AfterSchool KidzLit Best Practices: Staffing (Part 2 of 8)

A program can only be as a good as the person facilitating it with the children. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) does such a great job of outlining the important skills and qualities of a successful leader as well as the importance of training and use of volunteers. These learnings are specific to AfterSchool KidzLit, but certainly could apply to any good programming we do with children. You can read Part 1 here.

From the Boys & Girls Clubs of America guide "Best Practices for Implementing the AfterSchool KidzLit Program"*

Developmental Studies Center (DSC) emphasizes that having program facilitators with certain skills and personal qualities is critical for creating an AfterSchool KidzLit experience that young people will enjoy and that will have a positive impact on them. Although this is a turnkey, user-friendly program, with a menu of ready-made, well-documented activities available in the leader’s guide for each book in the kit, all facilitators can benefit from training to be better able to manage group dynamics and more effectively facilitate participants’ active learning in the program. DSC also recommends a relatively small youth-to-adult ratio (20:1) for the program. The participating Clubs employed different strategies to implement these important recommendations.   

Desirable Skills and Qualities in Facilitators

The Clubs agreed that program facilitators must:

• Be motivated, friendly, fun, and dedicated to implementing the program faithfully. Staff at the Winnebago, Milwaukee, and El Paso, Texas, Clubs said that young people sense the facilitator’s level of enthusiasm and own love of reading, and this makes them more likely to stay involved. The Michigan City, Indiana, coordinator selected facilitators who would “fall in love with” the books in the KidzLit kit. The program coordinator at the Western Pennsylvania Club wore costumes or hats to match with the book he was reading. When reading a book about the Mexican custom of making tamales, he wore a “luchador” mask like those worn by Mexican professional wrestlers.
• Be well-prepared in advance, but also resourceful and flexible, because often schedules change, program spaces are switched, or youth finish with a book sooner than expected. Staff at the Bloomfield, New Mexico, Club, for example, made a point of being prepared with two books, just in case one of their age groups didn’t relate to or engage with a particular book.
• Have excellent read-aloud skills. These include matching tone of voice and pacing to the book’s content; reading in an expressive manner; pronouncing words, especially those from languages other than English, correctly; making sure to show participants the pictures in the book as it is read (the Albany, Georgia, Club’s facilitator did a “picture walk” through a featured book prior to reading it to participants); and asking participants questions as they read along to heighten the book’s suspense.
• Be able to facilitate discussions so that each participant feels free to express his or her thoughts. Good facilitators ask open-ended questions, make eye contact, and are comfortable waiting in silence while children figure out what they want to say. They take notice of youth who are more shy or reticent and encourage them to speak, if not in the large group, then with a partner or two. When youth share their thoughts, good facilitators refrain from interrupting and acknowledge what was said in a neutral manner. Staff at one of the Milwaukee sites found this was especially important when working with adolescents.

Training for Facilitators

After participating in a one-day training workshop facilitated by a certified DSC trainer at BGCA’s headquarters, program coordinators were eager to provide their Club’s staff and volunteer colleagues with training and ongoing coaching and feedback to ensure the program was implemented as designed, with the five-step process completed consistently for each book and group.

• The program coordinator at the Lowcountry Club in South Carolina worked with the Club’s volunteer coordinator to recruit volunteers such as retired teachers and other caring adults who would be well-suited for the program, then provided in-service training to five volunteers and one part-time staff member. “The training and planning periods are essential. Once the facilitators and/or volunteers understand the goals and objectives of the program, it is bound for success. Volunteers are an important key to the success of this program.”
• Greater Milwaukee’s program director trained a lead staff person from each of the three Club sites that would be implementing the program. She invited these staff to examine the program materials and compile supply lists for the semester so she could make sure they had the supplies they needed. Other staff members assisting with program implementation reviewed program materials on their own, especially DSC’s Quick Tips Plus and its training videos on CD-ROM.
• Michigan City’s assistant director and another key staff member who attended BGCA’s training workshop started by having the key staff member facilitate a KidzLit session with a group of youth while other staff observed. These other Club staff members were then trained during a regular monthly staff meeting, during which they practiced facilitating in small groups. The assistant director and key staff member then observed other staff facilitating sessions with youth and gave them suggestions for integrating the KidzLit activities with other Club programs.

