Last year, we partnered committed volunteers from our PENCIL Partnerships with MNPS Reading Clinics to mentor students for 30 minutes a week. Reading Clinic volunteers provided intensive, individualized, one-to-one mentoring using instructional strategies proven by researchers to promote reading gain. During sessions, volunteers provided support and guidance as the student read a book aloud, facilitated literacy-specific games with the student, and much more.
This was the first year we had PENCIL staff onsite at two elementary schools – Churchwell and Buena Vista. At those two sites alone, we saw the following successes: