Making Reading a Priority

This past Monday, I spent the day at Little River Elementary school as my previous post mentioned. I absolutely love spending time with the children at this school, and each time I go, just when I think it can't get any better, it gets better.

On this trip, I decided to bring students from my middle school with me. I have gone 4 times previously and have enjoyed the interaction with the young children at this elementary school, but I also love instilling the need for this in my middle school students. As the advisor for my school's chapter of the National Junior Honor Society, I had the opportunity to bring the members to Little River Elementary to read to the students and donate school supplies.

We spent the day in the Media Center, and we were so fortunate to have "Media Mama" make a schedule for us in which all Kindegarten and first grade classes came to the Media Center on a rotation schedule. This means we worked with over 250 students in one day! As the students arrived, we greeted them at the door and introduced ourselves so they wouldn't think we were strangers. We then went to our reading spot with about 3-5 students in hand.

One thing that I love about this school so much is their Media Center. Even though it is a Title I School, it makes it known that reading is a priority. The Media Center has beautifully painted walls representing Florida's history, and it has a variety of reading spots from beach chairs and blankets to tents and rocking chairs. It's great!

We spent about 30 minutes with each group during which time we read to the students in our small groups. I can't even begin to explain how much these students relish this one-on-one interaction. While they were reluctant to sit with me at first, it only took minutes to have them enthralled by the story I was reading and wanting to share their own stories. In fact, just a few minutes into one rotation I looked over at one of my 8th grade students who was sitting in a rocking chair reading to his 4 first grade students. Well one of the boys in his groups placed his hands under his chin and was leaning his hand/chin on my student's knee/leg and was just admiring him as he read. I will cherish this photo for a long time.

It was not hard to see that they don't get much quality time with older relatives at home, and this positive interaction with me and my middle school students made these kids feel special. Media Mama even reminded us of how special this day is for them because their parents and older siblings work multiple jobs and are hardly ever home. This means no one hardly ever reads to them nor are they shown what a positive thing reading is. This was reassured to us when one of the teachers came in with her first grade class, and she told us that one of her students who is now in 4th grade found out me and my group were coming, and the student asked her teacher if she could come because that was her favorite day of first grade (when I was there a few years ago)! That just gives me goosebumps.