1.) Where are you with your action?
Hello everyone! To recap once again, my action project is volunteering at my local library as a reading buddy. As a volunteer reading buddy, I help kids in elementary school practice their reading skills and help them enjoy reading! There have been seven sessions, and and as mentioned in my last post, I have had a few different reading buddies so far. However, for the last 3 sessions, I was actually partnered with the same buddy every week which has made it much easier to notice progress! He is in kindergarten, so he is a beginner reader. For the last 3 sessions we have worked together to find less challenging books so he could attempt reading it on his own. This can range from picture books to books with a few short sentences here and there. For the most part, I have been reading out stories to him and asking him questions about them at the end to ensure his engagement.
2.) What are some successes that you have had?
A success I have had is getting to know my reading buddy and earning his trust! As I’ve mentioned a few times, during the beginning of the program, I kept alternating with different little buddies because we didn’t have an even number of older and little buddies. Therefore, a few people including myself weren’t able to work with the same person each week. However, since I had the same buddy for the last 3 weeks, I was able to get to know him a lot better and have a better understanding of where is reading level was at. I learned that he didn’t enjoy reading for the most part, but he liked picture books about hockey since he was a hockey player. He had never read a book about hockey before the program, and he really enjoyed it! He was also very shy and quiet on the first session together, but he slowly became more comfortable around me as the weeks went on which made me happy!
3.) What are some challenges that you have faced? Have you been able to overcome them?
One challenge I faced at the beginning of the program was never having the same buddy twice for a session. This was difficult because every week I would have to get to know a different kid and determine where their reading skills were at. However, I was able to overcome this by having small conversations with the kids for most of the sessions to get to know them a little better, and I would also ask what grade they were in to get a better understanding of where their reading skills were. Another challenge I faced happened a few times. My reading buddies found books they seemed really interested in, and only wanted to read that specific book. However, these books were often novels, and were too difficult for their reading level, so they would have trouble reading most sentences. To overcome this, I would find picture books related to the same/very similar topics so they could still enjoy the books at a level better suited for them!
4.) What are you doing next and why?
Next, I will be continuing to volunteer at the library by reapplying for the next sessions since the 2023 sessions have ended. I am looking forward to continuing volunteering because I have enjoyed it greatly so far!
Thank you for reading (:
Hey Shaila!
I love how detailed your blog post was!
As both of are doing Action Projects and they happen to be towards the same action, I loved seeing the many similarities and some differences between our experiences! The one main thing that stood out to me was your challenge of not having the same buddy for all your sessions. I did not relate to this as I had a constant buddy but wonder how it would have changed my program experience. You seem to have handled it well and pushed through!
I hope we can talk about our experiences sometime soon and share them wit each other. What are your plans for future posts in regards to talking about the program but not making the posts repetitive? I would love to know!
I hope to talk to you soon!
Anannya B
Hey Shaila,
I loved learning about your blog post and I liked how you included a recap of your volunteering. I think becoming a reading buddy seems like such a fun and interesting volunteer experience. Getting to know your reading buddy seems like it would be loads of fun and I think a lot of people would enjoy becoming reading buddies in the future.
Ishani B
Hi Shaila,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your action project. The consistency you’ve achieved with your reading buddy over the last three sessions is commendable, as well as how you tailor his reading material to fit his interests. The challenge switching buddies a lot requires adaptability.
It’s wonderful to hear that you plan to continue volunteering at the library.
Best of luck!
~Amy
hey Sheila,
I really enjoyed reading through your blog post about your action project!
I think its really great what you were able to accomplish with your reading buddy. I especially liked the part where you talked about asking him questions at the end of ready to ensure his engagement!
As someone who had a reading buddy when they were little its really nice to see your engagement with your buddy and finding books to best fit his intents as this is something that really help keep me engaged and enjoy reading buddies when I was little!!
I love that you are going to continue volunteering at the library and I hope you can re connect with some of your old buddies!!
best of luck
-Marisa 😁