Volunteer Voices

By Jean Rouda
Chandler Elementary School


Jean Rouda and reading partner Arturo
It was Monday, January 7, 2008 when excitement overcame me as I approached room 18 of Chandler Elementary School to meet my first reading buddy, 7-year-old Arturo. The classroom was empty as the students were watching a film in the auditorium and Ms. McDonald was in the room working alone. I took this opportunity to introduce myself to the teacher and ask for background information on Arturo. Although it is not in the KOREH L.A. model, I was matched with a a special needs class, but I was up to the challenge.

After the film ended, I eagerly approached Arturo on the playground. Acting shy and uncomfortable, he ran around and did not look at me.

Our first session was challenging since I wanted to quickly learn more about who Arturo was and his life at home. He is a very active boy and keeping him seated was a challenge. Completing the Student Interest Inventory given in the KOREH L.A. packet was a struggle. For each question asked, the reply was one of confusion and repetition. Most answers were one or two words. I was frustrated and did not understand him. Maybe this was not right for me? Should I request a transfer to another class?

In the beginning, reading with Arturo was difficult and required tremendous patience. He has a limited attention span and cannot identify common words. By the third meeting, Arturo was shouting across the room to greet me with excitement when I walked inside. I melted and so did his teacher. We had bonded! Hooray!

Arturo appeared eager each time I arrived. Arturo experienced challenges with words that were longer than three letters. I encouraged and praised him regularly. We started our sessions in his classroom, but have since moved to the library.

Today was week 11 and we played a word game by constructing sentences. This was fun and he sat during most of the exercise. He can now recognize the sentences that did not make sense at the beginning and I am proud of him. When it was time to stop he said, “Aw no, not yet!” This demonstrated to me that when Arturo is experiencing success, he has fun and will most likely want to continue.

Recently, we began our “Word of the Day” game. “Snorts” was a word used in the sentence game so we chose this as our first word. I made the sound then Arturo had to say the word. We laughed and laughed over this word as we made snorting sounds. Arturo had fun while learning as well as making progress in his spelling.

Now when I walk into the classroom his classmates say, “Hello Miss Jean!” and Arturo runs to me and gives me a hug and off we go to the library. I am glad I did not give up because reading with Arturo is the highlight of my week. I plan to continue to work with Arturo next year when he transfers to his new school.