New skills - New friends
Angie Somchanmavong helps Seth Martinez in the Buddy Reading Program
Another success for buddy reading
A great big THANK YOU goes out to all of the wonderful Year 8 Buddy Readers 2017! This year, we continued the successful Year 8 Reinforced Reading Program, more commonly known as Buddy Reading.
In this leadership program, Year 8 students kindly volunteered to work with our students in the support unit, whom, have special needs. Our students had the opportunity to read, one-on-one, to these Year 8 students, who carefully listened to them and supported their reading. This opportunity allowed our students to practice and build upon their reading skills. Reinforced reading is an essential part in the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program and MacqLit Program, both delivered by Mrs Stephanie Spencer in the Special Education Unit.
At the beginning of 2017, Year 8 students attended training in the MultiLit Reinforced Reading Strategies - Pause, Prompt, Praise. With these new reading support skills, they patiently listened to our students read books; pausing if they had made a mistake or hesitated, helping them sound out words, used specific praise, and questioned our students by using the super 6 comprehension strategies they have learnt in English. Not only did most our students progress in their reading skills, they also made new friends! Our students thoroughly enjoyed working with these friendly, kind and caring Year 8 students.
Year 8 Buddy Readers 2017 were wonderful, hardworking, confident young adults who had the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by taking on the responsibility of guiding our students in reading. On Tuesday 5 December, Mrs Spencer and Mrs Green held a special thank you morning tea for these wonderful Year 8 students. They were presented with certificates by Mr Sutton. All staff members and students from our Special Education classes were in attendance. The following comments were written by some of the Buddies. As you can read, they are truly amazing young people!
“It was inspiring to help others in need” – Jacinta Hever
“Would love to do it again J *heart*” - Felicity Samson
“I loved helping them out and hope to do it again! *heart*”
“It was a great experience!J”
“It was a fun way to work with the support unit kidsJ”
“It was a great way to interact with them.”
“I loved seeing them smileJ”
“It was great to see how they learnJ”
“I feel grateful for this opportunity to help.”
“GreatJ”
"Thank you to Mrs Green for introducing your wonderful Year 8 students to the Special Education classes!"
A heartfelt thank you to the following Buddy Readers 2017:-
Aeisha Liao, Angie Somchanmavong, Anna Tien, Anthony Albazi, Ashley Maraun, Celeste Joseph, Claudia Ghiselli, Edwin Tarawali, Felicity Samson, Gabriella Porreca, Hilary Chap, Hope Ngao, Jacinta Hever, Jasmine Cox, Jasmine Quach, Jayden Cox, Jeffar Toufalli, Joseph Hermiz, Jullian Villacis, Kaylah Bachar, Khushi Kullar, Krystal Van Mullekom, Maria Jabro, Mariette Taoum, Maryam Mahmood Ahmed, Nik Nedeljjkovic, Shyla Kumar, Stevana Bogicevic, Tina Pham, Tiyana Jacovides
S Spencer, Buddy Reading Co-ordinator