Call to Action Day

Today was Call to Action Day and I decided to go to Fair Oaks Elementary school to read to the students. When we first go there it was bit awkward and I felt like the directions weren't very clear but once we got started with the kids, they helped us get a feel of their routine when they come into the reading center. For the first 10 minutes, we read a book to a student while asking them comprehension questions to make sure they're paying attention. After that we would use a white board to write out different letter combinations that form different sounds and try to help the student understand how to pronounce those set of letters and what words you can find them in. Once we were finished with that, we gave the student a book that emphasized that specific letter combination so they could get a feel of the different words you can find those vowel sounds in and why it is relevant. The last activity we did was we let the student read the same book they just read while timing them for a minute and seeing how many words they can read per minute. We completed that three times while setting goals for the student to reach. The first student I had a session with was such a sweetheart. He loved reading and he was good at it for a fourth grader. As we were leaving Fair Oaks, he ran up to me and asked when I would be coming next which made my heart melt. The second student I had was a second grader. He had a hard time focusing on the reading as he found everything to be a distraction. Towards the end of our session he was able to pronounce words that have the letter U with the letter E at the end (ex. Flute). He struggled in the beginning but during the session where he had to read the book twice, he started to get the hang of it. I really enjoyed today and found it very rewarding especially when one of my students came up to me which showed me that he really enjoyed our session. I am now starting to consider volunteering for elementary schools' reading center in Redwood City since I enjoyed having one-on-one time with the students and making a difference in their reading and comprehension skills.