Reading Buddies is a program where 10 Mountain View Students go to Collin Powell Elementary to help 10 of their 3rd grade students. We each got our own buddy and we helped them with reading, comprehension, and read some biographies. For 6 weeks, we went every Tuesday morning. Today was the last of our Reading Buddies experience and I can honestly say this was one of the best experiences I’ve had with a school program. Not only did I enjoy it, I could tell that my buddy enjoyed it, too. Anyone could tell that these kids really enjoyed themselves when they were working with us.
The first week we were there, we got to choose a little buddy and learn a little bit about them. They got to choose a passage to read and if they stumbled on words or needed help understanding what a word meant, we were there to help them. Briley never really had any trouble, except maybe once or twice. A lot of the kids there were very good about how they could read, but it was understandable that they were there when they slipped up a few times. We only got 30 minutes to work with our little buddy, but we used every minute wisely.
My buddy and I did Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. What we had to was help them read a short book about the person and then look at their biography online. They had to compare the two and decide which was a better source. They also got to learn a little bit about the person that they probably didn’t know about.
After that, we learned about friction and electricity. My buddy wasn’t there that week, but I got to work with another student and their buddy. I think that all of the match ups with their buddies were all perfect, everyone had their own way of helping their buddy and the personalities matched up. It was almost as if all of the buddies were siblings to their Mountain View partner. I noticed it as well as one of my teachers.
With my buddy, I definitely saw her progress. She was misreading a few words per paragraph at the beginning, and on our last day she only misread a few words per entire passage. As for everyone else’s buddies, I’m sure they progressed the exact same way. You could always see the enjoyment in their eyes when they saw their buddy come to their table and sit next to them. It was really sweet to be a part of such a great program.
One of the times we went, it was St. Patrick’s day and we got to make a little puzzle out of a 4 leaf clover for them to solve, and they made one for us to solve, too. My little buddy made her puzzle extremely difficult and it took longer than it probably should have for me to solve it, but that’s alright, I could tell that she found it funny. Even if on the inside I was getting slightly frustrated with the puzzle, it wasn’t at her, and I couldn’t have gotten mad at her. Too sweet, too cute.
After that, we took them to the book fair and they got to write down a few book ideas that they wanted. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to give them the exact book they wanted, but we did get to give them 3 books with a little message inside about how it was working with them. You could tell that all the little buddies were very pleased with the books they’d gotten, especially when they saw the messages on the inside. We gave our buddies the books on our last day seeing them.
My little buddy was named Briley. Quite an interesting name; I’d never heard it before I met her. She cooperated well with me and was always the sweetest. There were a few times where she or I weren’t there, but that only happened once or twice. Every student had their own buddy who every time they went back, they would meet up with them again. Not everyone was there all the time and some people had to fill in or work with others, but that didn’t mean any enjoyment of going was being taken away. Usually everyone’s kids were there.
Our last time there was Tuesday, March 24, and it was a little sad. Not that anyone was crying, it was just sad that we’d gotten to know our little buddy over 6 weeks and we had to say goodbye. This is definitely a program that people should volunteer for, it gets you out of your first period and it’s nice to be around the little kids. They all behaved so well and even if they were sad to see us go, they all had a good time, so that’s all that mattered. There isn’t a thing I would change about my experience or the buddy I got and I’m sure everyone that volunteered felt the same way.
