By Isabella Bustamante
Washington Reading Corps member reading literacy tutor
OLYMPIA--Olympia Regional Learning Academy is a unique school where some students are homeschooled for part of the week while others are there five days a week, as in the Montessori program. I tutor K-5 students in reading, and most of these students are from the Montessori program.
I use the Washington Reading Corps' tutoring curriculum Reading Power, and help students improve their reading with other classroom materials and books as well. I just started at ORLA on October 16th, I already have a large group of 30 to 40 students that I see every week. I teach some students in groups of two or three, but most students are tutored individually.
Some students still need help with recognizing letters and letter sounds, while other students need more help with phonemic awareness, or reading comprehension.
If I am not using the Reading Power program with a student, I am usually helping them with other reading materials. For example, I have some fifth-grade students who have very specific reading or writing needs, such as reading informational text, or writing essays or stories.
It is an amazing experience to serve students from K-5. Even the youngest of students have insightful observations or unique perspectives of the world. Tutoring students at these grade levels has helped me feel like I am also learning and growing right alongside them.
I am beginning to make a positive impact. I have one first grade student who has already improved his reading skills and has become more confident with reading overall. At the beginning of my service, he was reading at level D. Now, after several tutoring sessions, he is ready to move to the next reading level, E. He really seems to enjoy reading more and more.
It has been amazing to see such wonderful progress so quickly!
Serving at ORLA so far has been an adventure. Every day holds new insights, challenges, and opportunities. The experience I have gained so far from serving in education feels invaluable to me. I am so excited to see how my students will continue to improve over the course of the school year, and I am excited to see my own growth at the end of the year as well.
