Educating children is not only rewarding, but it can also be a lot of fun. And when education is fun for everyone involved, it tends to be more effective. Melanie McDowell, a Year 17 Education Team Member with AmeriCorps St. Louis, used the puppet theater at Hickey Elementary, in northern St. Louis City, to help engage her students while acting as a literacy tutor.

Engaging children in an interesting and fun way is just as important as being able to teach them when they're ready to learn. One of the reason AmeriCorps St. Louis has such a consistently high success rate in increasing its pupils' literacy rates is the attention it pays to training its members in literacy skills and multiple intelligences.

Once they learn how a child understands the world and learns, they can tailor their lessons to that particular child. Sometimes it's putting lessons to music, or making them more physically engaging. And sometimes it's incorporating a puppet show and the accompanying acting that provides the right stimulation for a child to learn and grow.

The AmeriCorps St. Louis Education Team intervenes with children at risk of falling behind in their literacy educations in Title I St. Louis Public Schools in grades K-3. Children learn to read through 3rd grade, but are expected to read to learn by 4th grade. If literacy hasn't been established by 3rd grade, students tend to fall further behind quickly.

AmeriCorps St. Louis' Education Team works because they have the time to build relationships with and focus on their individual students in ways that suit the student best. Without this intervention, many of their students would continuously fall behind their peers. With this experience, the AmeriCorps Members better understand the needs of their communities and can continue to make meaningful changes during their lives.