R.E.A.L. life changes

By Miriam Heider


My prayer for the R.E.A.L. room has been that students would not only improve their reading scores, but develop a lifelong love for reading. I also pray that God would develop meaningful relationships between volunteers and students. Some of our students have only received 10 reading instruction sessions, and already I am seeing this happen. Volunteers come into the R.E.A.L. room anxious and excited to read with their student. Some have been amazed at the progress their student has made in the short work since they last met. It’s been exciting to see the volunteers realize what their investment means to a child.

The students are eager as well when they enter the R.E.A.L. room. I see genuine excitement when I remind them who they will be reading with that specific day. If by chance a volunteer is gone, the kids are disappointed they won’t be able to read that day. The students still have their struggles and frustrations, but they are approaching reading with a different mindset than before. Confidence is growing, and along with it their confidence, a love for reading.

Tutor Connects with Student

by Miriam Heider

It has been a little over a month that we have had consistent volunteer tutors in the R.E.A.L. Room. It was pretty exciting for me to see volunteers matched up with students every week. Now that the excitement has worn off, and the mystery of the R.E.A.L. Room has been revealed to all the students, we are beginning to see some real learning happening. There are still some kinks that are getting worked out as volunteers grow more confident in their new position. Some great things are developing as I watch volunteers teach students how to read.

Reading instruction is obviously the major part of the session, but relationships are important too. As students work with their adult volunteers, they are learning to communicate, follow directions and resolve conflicts. One volunteer in particular has a student that gets very frustrated when she is unable to master her story in one session. This volunteer has shown great patience and kindness towards this young girl. The young girl, in turn, is warming up and learning to be more confident in herself when she approaches reading. No matter how badly the session goes, the volunteer will find something to praise the student for. Instead of walking away frustrated and angry, the girl walks away joyful and excited for next week. This young girl is learning that although reading can be hard and frustrating, it is also very rewarding.

R.E.A.L Improvement!

by Miriam Heider

As I stated in a previous post, our curriculum for the R.E.A.L. room has been about one year in the making. Bethany and I, with the guidance of Todd, tried out several different reading plans on some students for the past two semesters. Through trial and error and lots of discussion, we found that the Carbo reading method was the most user friendly while also producing the greatest gains. Carbo is used in classrooms nationwide every single day. We decided to try it with students once a week and see if it still produced results. This would ensure more students received instruction each week. It worked! The fall semester of 2006 we instructed 6 different students, 2 of which received instruction twice a week, 4 only once a week. These students make significant gains in only one semester. Most of the students’ reading scores jumped one whole grade level, while some jumped a semester. We were very excited with these results, and hope to see more students improving their reading levels and their appreciation for learning in the next semester!

Get R.E.A.L!

by Miriam Heider

What does R.E.A.L. stand for? R. is read, E. is educate, A. is and, finally L. is listen. This represents what will happen in the R.E.A.L. room everyday. We will provide one-on-one reading instruction for all of our students that are in need of it. This instruction will be taught primarily from volunteers. Our method of instruction is the Carbo reading method. To find out more about the Carbo reading method you can go to http://www.nrsi.com/. Basically, it is a slow, purposeful reading focused on sight words and repetition. This improves not only fluency, but comprehension as well. We will be using pages of sight words and leveled stories with this method. It is a very volunteer friendly system that will require only one hour of training. After that one hour of training we feel the volunteer will be ready to effectively instruct a child! This lesson plan has been almost a year in the making and we have seen significant improvements in reading scores just in one semester.

These last three weeks have been spent assessing the student’s reading levels and introducing them to the R.E.A.L. room. We will have our first volunteer begin instruction on Monday! For the most part, the kids are excited. When I bring them into the R.E.A.L. room for the first time I can tell they are wondering what they are doing there. However, when I explain what will happen, they smile and ask more questions. The one-on-one aspect is very important. It will also teach the kids how to build relationships and work through conflict. Reading instruction can be very hard and slow-going, but I trust the kids are up to the challenge. I’m very excited to see how God will work in this part of the ILC!

Meet Miss Miriam

My name is Miriam Heider. I was born in Chicago, IL and moved to Aurora, NE when I was 7. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and we were all proudly raised by my single mother. I remember coming to the Lord in my first grade class in Chicago, but my faith didn’t mature until high school. I went on a missions trip with my youth group to Urban Impact Ministries in New Orleans. It was there that I first felt that God had a purpose for my life and was actively pursuing me. After graduating high school, I interned with Urban Impact for one year. I then returned to Nebraska to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I met my amazing husband, Joe. We were married in May, 2006. We live in one of City Impact’s target neighborhoods. We have been a part of City Impact’s Bible Club for the past 3 years and hope to someday be full-time missionaries in a Spanish-speaking country.

My official title for the ILC is Reading Tutoring Coordinator. I will oversee the R.E.A.L. (Read, Educate And Listen) Room. I will assess the reading level of the youth and train volunteers in how to effectively use the tutoring materials.