Mentoring Book Club

We have partnered with school counselors and the curriculum & instruction team in the school district to carefully craft a mentoring book club to help a select group of 5th grade students improve their reading comprehension skills while also addressing the students' social-emotional challenges. The 12 week program is held each spring. Book club leaders use a pre-selected book as a catalyst for discussion with students. Volunteers guide students as they read together and discuss connections between the story and their own lives.

​If this is interesting to you, we ask that you begin building a relationship in a 5th grade class by volunteering through RCP. We will ask all 5th grade volunteers their preference to move forward with support of a book club at the start of the calendar year.

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Jessie Wilson

Volunteer Jessie Wilson believes one key reason RCP makes a difference is that the support provided to students is flexible, fluid, and open. In the 5th grade mentoring book club, Jessie is able to tailor discussions to the students as they connect their own experiences to that of the book's main character.

Jessie is not only a classroom volunteer who runs one of our book clubs each spring, she is also our Project Coordinator for the book club. She develops the curriculum including weekly lesson plans for each of the book club volunteers to assist them in leading meaningful discussions. She has refined the lessons over the years and this program has become very popular with students and volunteers alike. It's a unique opportunity to read a story about challenges and perseverance and look for similarities in one's own life.

Jessie feels that volunteering with RCP has been incredibly rewarding personally. “I think everybody needs to have purpose. For me, it is supporting kids and especially education - there is no bigger impact, which is why I do it.”

Jay Siegel

Jay Siegel began tutoring students with Ravenswood Classroom Partners in 2015 and joined RCP’s Board of Directors in 2017. Jay was one of the original volunteers leading a 5th grade book club. He found the experience especially rewarding because it enabled the type of discussions that let him really get to know the students and connect with them.

​Jay also enjoys regular one-on-one tutoring. One year, Jay worked with a student who was struggling to read but enjoyed Pokémon, a game centered on fictional creatures. Jay thought that selecting a high-interest topic for the student to read would boost his enthusiasm, so Jay got a copy of the Pokémon manual which they read together for many weeks. The student loved to read the characters and his reading skills quickly improved. Eventually the student became fascinated with the Harry Potter books and cheerfully dove into those fantasy novels. 

Jay says, “Although you are primarily working on reading and comprehension skills, it’s the social-emotional support the student receives which creates a real boost in enthusiasm and self-confidence.”