Using Volunteers to Serve More Children

Since AfterSchool KidzLit works best when done with small groups of children (DSC recommends an optimal adult-to-child ratio of 1:20) organized by age or grade range (e.g., K-2, 3-5, 6-8), the Clubs quickly found that if they wanted to serve more children in the program, recruiting, training and retaining good volunteers was a key strategy. Some Clubs focused on finding good adult volunteers, while others used the program to develop leadership among older youth.

• The Southeast Virginia Club recruited local community college students as volunteers.
• The Northern Chautauqua County Club in New York recruited local university students. The Bay County, Michigan, Club had a university student do her social work program internship at the Club. The intern liked KidzLit so well that she started recruiting other volunteers from her university to serve at the Club.
• The Lowcountry and Kingman, Arizona, Clubs, situated in communities with large retiree populations, recruited senior citizens as volunteers. (The director of the Kingman Club tapped an existing partnership with a Foster Grandparent program in the community’s schools and trained volunteers already experienced in helping children with reading in how to use KidzLit.)
• The Central Mississippi Club recruited volunteers from local churches, as well as used AmeriCorps volunteers in the program.
• The Bloomfield Club used parents of participants as “guest readers.”

Many Clubs encouraged older Club youth to serve their peers or younger counterparts by helping with program activities. The Clubs found this was a great way to engage members who perceived the program as being only for younger children or provide them with leadership development opportunities. The Clubs quickly realized many benefits from this. Younger children emulated their older helpers and thus participated more actively in the program, and the older youth developed more self-confidence and increased their Club participation as well.

• The Michigan City Club used older youth as “Buddy-Readers” to help with read-alouds and other program activities; fourth- and fifth-graders assisted with Cool Words and Wrap-Up activities. “The members so enjoyed reading to others that they began taking interest in contributing to their own KidzLit sessions. They wanted to read aloud. This gave our staff the opportunity to learn about choral reading, student-adult reading, partner reading and readers’ theater, all proven practices that promote fluent reading. The younger members appeared to enjoy having an older role model. They would ask about the plans for the next session and request a particular favorite ‘Buddy-Reader.’ The process helped to reinforce our Club’s goal to keep members involved in the Club as they transition to middle school and then high school.”
• At the Lowcountry Club, youth leaders in the third-to-fifth-grade group asked the program coordinator to create a volunteer log on which they could sign up to do a read-aloud of a particular book or help with defining Cool Words. “Allowing them the opportunity to run the activities and/or giving them a 'responsibility of the day' increased their excitement toward the program. Members also become more patient toward one another as they found themselves explaining complicated words or parts of a story to their younger counterparts.” This Club also had a middle-school-age volunteer who loved books and creative writing and needed a community service project as part of preparing for her bat mitzvah. She was self-assured and comfortable in helping to facilitate KidzLit activities, and the younger Club members related to her well.
• The Milwaukee Club had older youth do read-alouds, serve as peer helpers, manage materials and supplies, and set up space. “Their involvement helped them to build self-confidence, increase attendance, improve communication, and attempt risk-taking. The same attributes started showing themselves in the other participants. They wanted to be in the leadership roles too, so they began to mirror the behaviors necessary to obtain those roles and then achieve them.”
• The Harlingen, Texas, Club had older youth help out with program logistics, like helping participants sign in, passing out snacks, etc. The Western Pennsylvania Club used older youth who needed to do service hours in a diversion program called Great Start to help with picking books, doing read-alouds, preparing supplies, and conducting activities.

Some of the Clubs had members, especially in the elementary school age groups, clamoring to participate in the program, and thus found it challenging to keep group sizes as small as DSC recommends. In order to manage these larger groups and provide participants with the attention they needed, especially when doing the more interactive activities, these Clubs made sure to have a main facilitator and at least one other helper available for each session.

* Boys & Girls Clubs of America gratefully acknowledges the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, whose generous funding support made it possible for Boys & Girls Clubs across the country to motivate young people to enjoy reading with the AfterSchool KidzLit program.

Note: This guide was developed by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to assist its sites in implementing the AfterSchool KidzLit program. The Boys & Girls Clubs generously shared this document as a facilitation tool to share their learnings, not as an endorsement of the program. You may download the entire guide here.

Megan Green is one of the authors of AfterSchool KidzMath and is the Manager of After-School Programs at DSC.