Advertising sophomore Emma Shaw helps Lansing resident Amyla Castillo, 6, with reading Oct. 15, 2013 at the Capital Area District Library, in Lansing.
—Prenursing freshman Madison Schweikhart spends two evenings a week surrounded by books and helping a 7-year-old student with reading, writing and comprehension.
“I like working with kids, even though it is not related to my major,” Schweikhart said. “I thought this was a really cool opportunity to get involved.”
Schweikhart is one of more than 100 volunteers in MSU’s Read to SUCCEED program, under the Capital Area Literacy Coalition designed to help in-need students improve word recognition, reading comprehension and writing skills.
MSU College of Education professor Lois Bader created the program in 1984 after she noticed a student need for help with reading and writing.
“The children needed more than the school could offer,” former special education teacher in Lansing and Read to SUCCEED coordinator Patricia Williams said.
Teaching sites include elementary schools in Lansing, East Lansing and at the Capital Area District Library, in Lansing.
Site coordinator Sheila Dunnigan said the program accepts students of all majors, but every potential tutor has to go through five hours of training before interacting with the children.
“We teach them to divide their evening into about 15 minutes of reading, writing and working on key words and breaking things apart,” Dunnigan said. “They are trained on all different approaches for how to teach all things as far as reading and writing.”
Dunnigan said when the tutors finish training, they are confident because what they need to accomplish is very specific.
“A lot of the time, our tutors do feel confident and have direction as to what to do,” Dunnigan said.
Schweikhart said when going through the tutor training she enjoyed learning different ways to teach children.
“It was interesting thinking about teaching someone how to read again and sounding out each letter and word,” Schweikhart said. “When you are a college student, you just read big words and don’t think about it, and now it’s going back to first-grade level.”
When it comes to MSU student tutors, Dunnigan said they can either use the program for one credit or volunteer hours.
Schweikhart said she heard about the program through a professor and wanted to accumulate volunteer hours.
“I wanted to add something because I wasn’t doing much this semester yet,” Schweikhart said. “This is my break of the day and I like doing this. It’s fun.”
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