Volunteer mentors help Wayne Township students learn to read

INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — Fourth grader Selena Zavala thumbed through the red bin of books before finding the one that caught her eye.

“This one!” she said, lifting up “A Fine, Fine School” by author Sharon Creech.

“Why would you pick that book?” her mentor, Bonnie Johnson, asked.

“Because it’s about school!” Selena excitedly explained, walking her new selection to the front of the classroom at Stout Field Elementary in Wayne Township.

Johnson isn’t a teacher. In fact, she’s had no formal training on elementary school literacy. But, once a week, for the past 21 years, she has sat with kids like Selena, coaching them through their reading.

“I hope that they know that other people care about them,” Johnson said. “I want them to know that they’re improving and can thrive in their accomplishments.”

Johnson is just one of the more than 600 volunteers serving in Wayne Township schools’ Help One Student To Succeed, or HOSTS, program.

The program places volunteers — anyone who has time and a desire to help kids — with third and fourth grade students for one hour a week. During their time together, kids read books, recite poetry, play games and practice vocabulary exercises with the added benefit of their mentor’s one-on-one coaching.

But even as the school year nears the end of its first semester, Wayne Township is still looking for volunteers. The district is more than 60 positions short, meaning some students are waiting for their mentor.

Back at her desk, Selena paced herself as she encountered her first sentences about Mr. Keene, the principal who loves his school.

“Every morning he strolled down the hallway and saw the children in their classes,” she read aloud to her mentor. “He saw them learning shapes and colors and numbers and letters. He saw them reading and writing and drawing and painting. He saw them making dinosaurs and forts and pyra–”

Selena paused. “Pyra— I don’t know— pirates!”

Johnson raised her hands into a triangle with a gentle hint, “Like Egypt.”

“Pyramids!” Selena exclaims before moving onto her next sentence.

HOSTS is a program, school leaders say, that draws its success from repeated time shared between students and their mentors, creating an environment where kids’ needs can be understood and meaningful relationships can be built.

It also comes at a pivotal moment in reading education as Indiana lawmakers and education officials sound the alarm about state literacy goals. Data this year shows nearly 1 in 5 students are not passing the state’s third grade reading exam.

Last year, 79% of third graders in HOSTS passed the state’s elementary school reading exam, IREAD. That’s more than 10 percentage points higher than Wayne Township’s district average.

“You get to make a connection from September all the way to, this year, almost the end of May,” HOSTS instructor Lisa Kent said.

Kids, she said, need consistency.

What is HOSTS?

Wayne Township began its HOSTS program 23 years ago as a part of a national reading initiative. The program pairs third and fourth grade students with adult mentors, providing 30 minutes of one-on-one mentorship to each student in the district’s 11 elementary schools.

In Wayne Township, lessons are structured and planned in advance by a HOSTS instructor employed by the district.

The instructor prepares personalized folders for each student with guidance on reading goals and advice for mentors. If a student is reading too fast, for example, a card in the folder gives advice on how to prompt the student to slow down and think more carefully.

HOSTS instructors stay in the room for each volunteer session so mentors can ask questions.

Typically, each 30-minute HOSTS meeting starts with a poem. Students then have about 15 minutes to read from a book of their choice, alternating each week between fiction and nonfiction. The rest of their time is split between vocabulary practice, the occasional writing exercise and learning games — that’s of course secondary to the students’ needs.

If someone comes in after a rough night at home, mentors are encouraged to take their time to talk to kids about what’s going on rather than skipping ahead to their lessons.

Wayne Township educators say they want the HOSTS room to be a space where students feel safe to share and to make mistakes. It’s also a place where students’ achievements are celebrated. Awards go out each week for best writing and reading with the best fluency.

That recipe translates to not only academic gains for students, mentors say, but also meaningful experiences for volunteers that keep them wanting to return year after year.

“I’ve done volunteering in other programs, and I’ve sometimes left feeling like: ‘We did it, but it was kind of a waste of time. I’m not sure the kid really got anything out of it,’” Johnson said. “But I have never once left this classroom and felt like my time was not very well spent.”

Mentors provide their feedback to their HOSTS instructors after each session so they can track students’ progress and adjust lessons as needed. The instructors also check in with the students’ teachers to see what additional, one-on-one help students may need reinforcing concepts introduced during class.

“You don’t always get that opportunity in the classroom,” said Lara Blomberg, a lead teacher for the HOSTS program. “As hard as a teacher tries and as much as you really want to, it’s just not possible with that many kids.”

Working with mentors

About 320 kids across Wayne Township are signed up for HOSTS mentorships.

Educators are intentional about who they pick for the program. They look for kids who aren’t shy around adults and need just a little extra help reading. For example, if a student has really high needs, they’ll use this same time in another part of the school to work with a certified teacher rather than a volunteer mentor.

About 20 to 30 third and fourth graders participate in each school at different times of the day. Some meet with their HOSTS mentor first thing in the morning. Others come in right after recess, depending on schedules set by each school.

Stout Field Elementary Principal Tim Wickard said he made it a goal to schedule HOSTS meetings at his school as times convenient to mentors. The elementary school has partnerships with companies like nearby OmniSource and Rolls-Royce that allow employees to take an hour off from work to participate in the program.

The program is of such importance to Wayne Township that each of its administrators, superintendent included, are required to participate. Although, Wickard said, making time to read with students is never hard.

“I wouldn’t understand HOSTS if I didn’t sit in here every week,” Wickard said. “It’s a good use of my time.”

Even still, the district is in need of volunteers.

How to volunteer

The number of participating volunteers has ebbed and flowed over the years, Blomberg said, reaching as many as 1,000 at one point.

They need 66 more this year. The district provides a short training session for its first-time mentors. However, there’s no requirement to join other than a desire to help students.

The greatest need is in Wayne’s Garden City, Maplewood and Rhoades elementary schools, but Blomberg said the district is willing to work with prospective volunteers around their schedule and preferred locations.

“I hope every week that we’re going to find somebody,” Blomberg said.

To learn more about becoming a HOSTS mentor in Wayne Township, visit the school district’s website. Prospective volunteers can apply online or call 317-988-8675 for more information.

Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.