Storefront Learning Center

To quote Clint, one of Storefront’s more reluctant-to-read students, “I suck at reading.”  So begins the task of getting Clint to read.  To that refrain and its minor variation (I hate reading; I don’t want to read today; Do I have to read this?; Why do I have to read this? This book sucks), Clint came to English class (there, in itself, is one of those ‘small-step’ successes!).  Haltingly, painfully, with much resistance (mostly of the passive variety), well-practiced whining, and a creeping inertia which threatened to suck all the energy from the room, Clint read.  He made mistakes, he lost his place on the page, had to re-read lines, ask for help with some words he did not recognize and the correct pronunciation of some he did, but Clint read.  And he (most always) came to class.

 Finally, after many weeks, the class finished the book.  Turns out it wasn’t such a bad book, after all.  And that made for the second book Clint had ever read in his life.  When class met the next time, we started another book, much to Clint’s delight. When Clint took a reading post-test he scored 3 points better than he did on the pre-test.  That’s not a huge improvement, but he’s going in the right direction.  And, maybe more importantly, Clint is reading books. 

Jackie, pregnant at 14 and now with a 2-year old in tow, scored 6 out of 67 problems in the basic math pre-test.  For over a year at Storefront she struggled to do the math worksheets that would teach her to perform basic math computations without a calculator.  Since all math worksheets must be completed with 100% correct answers, Jackie had to do some worksheets over and over before she solved the problems.  She even tried to cheat a few times, but when that didn’t work (Storefront teachers have been at this job for a long  time…) Jackie had to bite the bullet and do the math.   

A few months into her second year at Storefront she passed the post-test with a score of 60 out of 74 problems—an impressive improvement.  But, she wasn’t done with math yet since Storefront requires 2 math classes for graduation.  Reluctantly, Jackie made her way through the second math class, vowing all the while never to do math again once she had passed this class….Jackie is now taking algebra, a non-required math elective at Storefront.  More math?  Go figure.