成人快播

Nearly three months after the basement reading center at Tenderloin Community School (TCN) was flooded in the 鈥淕reat Storm鈥� of 2014, the site reopened for after-school tutoring. During a Wednesday afternoon session, sprawled across the school cafeteria, seven pairs of tutors and students sit reading and learning together.

One pair in particular, quickly and seamlessly start their lesson after their three month hiatus. Without missing a beat, Ryan Crosbie, a Zendesk employee, and Carly*, an energetic fourth-grader with pink and white polka dot leggings and a long braid, take their positions at the long cafeteria table. The two delve into a lesson on sequence of events while reading a short book on C茅sar Chavez. Their discussion goes something like this:

Ryan: So Carly, what happened first?

Carly: The farmers picked fruit.

Ryan: What kind of fruit?

Carly: Mangoes鈥�?

Ryan: No, you鈥檙e thinking of the Stellaluna book. They were picking鈥�

Carly: Grapes!

Ryan: Then what happened?

Carly: C茅sar saved the day!

Ryan: But how?

Carly: He helped the farmers go on a strike.

Ryan: And then鈥�?

Carly: The farmers got their money!

After their lesson, they start playing 鈥淗andman鈥� – a variation of the popular word game Hangman, only missed letters result in fingers of a hand, rather than a gallowed man, being drawn. Ryan gets stumped when Carly picks a word with no vowels 鈥� TCS, her school鈥檚 name. When he protests, she asks, 鈥渨hat鈥檚 an acronym?鈥�

The next round Carly stumps him again 鈥� this time with a surprise two-word phrase. 聽鈥淪he beats me more than I鈥檇 like to admit. That鈥檚 probably why she likes it,鈥� Ryan said.

Ryan started volunteering as a substitute reading partner about two years ago. Since then, he has committed to tutoring two sessions each week with Carly. After he began working at Zendesk, he brought the opportunity to his peers at the office.

Zendesk was the first recipient of a聽 with the city–considered an exemplary company in the community for its compliance with this agreement and its culture of community involvement. Not to mention, the company gets tax breaks in exchange for community service.

Whether it鈥檚 volunteering at the senior center, teaching at the tech lab, cooking meals at St. Anthony鈥檚, or tutoring at 成人快播, Zendesk employees find a range of ways to connect with their local community.

Last year, 99% of Zendesk employees were involved in some form of volunteer activity

Ryan especially enjoys working with 成人快播 because of the one-on-one nature of the program and the opportunity to work with the same student week after week.

The curriculum structure provides a comprehensive progression from one lesson to the next and effectively targets the highest-need students. As a high school student, Ryan had worked as a paid tutor, but didn鈥檛 quite feel the same gratification as he does now being a reading partner. Ryan admits, because families had to pay for the program, it didn鈥檛 always reach its target demographic. 鈥淚 think [成人快播] is a different approach that can scale,鈥� he says.

From Carly鈥檚 test scores alone, it鈥檚 apparent that her literacy skills have grown dramatically since she started working with Ryan. She entered 成人快播 as a third grader last year reading 1.6 years behind grade level (at a beginning second-grade level). Her mid-year assessment results showed Carly reading 2.5 times faster than her monthly growth rate before enrolling in 成人快播, gaining about 1.5 months鈥� equivalent of literacy growth each month of the school year.

鈥淪he impresses me with the things she knows. She鈥檚 always achieving something to get to that next level,鈥� says Ryan.

Carly鈥檚 progress is reflected in the kinds of books she likes to read now. When the two started working together, Carly loved Dr. Seuss books, but couldn鈥檛 read them鈥損artly, Ryan notes, because half of the words are made up. Despite the challenging words, Carly was able to successfully read a passage from Dr. Seuss鈥� The Lorax out loud during last December鈥檚 winter reading recital.

As an avid reader, Ryan finds it helpful to get Carly engaged in the books they read together. During their tutor-read-aloud sessions, he holds the book close to her to keep her attention focused on the text. He reads with animation, using different voices to separate dialogue from descriptive sentences.

Last week, Carly asked Ryan, 鈥淗ave you ever been an actress?鈥�

鈥淣o, Carly,鈥� he said with a laugh. 鈥淚鈥檝e never been an actress.鈥�

Before she was enrolled in 成人快播, Carly thought reading was hard. Today, Carly says reading is her favorite subject in school.

*Note: Student鈥檚 name has been changed to comply with student privacy policies.