It isn’t easy being a kid. Being woken up while it’s still dark outside, sent off to school, and asked to stay still and focus all day, when all you really want to do is run, talk, and play. And just when that school day finally ends, along come those Philly Reading Coaches, arriving after school when that pent-up energy is begging for release. It’s just not fair.
That tension is why it’s important that we as coaches find creative ways to engage our students in support of their reading journey.
At Richard R. Wright Elementary School in Strawberry Mansion, our program, in partnership with the school’s OST provider, Legacy Youth and Tennis, runs twice weekly, at an hour when kids are often exhausted after a long day of classes. If reading is going to be successfully nurtured here, it has to feel inviting, not like just more school.
As the PRC program aide at Wright, I’m always thinking about how to create an environment where reading feels like a reward, not a return to the classroom, while their peers are outside playing outside in the schoolyard and down in the gym.
The challenge: Transforming a cinderblock-walled, fluorescent-lit room with limited flexibility into a warm welcoming space. If it were up to me, we’d have soft lighting and oversized armchairs, but this is a public school space used for many purposes throughout the day. So we worked within reason, and budget.
The changes may be modest but meaningful.
Yes, there are still desks and stiff-backed chairs, but now there are bean bags for our more restless readers. One corner has become a “book nook” picture gallery of colorful images.
For children who struggle with reading, books can feel distant or intimidating. To help bridge that gap, the walls now feature framed book covers and photos of authors and illustrators, helping our reading buddies see the people behind the stories, and, just as importantly, see themselves reflected in them.
These displays often spark excited questions: Who is that? What did they write? Do we have that book
At times, soft instrumental jazz plays in the background, adding a calm, steady rhythm that helps counter the noise of a long school day.
Word has gotten around. Students at Wright regularly stop by asking if they can join the “reading club,” As it is, there are way more kids eager to spend time with us than we have Reading Coaches to buddy with them. That alone feels like a win
To be clear, I am not a teacher, but I am a parent and I was a kid once. In my experience the best way to teach something is by making it a positive experience.
Humans are drawn to things they like. So we will continue to find ways, within our means, to make learning to read not only something our kids like, but love, to feel less like punishment and more like play.
