest.
The 4-H is known for its programs that teach students about livestock, crops and forestry, but six years ago the organization moved into Hawai'i's urban landscape with the Read to Me project, which uses student volunteers to read to younger children as a way to promote literacy. Educators say that's important in a state where nearly six out of 10 students failed to meet the state standard in reading last year.
On average, about 400 teens participate in the Read to Me program each year, and they read to about 10,000 youngsters.
Now the program has branched out, thanks to a bunch of students from Manchester (N.H.) High School WEST, who came to Hawai'i recently to learn about history and geography and ended up taking Read to Me back to their inner-city community.
"The plan is for the kids to go into the local schools here and bring a bit of Hawaiian culture back to the Manchester schools," said Kevin Maes, the Manchester High School WEST special-education teacher who coordinated the activity. "The books they chose were Hawaiian stories."
The program has proved its worth in Hawai'i, both in providing reading role models for young students and a chance for the volunteers to perform community service.
The Read to Me program is trying to expand to other youth groups, such as Scout troops, church groups and school service clubs. Volunteers must be between ages 11 and 17. Youth groups interested in taking part should contact Claire Nakatsuka at 956-7196 or e-mail at readtome@ctahr.hawaii.edu.
"Reading aloud is very important for young children," said Stephanie Nishihama, a Farrington High School teacher who incorporates Read to Me in her early childhood education classes. "You want children to enjoy the love of reading."
To participate
The program works like this: A youth group will contact the 4-H organizer to learn the program and to receive the apron-making materials. Student volunteers choose a storybook they will enjoy reading aloud, make an apron to illustrate the book and then line up a class to read to.
They must read to at least 25 students and write a summary of their experience.
The apron is one of the program's keys to success, said Tyson Yamada, a 4-H member for three years who teaches others the Read to Me program.
"All you have to do is show the new volunteers the apron and they're sold," said Kyle Sombero, an Iolani senior and Read to Me volunteer.
"The apron stories bring books to life, they enhance the book," Nishihama said. "And with our high-school students, it brings out their own creativity and desire to instill the love of reading."
That's how it was with Vergara, a junior at Farrington. As a student at the school's family and consumer-science class, she was required to participate in the program.
Vergara took her plain blue apron and painted a lavender and gray troll to illustrate her story, "Sideways Stories from Wayside School," in which a mean teacher turns students into apples. When she read the story to students at Kapalama Elementary — her first time reading to a class — she incorporated their names into the story.
"I had read this story when I was in elementary school," said Vergara, who wants to be a teacher. "The students really like it when I include their names in the story."
Mariano helped Vergara illustrate her story with plastic red apples, and the students chuckled and looked at each other as their names were read.
Mariano said the way to get kids interested in stories is to make them interesting. He makes his voice rich and deep with excitement and anticipation as he reads his story to the students.
He said he wants the students to understand the moral to his story: People should do the things they want to even at the risk of being ridiculed.
Like the duck in the story who rides a bicycle around the farm at the risk of being teased by all the other farm animals who say he can't, Mariano isn't embarrassed to read kids stories with emotion and gestures. He sees it all as part of training toward becoming a teacher.
"I find it very fun to work with kids," Mariano said. "I like it when I see them smile."
Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.
