United WE READ

My experience this year as a United Way [Reader] has been very fulfilling. I get so excited when it’s my day with students and find their willingness to work with me over the computer simply amazing! After all, we have never met each other; they have already worked a full day at school and lots of other kiddos are playing nearby!  So, I genuinely thank them for giving me the chance to read with them! This program has such merit in my eyes as all children deserve the opportunity to gain solid literacy skills so they can achieve success.

In particular, one student recently shared, “I love Aesop’s fables,“ when she chose that book for our reading time. “Me too,” I said. “What a cool thing that we have in common!” As she read, I admired the different reading skills she was using to help her own fluency and proficiency. For example, I loved the way she stopped and started when something didn’t sound right or make sense, how she solved new word struggles by sounding them out, questioned new word meanings, used inflection and asked me questions.  She also gave me some opportunities to further model those things for her and its been a joy to see her reading level increase.

I look forward to continuing on and being a part of this wonderful United Way [Readers].

– Elizabeth Berman

Liz Berman has worked in literacy for many years as a former elementary school foreign language teacher and ESL tutor. She delights in helping kids to strengthen their reading skills and foster a love of reading.