TWIN FALLS, Idaho — The Coming-Up Reading Group has helped countless first and second graders improve their reading after school. Now, they are hoping to expand to new locations in Twin Falls and Jerome.
- The Coming-Up reading group sees about 16 1st and 2nd graders for each 7-week after-school session.
- 5th grade mentors are invited to help the younger kids learn using a wide range of tools, from music and art, to repetition and memorization
- The Coming-Up Reading Club is hosting a Walk-a-thon Fundraiser on Saturday, Oct 26 at the Robert Stuart Middle School track to help expand the program to additional schools in the Magic Valley.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"I feel like it's a really kind thing to do," Perrine 5th-grader Braxton Gutierrez told me during the after-school reading club.
Braxton is one of more than a dozen 5th graders mentoring younger kids learning to read.
"Once they're done I go like 'good job, you did good,'" Braxton said.
After a long day of school, almost 30 kids rush into the Coming-Up Reading Club, where snacks and games help make learning fun.
"If they just came here and did reading instruction — I don't know if they'd want to sit through that," club director Sarah Bates said.
Bates told me they target first and second-graders who might be falling behind in literacy.
"However, if you are mixing it in with a short burst of learning with art and music, then I feel like they retain it more, and it makes it more interesting, and they want to come back," Bates said.
"It's really nice to see the kids progress so we have kids that can barely read words like 'it,' 'on,' 'the,' 'and,'" said teacher Jennifer Koopman. She said they cater the lessons for different learning styles.
"We try to help those that do have problems that we try to touch on," Koopman said. "Visual, audio, tactile. Some kids learn better with music and words and some kids have a hard time because, you know, they have a lot of energy."
For now, the whole club is based at Perrine Elementary.
"But we do hope with our fundraiser that we will be able to open up a club in Bickell, as well as Lincoln, and hopefully out in Jerome as well," Koopman added.
To do that, they're holding a walk-a-thon fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 26th at Robert Stuart running track.
"They doing an amazing job helping these kids out," parent Anngel Jimenez said. "This one, he's behind on reading so when he came in here it helped him immensely, he's going higher in his reading levels and everything."
"I guess for younger kids, once they're past their reading thing, they're good readers so they help," Braxton said. "And with the old ones: I guess they like helping because they know a lot of big words and stuff."
