Jon Sebba
Each year I vow to improve something: my health, my mind, my waistline, or something even bigger. A few years ago, I was searching for a way to find an enjoyable and satisfying activity. I happened to find Literacy Connects, and now I’m improving lives, while reaping rewards and fulfillment beyond what I’d dreamed possible!
I volunteer a few hours each week with Literacy Connects’ Reading Seed program as a reading coach for children needing encouragement to catch up to their grade level. Reading Seed is an exceptional program that gives me all the books, training, refresher classes, ideas and learning games I need. They even provide free books for me to give to my students. You can imagine what a great hit those are!
I have been volunteering for three years, and in my first year something a teacher said convinced me that coaching was for me. One kindergartner, I’ll call him Josh, had a strong accent and a lisp because he was missing four of his front baby teeth. Josh was very shy. His teacher told me he’d scored a zero on his initial reading test. He was not participating in class, nor did he speak much to the teacher or his classmates. After a quiet start, he eventually read to me, and I to him. As time went on he talked a little more, but I didn’t notice much reading improvement. I wondered whether I was doing him any good.
In March or April, I met his teacher and shared my doubts. “I know I am helping my other two pupils, but I see little progress with Josh.”
She touched my hand and said, “Never, ever think that! In the mid-term tests, Josh scored 84 out of 100! Not only that, he participates fully in class. I sometimes have to remind him not to talk so much! Outside on the playground, I see him socializing and playing with the others in ways he never did before. You have made him feel special, and given him a love of books and reading which will positively affect the rest of his life.”
It doesn’t get much better than that!
An Annie E. Casey Foundation study in 2012, showed that students who don’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely than proficient readers to leave school without a diploma. The number rises when those children also come from poverty. In Pima County, one in four third-graders does not read at grade level.
The vision of Literacy Connects’ Reading Seed program is that all children in Pima County will read at grade level by the end of third grade. To move closer to accomplishing that goal, Literacy Connects has identified an additional 400 children in need of volunteer coaches.
You too can reap the satisfaction and reward which my wife and I share with many other coaches every week, because Literacy Connects and its Reading Seed program are in need of additional volunteers. More details about the program, available training, and amenities can be found at literacyconnects.org.
Check it out. You can sign up for an orientation to learn more. Reading Seed training for the next school year begins July 27, so don’t delay!
If you become a coach, I am sure you will agree that it’s life-changing for both pupil and coach. So join me in improving young lives, enhancing our community, and boosting our economy — see you at Literacy Connects!
