Helping children learn to read has changed me
Peak Johnson writes that he never wanted to teach children — until he spent time tutoring the young students at Frankford's Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary.
Once upon a time, I didn’t want to work with children. The idea of teaching had crossed my mind a few times over the years, but it always involved instructing older students. It would be too challenging, I reasoned, to work with young ones.
But that was then. Now, I’m happily in my second year of working as a tutor with students at Mastery Charter Smedley Elementary in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.
It is challenging work. Children are still curious about what is happening around them; they are still messy, and the simplest things — like burping — can be hilarious to them, and derail any well-thought-out lesson about sounding out and writing the letters of the alphabet.
Within my North Philadelphia neighborhood, I’ve witnessed the constant struggle students have with obtaining knowledge, and how they view reading as something scary. I’d like to be able to change that mindset and inspire the idea that learning, whatever it may be, can enlighten the mind and take a person so much further in life.
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Ultimately, I want to be able to unearth the skills they have and need to succeed, especially those who resemble me.
I am one of many Americorp tutors for Joyful Readers who have been placed in different schools around the city. We are focused on ensuring our students gain the necessary literacy skills to succeed in school and beyond. We’re a mixture of old and young, different shades and experiences, with varied skills we use to instruct and build relationships with our students.
No day is ever truly the same as the previous one when working with children.
I tutor kindergarten through third-grade students, and throughout the day, you can find me in the hallway of Mastery Charter Smedley. A group of kindergartners might be lining up by the water fountain, laughing at nothing in particular and standing on their toes to get a drink, as I am going over letters and discussing their sounds with their peers. If it’s near dismissal time as I am teaching my students about diagraphs, Smedley’s cheerleading team can be heard practicing their latest routine in the nearby gym.
It’s interesting work, almost rewiring the students’ minds to recognize words that may make the “e” or “i” sound, or having them know their alphabet enough to write it confidently and correctly.
Focusing on the fundamentals is something I haven’t thought about in years and has led me on more than one occasion to think about how I learned. Aside from math, I never had a tutor. I enjoyed reading and could often be found sitting in the class library, when there was one, and reading the same book repeatedly. Knowing how to read was drilled into me by my teachers and parents.
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So it has been eye-opening to witness what the power of literacy can unlock in my students and to celebrate their achievements and see where they struggle. It’s important because I can then ask myself why that may be, and what I can do to reassess a lesson.
I often mention to my students how important it is to know how to read and spell — how vital it is that they go over their drills daily so they can become better readers. While some understand, some playfully roll their eyes, indicating they would much rather partake in another activity — mostly gossiping about each other, their home life, or how annoying their siblings can be.
And while this can be entertaining — at times I even look forward to their larger-than-life tales — I have to keep them, and myself, on task.
In Joyful Readers’ impact report, our first, the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, stated that just 35% of Philadelphia third graders could read on grade level in 2024. Research for Action, an independent third-party research firm, concluded that our students’ reading growth at all nine partner schools (we’ve since added a few more) outpaced the growth expected in an average school year.
My students and I are always excited when they achieve something in our lessons.
Our students improved in reading and made significant progress toward closing the gap between their assessment scores and the national median score of students in the same grade. Joyful Readers students began the 2022-23 school year reading at the 22nd percentile and ended the year at the 30th percentile. Clearly, the program is having an impact.
My students and I are always excited when they achieve something in our lessons. It’s a sign we are progressing together, and it assures me that, despite my doubts, I must be doing a good job.
The mix of feelings I had when I first began tutoring remains the same when I see them: I am both nervous and excited. No day is ever truly the same as the previous one when working with children. Yet, it is some of the most fulfilling work of my life.
Peak Johnson is a North Philadelphia native and a graduate of Community College of Philadelphia, Temple University, and Arcadia University. He is an Americorp tutor with Joyful Readers and an adjunct professor at Community College of Philadelphia.