Brainy Groveland

Early in the school year I sat side by side with a third-grade boy in an empty grade school classroom in our town. He stumbled over simple words in a chapter book and could not make sense of the narrative.
I saw him again last week. It was a different story. He handed me his chapter book, Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed.
“What does “stalk” mean?” I asked him.
He smiled broadly, got a stealthy look on his face and mimed crawling through brush on his belly.
“It’s when you sneak around and spy on someone,” he said gleefully. I stalked my sister. I snuck up and watched her send a text message on her phone.
Then he began to read with confidence and comprehension. When he finished he looked up at me with wide eyes and said,
“I’m getting better at this!”
“Well yes you are,” I said. I pulled out the paper that listed all the books he’d read during the school year. He counted them -- twenty-three.
“My sister doesn’t believe me when I tell her I’ve read a lot of books,” he said. “But I have!”
“Would you like me to write her a note and tell her how many books you’ve read?” I asked? He thought that was a great idea.
“Dear sis,” I wrote, “your brother has read 23 books this year.” And I signed the note. He went back to class, his note stuffed in his pocket and the title of the next book he wanted to read in his head.
Steve and Kathy Ryan are the sponsors of Brainy Groveland, a reading incentive program in our town modeled after many other reading programs across the nation. The children get 1:1 time with mentors (over 30 volunteers), a dollar now for each book read (two dollars, if it’s over 120 pages) and a matching amount of money in a lump sum at the end of the school year. Programs like these are reported to be successful.
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