Fluency Tutoring

Volunteers lead structured reading activities using short stories, readers' theater plays and chapter books for a small group of students in order to foster both academic and social-emotional growth. Volunteers guide students as they read together and discuss the stories, emphasizing comprehension and fluency.

Fluency and book club activities are for students who have moved beyond the phonics-based curriculum in our Early Literacy Tutoring. These students have mastered letter sounds, sight words and early reader books; they are ready for the next step which is building the ability to read fluently at a regular pace and with proper intonation while understanding the content they read. We often work with students in 2nd or 3rd grade on fluency where we read and discuss short stories or readers' theater plays each session. We typically read chapter books together with 3rd to 5th graders as a way to build similar but higher level skills.

Interested in volunteering? Sign up and volunteer. We look forward to supporting you in the classroom.

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Rich Pearson

Rich Pearson began volunteering with RCP in 2019. He has facilitated 3rd grade book clubs, taught the SIPPS lessons focused on high-frequency words and most recently worked on reading fluency with 4th graders.

"I most enjoy engaging weekly with the same cohort of kids which enables me to see them progress before my eyes. Being with the same group of kids each week enables me to get to know them and help even when they are having a bad day.

I was an instructional aide in the PAUSD for 6 years. There are stark differences in the resources available for the two districts, yet the kids in the Ravenswood School District are just as bright and just as eager to learn. I am convinced that my impact with RCP is meaningful.
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RCP provides useful training and assigns you to a smaller volunteer group which allows us to strategize on ways to improve our impact with each student."

Lorna Dunne

Lorna Dunne is a long-time RCP classroom volunteer (nearly a decade!) and for several years has been one of our Site Directors at Belle Haven School. 

"I'm doing fluency reading and the part I most enjoy is when students are excited when they see their reading rate go up during the timed minute reading. I also love when students race to answer the vocabulary questions and feel very proud when they know the answer. I feel the time spent during reading fluency helps build confidence so students believe they can become strong readers."

She adds, "Volunteering with RCP is rewarding as there is a consistency in having the same students each week. The small group setting allows students to learn from each other and gives the opportunity for positive feedback which the students love!"

Jessie Wilson

When Jessie Wilson began volunteering with RCP in 2015, she immediately saw the need for social-emotional skill development among the Ravenswood students, as well as academic support. They often shared heart-breaking stories about the challenges they were facing. Jessie felt a deep need to equip them to navigate the difficulties and ideally feel more hopeful about their future.  

For about five years, Jessie led a book club program for 5th graders which used a true story of a 10 year old girl who faces struggles that mirror those of the Ravenswood students. Jessie helped design the Book Club curriculum with dual goals of improving reading comprehension and creating a social-emotional toolbox for the students. 

As the school district adopted the "science of reading" curriculum which includes building strong comprehension skills as well as fluency in reading, RCP expanded the program to use books, reading passages and readers' theater plays in grades 3, 4 and 5 to engage the students in learning new vocabulary and discussing the stories in depth.