RIC Students Give Kindergartners a Running Start

Since the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year, kindergartners have been benefiting from RIC student volunteerism through the Kindergarten Project created by the neighborhood nonprofit Inspiring Minds.

“It happens all too often in urban schools that a child enters kindergarten without school-ready skills and is already behind and struggling compared to his or her peers,” said Miriam Martinez, program director of Inspiring Minds. “Without additional support, this child could continue to struggle from year to year, failing to reach his or her potential.”

The Kindergarten Project, which began for the first time this fall, is conducted in collaboration with RIC’s Feinstein School of Education and Human Development, the Providence Public School District and Providence Schools teachers and staff.

One hundred RIC students who aspire to teach, along with community volunteers, are placed in kindergarten classrooms, where they give children one-on-one time using teacher-led curriculum and activities. Though each volunteer visits a classroom once a week, children receive the help of different volunteers four times a week. Focus is on helping children acquire the foundational skills they need to read and write.

Currently four Providence elementary schools are involved in the project: Asa Messer, Charles Fortes, Frank Spaziano and Alan Shawn Feinstein at Broad Street.

Three of the classrooms consist of ESL students from homes where English is not spoken or where English is not the first language. And many of the children in the non-ESL classrooms come from similar homes.

For part of the day, RIC students come in (three are assigned to each classroom), sit on the rug with the children and observe as the teacher relays a lesson. The children then break off into small groups to practice what they’ve learned, while select children pair off with a volunteer to work one-on-one or up to three per volunteer.

“Although the program is in its infancy, principals in our target schools have often touted the impact of a volunteer on students and on a classroom,” said Martinez. “Students become more confident, improve behavior and perform better academically. This program intends to do that on a larger scale, impacting entire classrooms at a time.”

The Feinstein School of Education and Human Development makes community service learning a mandatory graduation requirement for undergraduate students enrolled in the school. Twenty-five hours of community service must be completed by prospective teacher candidates one semester prior to student teaching.

In addition, all students seeking admission into a teacher preparation program must enroll in and successfully complete the service-learning course Foundations of Education (FNED) 346: Schooling in a Democratic Society. Through this course, students are required to volunteer for a minimum of 15 hours at a diverse, urban school.

The Kindergarten Project is an ideal way to fulfill these requirements, said Susan Greenfield, RIC community service learning coordinator. “The project provides RIC students with a comprehensive hands-on, teaching-and-learning experience, while children develop the literacy skills they need to become successful students in the higher-grade levels.”

“The hope is that RIC students will be assigned to work with the same children each visit and get to know them,” said Greenfield. “With that much prescriptive and focused help from RIC students, progress should be significant and measurable.”

The Kindergarten Project is expected to roll into more Providence elementary schools after the 2016-2017 school year. Any RIC student or outside community member may volunteer. No prior teaching or tutoring experience is needed. Inspiring Minds supports tutors by offering a volunteer training program, and classroom teachers provide the teaching materials.