Reading is the Key!
We are a non-profit that provides the tools and strategies necessary to learn to read with proven, individualized reading lessons and the support necessary to read at proficiency by the fourth grade.
Reading skills are the foundation for all future learning. The ability to read transforms lives and empowers children and communities to reach their full potential. Research shows that students who read at grade level by fourth grade have a greater opportunity to succeed in school and beyond.
We partner with a range of underserved schools, literacy coalitions, and community programs to deliver recorded reading lessons supplemented by one-on-one engagement with Reading Pals and Reading Coaches. The feedback from parents who speak about the results has validated the importance of the human factor provided by our Reading Pals and Reading Coaches. Many of our Reading Pals are volunteers who join the student in an online session to participate in the lesson, stop and check on engagement and recognize the student’s efforts and progress at the end of the session.
Our Inflection Point:
We operated an after-school and summer camp program teaching reading and writing for the past 12 years.
The pandemic was a fork in the road. It was decision time to “fold our tent” or to shift the lesson plans, reading coach and supervising search role to a structured online reading curriculum. We established a partnership with the University of California at Merced to deploy a community reading program in Merced during the summer of 2020.
The community reading program validated the efficacy of delivering a series of online reading lesson plans to grade school students three to five times per week.
Reading Coach Support
Over the course of that first summer program, we tested the effectiveness of adding weekly one-on-one in-person sessions with a Reading Coach. The Reading Coach engages with the student at the end of each lesson to confirm the student’s understanding of the specific reading skills in the lesson and checks the student’s work in the workbook.
However, the most important role of the Reading Coach is to provide validation that the student is making progress. The Reading Coach will recognize the student’s efforts and convey confidence about the student’s progress and abilities. This feedback is a key component in the learning process and will serve to establish a belief and confidence within the student about their capacity to learn to read. See the adjacent testimonial from a grandfather who used the Learn to Read program for his grandson prior to the third grade.
The Reading Pal
However, many families do not have the availability of a family member to sit in and observe the student’s engagement during a recorded lesson.
The University of California – Merced partnership provided the opportunity to develop the concept of the Reading Pal, which is an individual who joins the student in-person or in an online session. The Reading Pal engages with the student during the lesson, regularly pauses the lesson to check on the student’s engagement and, at the end of the session, recognizes the student’s efforts and progress. In tracking progress, we found the combination of the recorded reading lesson with a Reading Pal delivered the same value as a one to one tutoring session.
