This summer, I am specifically in charge of the reading program at St. Mark’s. What happens is we have volunteers from different churches, Sunday schools, and other people who are interested to come and read one-on-one with our kids. What I do is map the progress that the elementary kids are making throughout the summer. It is quite a bit of paperwork but I love my job! I have a few younger kids who are learning how to read, so every time they make some sort of progress I just want to cry of happiness! But the reading program is a huge part of Project Transformation because while most students lose math skills over the summer months, low-income students also lose two to three months in reading skills during the summer. This puts them behind and often they are not able to catch up with their classmates. So we give them access to books that are on an appropriate level for them and help them work on word fluency and comprehension skills. Last summer 97% of the kids in our program sustained or improved their reading level which is super exciting!
Being the reading coordinator, I work with the struggling kids in our program. This summer, I get to work with the sweetest boy named Eric. He is going into the sixth grade and is quite a few reading levels behind where he should be. This boy has probably touched my life the most this summer. When I first started working with him, a lady in the church told me that last summer he would never say anything to anyone, let alone read to them. So I started reading with him for an hour everyday. Not only have we already gone up a reading level, but he is asking me questions that I don't even know how to answer! We were reading the Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System and in one of the pictures of Venus there was lightning. He asked me how there was lightning if there was no water on Venus because there can't be a water cycle without water. Therefore he thought there should be no lightning. I told him that I honestly had no idea! (So if you do you should leave me a comment and I'll tell him!) But he is just the sweetest kid. He made me this Christmas card (we had Christmas in July one day) and he even hugged me (which I heard that it is totally out of his character).
So this summer I've learned quite a lot! Teaching kids to read is definitely not easy. But I have been incorporating some music into my experience here. I've led worship twice at St. Mark's and once for our intern worship. I also sang in the gospel choir.