Jayden (2nd grade) as a reader has been a difficult to please. He has had a chance to read I Spy, Who Would Win, Where’s Waldo, sports stories, car stories and more. Nothing really quite hit the spot. Then Lisa tried pop-up books and he was intrigued. The second to last session of the year she brought our copy of The Mystery of the Russian Ruby, A Pop-Up Whodunit. Reading this book is like playing the board game Clue. In the PiL appreciation circle on the last day, Jayden showed his class each page and how there was wheel in the back which changed all the settings throughout the book which gave the possibility of three different endings. He showed his classmates how by lifting the flaps, one could discover the clues. Through the whole class he held the book to his chest as though if he did not hold in tight enough, it would escape.
In March of 2022, Marquis avoided reading. He had very little phonics or phonemic awareness. He had established a strategy of just making up whole stories which were inspired by the pictures. However, one could immediately see that Marquis was captured by content. He could not resist it. Especially content about animals. Also, he was gifted with kid-charisma. This year, 2023, as third graders, he and his volunteer have read all the Who Would Win books (stories about animals) we could get our hands on. He loves them and he is reading the actual words.
Karen and Tristan love to “rap” through all their books. Tristan has transformed from an early second grader whose focus is on social interaction and movement to a calm reader who barely notices chaos around him because he cannot stop reading.
Caleb and Katie are best friends for life. The key to opening up Caleb to reading was changing the emphasis of the session from a instructional tone to a more fun tone. Then the magic is lizards. Caleb got a bearded dragon for Christmas. So, they have read so many books about dragons and written about dragons and told everyone nearby about dragons…
Salina and Della are on a roll. Selena eats and reads and reads and reads. It has taken her a little while to allow Della to focus their reading time away from only talking but they are so there now.
We first met the rising 8th graders as 6th graders. Mr. Wojcik wanted Quincy to join in, but Quincy was at that being pulled from the “power hour” for other reasons. A month into our sessions, Quincy asked if he could join Devaughn’s group. He explained how he did not like reading, but he wanted to read with DeVaughn. Mr. Wojcik was skeptical. He was concerned about Quincy’s ability to focus with a friend and thought a one-on-one relationship with a volunteer would be better. The volunteer, Kathy, had no doubts that she could make the group work. Fast forward to last year, DeVaughn and Quincy were no longer in the same class, so Kate put Quincy with a very even and strong reader Armonyem and a very compassionate student, Joel. Kathy is a believer that with the right kinds of encouragement, kids can do more. She created a strong camaraderie, and she leaned in on Quincy hard to be the leader. Quincy lived up to Kathy’s expectations. The kids pushed each other to read many pages between sessions and read far more books that any other group in all three classes. This is what Quincy wrote in his thank you note to Kathy: “Dear Kathy, Thank you for being so generous with your time and all the treats and especially for the competiveness. Sincerely, Quincy.” He loved the push!
Kameron (2nd grade) read remotely with Jim Zavunat. Jim is a retired actor. He understands the magic of imagination and humor in motivating a child to focus and sustain interest. Whenever Kameron does a particularly fantastic job reading, Jim says to Kameron, “You are making my hair grow!” Then Jim lifts his baseball hat to show his bald head. Kameron thinks this is hilarious. Jim works Kameron hard for the hour they are together. When Jim reads, due to his stellar pronunciation, Kameron can hear every sound clearly. Jim demands the same of Kameron. Often Jim has Kameron repeat phrases so Kameron can really get the flow and the meaning. Jim expects Kameron to work at every word that he stumbles on while holding on to the meaning of the text.
In September, during our interview for readers’ interest survey. When asked if she like to read, Imogene said, “not really”. When asked what you NOT like about reading, she answered “I get bored with it.” Although she could read the words in the text of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad accurately, she could not retell the story-at all.
Just last week, in May, when we once again met with Imogene (second grade) and asked her the same questions. When asked if she liked reading, she said “Yeh”. She said that her favorite books were WHO WOULD WIN books. (These are the books that she and her volunteer spent the last several months reading.) She said her favorite goal that she had met was to recognize the word “AWESOME” She said, “I like recognizing big words.”
2022-2023 was Nathan’s first year at Bill Roberts. His heritage is Ethiopian, and he came to Bill Roberts by way of Toronto. Nathan definitely wanted to make his place in the 8th grade class. Kate was perplexed by his seeming capacity in contrast to his participation in her classes. In our sessions, he was distracted by other kids. DeVaughn was a magnet for him. On the other hand, Christian, his partner was not. When Christian was reading, Nathan was reading ahead, or sometimes even wandering around looking for another book to read. At the end of the year, we stumbled into a fast-paced mystery about diamond thieves called LOOT. The reader had to keep on their toes since the book was filled with odd clues and there were a lot of characters and we were never sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. On the last day when we sped-read to finish the book, both Christian and Nathan were on the edge of their chairs. When we finished. Nathan said, “That was a perfect book.”
Sean and Milan (second grade) share a love of soccer. (Sean works for the Rapids, the Denver soccer team.) Milan and Sean have read a significant number of books with some Spanish. Milan is skyrocketing in reading capacity and confidence. Their recent love is writing “books” about soccer.