Student Spotlight

Rosario - Montague Elementary School

At 8 years old, Rosario does everything with full force and passion. She is a yellow/orange belt in Karate, but also loves soccer, football, and basketball. When Amanda Moore, the Montague Site Director, picks her up from the YMCA during hockey time, she is chasing down the puck, swinging hard, and not caring if the boys are bigger or stronger than she is. As soon as she hears that it is YES Reading time though, she returns her stick and enthusiastically rushes over to the reading room. One of her tutors, Nancy Ku says, "She is always ready to tackle the day's lesson, whether it's reading about Geronimo Stilton's latest adventure, learning new vocabulary words, or understanding the concept of cause and effect." This dedication has helped her reach grade level in her reading skills.

Her favorite character in a book is Junie B. Jones because, "she is mostly like me...a trouble maker." Then she quickly adds, "Usually somebody makes me get into trouble." She has already read 5 Junie B. Jones books this year, bringing her Take Reading Home total to twelve chapter books! Her favorite subject is now reading, but asked what is her favorite part of YES Reading, she answers with a shy smile, "I get to spend time with my tutors."

Save the Date for the Volunteer Appreciation Event

By the time the 2007-2008 school year has ended, YES Reading volunteers will have collectively spent over 18,000 hours with their students, not counting preparation time, time spent writing diligent notes, and time attending supplemental trainings. Thanks to your hard work as a tutor, and many hours of service, YES Reading was able to provide 500 students with the individualized reading instruction that they need. Thank you.

We are hosting a series of Tutor Appreciation Events across the bay area:

• San Jose - Saturday, May 31, 4-6pm
• Palo Alto - Sunday, June 1, 4-6pm
• San Francisco - Thursday, June 5, 5-7pm
• Oakland - Sunday, June 8, 4-6pm

We would love to invite you and a guest to attend the event near you! To RSVP, please visit rsvp.yesreading.org or call 408-945-5720 for more information. We hope to see you there!

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Home Connections - Book Making Event

Throughout the month of April, YES Reading had invited the families of our students to attend a book making event. It was a great opportunity for parents to bond with their children over literacy. Site Directors read a short story to the group, then students wrote out summaries, and created pictures using typical household items, such as spare buttons, scraps of paper, ribbon, and beads.

Our Home Connection program brings students’ families to our reading center for family literacy activities, session observations, story hours and Student Reading Recitals.

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YES Reading Expands and Changes Its Name

As many of you have heard, YES Reading is expanding.  The program has been so successful that we plan to bring YES Reading to more children, in more cities both within the Bay Area and nationally.  As one of our board members said recently as he described the future for YES Reading, “One day, all children.”

This fall we will open our first site outside the Bay Area in Los Angeles, along with one new center in South San Jose, and a third center in Oakland.

As part of our expansion, we are also changing our name.  YES Reading cannot be trademarked, and trademark is important for protection as we grow.  Some of us are sad to hear this news.  We have grown attached to the name and are disappointed to see it go. 

We hope our new name will embody the magic of the work you do with your student and become a name we all come to love.  By late July, we’ll publicly launch our new name.  In the meantime, we will keep you posted on our progress.

YES Reading in the Community

YES Reading was invited to attend the City of San Jose 20th Annual Children’s Fair on Saturday, April 26th at Discovery Meadow in downtown San Jose.  The hot and sunny weather of the weekend brought out hundreds of families to enjoy the free activity booths that local businesses, organizations, and agencies provided to the children of our community.  YES Reading offered children the opportunity to decorate their own personal bookmarks to use while reading their next book. 

Because schedules change, minimum days happen, and special training opportunities occur, find out what is happening at your center.

Belle Haven

Berkley Maynard

Castro

College Park

East Palo Alto Charter School

Horace Mann

Montague

Sanchez

Selby Lane

Congrats to Our Newest Literacy Intervention Tutors

Children's literacy is a vast field, and there is always more to learn. We would like to acknowledge the dedication of our volunteer tutors who have pursued further knowledge in the field, and have attended at least 3 extra Tutor Trainings this year. Our newest "Literacy Intervention Tutors" are:

Rhanna Haynes
Ellen Herbst
Gail Jacobs
Kathy Lee
Judy Mitchell
Ann Roberts
Dina Singh
Lauren Wong