Reading Buddies encourage literacy at HWES
Humphreys West Elementary students are building friendships and community across grades while practicing reading and comprehension.
Reading Buddies is a reading/mentoring partnership between Mrs. Harrison’s fourth grade and Ms. Bonner’s kindergarten students. The fourth graders and kindergarten students meet every Tuesday to read books with their partners. The fourth graders lead the learning by reading with their younger partners and asking questions about the book. In this way, students build and practice academic and social skills together.
“By partnering up our 4th graders with kindergarten reading buddies our students learn the value of mentoring, patience, kindness, and empathy,” said Mrs. Tulin Harrison, fourth grade teacher. “Our fourth-grade students build confidence with their reading skills by selecting books that are ‘easy’ to read and fluently reading their books to their buddies, while discussing text structure and features. They grow as learners by using ‘easy read’ and picture books to dig deep into reading skills and strategies and derive their own learning and growth from their opportunity to become teachers themselves. They see the value in learning to read and becoming strong readers as well as seeing a real-world relevance of how reading permeates our lives and grows us better human beings. As our students have progressed, their confidence in selecting more challenging texts has become apparent.”
Mrs. Harrison has facilitated many reading buddy programs, including the Barbara Bush Foundation reading program. She is a proponent of the program and sees benefits to academic and emotional growth. While students work on comprehension and reading skills, they are also building relationships that build compassion for others and allow them to practice life skills. The friendships allow younger students to observe modeled reading behaviors and learn skills while providing opportunities for the older students to take on the role of teacher, leader, and mentor.
“One of the benefits I have seen is that comprehension has increased,” said Mrs. Brittany Bonner, kindergarten teacher. “I have also noticed that relationships have been built between the children. They are excited to go to reading buddies. They are excited to learn from the big kids. We are creating compassionate people and best of all teachers!”
When Reading Buddies started at the beginning of the year, the fourth graders conducted a reading interest inventory with their assigned kindergarten students. From there, the fourth graders selected books that followed the themes of their Benchmark units and matched the needs of the kindergarten students they were reading with. They have chosen books ranging from fairy tales to animals, fiction, and non-fiction.
Before reading with the kindergarteners, the fourth-grade students practice reading their books to each other and give feedback on fluency, expression, and comprehension.
Ms. Bonner and Mrs. Harrison agree that teacher partnership is critical to a successful reading buddy program. Both teachers trust each other in the collaborative process and are willing to learn and grow from each other. Understanding the needs of both classes and learning how to provide enriching opportunities that benefit both sets of students requires an ability to collaborate with and discuss changes to the program.
It is obvious from the smiles on their faces that both fourth graders and kindergarteners enjoy reading with each other. The benefit of building relationships with students they may not typically work with builds compassion, understanding, and an opportunity for academic success for both classes.
