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Volunteering as a Reading Guide for READ Saskatoon may be just the thing for you!

I volunteer with this program because it is the fun part of teaching: spending one-to-one time with children who want to learn and to improve their reading skills. Of course, you don’t need teaching experience to volunteer as a Reading Guide. READ Saskatoon provides training and resources to all the guides, including lesson plans, stickers and little prizes to encourage the children, and books that the child can take home.

In the Reading Guide program, READ Saskatoon assigns volunteers to participating schools in Saskatoon. The days and times are chosen by the guide and the school together. The children selected for the program have already received tutoring that focused on skills they need to improve.

For eight weeks, the guide and learner meet twice a week for 30 minutes, continuing to work on those skills. The sessions include activities suggested by READ, along with others that the guide may find useful for the particular child.

I have been a reading guide for three sessions, and will be starting the fourth session in September. All my learners enjoy reading alternate pages or paragraphs together; this provides the opportunity for dramatic expression (“’NO WAY!’ he yelled.”). They also liked being able to keep the books they had read.

My learners were girls and boys, with various personalities from quiet to rambunctious. All of them were a pleasure to work with.

So, am I looking forward to being a reading guide again? You bet I am!