Project MARS/AmeriCorps collects “Great Stories” from its members in which they reflect on their experiences mentoring in the classroom and the progress they see students making. This month’s story was written by Marissa Little.
Part of my position at my school is reading groups. I do four groups in first through fourth grades. I love them. It’s a great part of my day to have one-on-one time with students and really get to know them. We read a bunch of different things, depending on the grade and reading level. Each group is different in their own way, but I love working with them.
Sometimes it’s hard to know if students like reading group or are getting anything from them, but recently one of my students has been really excited about reading group. We will call her “S.” She’s in first grade. Our reading group is about 30 minutes long, four days a week. Whenever I see her on Wednesdays – the day we don’t have a reading group – S always likes to say how she wishes we had reading group.
She says similar things during our reading group, like how she wishes it was longer and we had more time in our group.
This is something that really validates how I am running my reading group and the things we are reading. I am so happy that the students in my group enjoy being there and like the work we are doing. I love reading groups, and knowing that my students do too is an amazing feeling.
