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After attending numerous workshops regarding the use of Newspaper in Education (NIE) during my teaching career, I was trying to decide what might inspire and motivate my students to want to read more this year. One day I took my 95-year old grandmother to the eye doctor and she had her eyes dilated. After I drove her home, she opened a letter from her daughter, which she could not read, due to the dilation, so I read it to her. Bingo! This year I initiated a pilot-program between my school and an area nursing home, in which my reading students are using newspapers to read to the residents there. Before introducing this idea to my students, I had anticipated that a couple of my more sensitive students might find going to a nursing home to be awkward. Therefore, as I began to explain their role in this new program, I made sure to immediately assuage all concerns I knew they would have. I let them know how grateful the residents would be to have them come and visit: children seldom come to this nursing home. No one would realize (or care) if a reading mistake were made, the residents would be happy just getting extra attention. They would all begin by reading together, as a whole group, before going out into private rooms with a partner, and they would not ever have to have physical contact with anyone (unless they wanted to).

Since the nursing home has use of mini buses, Miss Mary picks up the students and me every Friday morning, delivering us to the nursing home where the students read selections of the newspaper to the residents. They read for about 45 minutes before we have to return to school. In the beginning, all of the students stayed together in the visitation room and took turns reading to a large group of residents. At this point, the physical contact issue was no longer a concern. Every student shook hands with each resident before we left, thanking the residents for allowing them the opportunity to read. Now, the students break out with a partner. Some of the students read to residents in the visitation room, others read to the residents who are waiting for their physical therapy in the exercise room, and some visit residents who are confined to their beds.

The significance of this pilot program is not only academic in nature as described below, but it is also impacting the students´ intellectual development. I have been able to, with the help of some elderly individuals; ignite both their minds and hearts. They have all developed, to varying degrees, tolerance for the infirm and elderly. The students are no longer apprehensive about being alone with the residents. Now the students are beginning to appreciate the knowledge of the more alert elders. These elders are also fostering respect for human dignity and diversity. The students are also developing a keen sense of fairness and justice as it relates to "their" residents. Molly, a favorite with them all even though she won´t talk, just smiles at them, pushes herself around in her wheelchair while embracing her three baby dolls. One day, Molly was clutching only two babies and would not smile at the students as she positioned her wheelchair in the corner of the room. In the bus, on the way back to school, after Miss Mary told them one baby had been lost, a heartwarming discussion took place. The students decided the baby dolls represented Molly´s three children, and it wasn´t fair she had to be without her third baby. They decided to take up a collection and buy her another baby.

This interactive participation impacts my students´ learning in numerous ways. They are able to anticipate the visitations from one week to the next, which helps to maintain their enthusiasm and motivation about their reading. My students are excited about being the only ones (at this time) to leave the school for a field-study program of this nature. My pilot program enables the students to read with an authentic, meaningful purpose-not just homework. Because they do not want to be embarrassed at the nursing home on Friday, they take home Thursday´s newspaper, select and practice reading several articles they want to read or to share with the residents. This repeated reading of the same articles helps the students with their comprehension and fluency. At this point, every student reading at the nursing home has increased their fluency from 8% to 44%, an average of 28%, based from the first to second fluency probe: Paul went from 94 WPM to 145 WPM, while Rachelle went from 86 WPM to 154 WPM. Many are now reading at their appropriate 6th grade level. With improved fluency comes improved comprehension and increased self-esteem. The spiral effect continues to rise.

Rebecca L. Fries
7th Grade Reading
Holly Hill Middle

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