Litzy Bravo Sosa clutched a small paperback to her chest.
The student at Yoshikai Elementary had selected the book — a nonfiction exploration of whether an orca or great white shark would win a fight — from about two dozen choices spread on tables for the school’s first-graders.
“Now it’s yours,” teacher Denise Roberts told her in Spanish.
“Forever?” Bravo Sosa asked.
“Forever!” Roberts confirmed. The girl beamed.
The Wednesday book giveaway at Yoshikai was the first step toward restarting a reading program that’s been shelved for almost three years due to the pandemic.
Yoshikai is one of four elementary schools in the Salem-Keizer School District participating in SMART Reading, a program run by a Portland-based child literacy nonprofit of the same name.
Teachers in participating schools select students they think could benefit from some extra adult attention and reading time.
Students who enroll get two free books monthly, and spend time weekly with an adult volunteer who reads with them.
Volunteers are needed to relaunch the programs at Yoshikai, as well as Grant, Lamb and Cummings elementary schools and four local preschools. To operate this year, the programs need about 125 to volunteer weekly, said Melissa MacCoumber, the program manager for SMART Reading’s northwest region, which includes Salem.
Between those schools and four Head Start preschool sites, they expect to serve about 260 kids in Salem.
Volunteers can apply online through the SMART Reading website. Volunteers who can read in both English and Spanish are especially needed.
The program has been at Yoshikai since 2015, Principal Zan Payne said. They’re now restarting it for first grade students, many of whom don’t have adults who read with them at home.
“It was such a highlight of their week to be able to read with an adult,” Payne said. “They don’t have the luxury of having their own books.”
Payne said in past years, she’s seen students who participate improve both their reading skills and their confidence. Many feel special having their own adult volunteer come to school to read with them, she said.
Following the statewide drop in reading scores during the pandemic, “it’s such a crucial time right now for reading instruction for kids,” MacCroumber said. The program focuses on students starting in preschool through third grade, when kids typically learn to read.
Each participating school has a site coordinator, who can be a teacher or an outside volunteer.
Denise Roberts, a Yoshikai teacher focused on boosting student literacy, runs the northeast Salem elementary school’s program.
“This day is my dream,” she said as she ushered students into an empty classroom in small groups so they could pick their first book.
About half the books available were bilingual, mostly in Spanish and English, though there were also options in Vietnamese, Arabic and Mandarin. Options included nonfiction about various animals, a graphic novel retelling of the Disney movie “Coco,” and fictional stories about llamas, Pig the Pug and more.
A bilingual edition of “The Little Mermaid” proved one of the day’s most popular books.
“This book is in English and Spanish. It’s perfect for me, because I speak English and Spanish,” one girl remarked, showing off her new acquisition to Salem Reporter.
Roberts said she’d love to get enough volunteers so all 80 of the school’s first graders have someone to read with them, but she’s hopeful to at least enroll 30 to 40 kids.
At Yoshikai, students get one book per month rather than two, a modification to the typical program so that all first-graders could participate, MacCroumber said.
The volunteers typically spend an hour a week at the school, reading with each student for about 15 to 30 minutes, MacCroumber said.
Yoshikai teacher Kelsie Anderson has been at the school for a decade and said she’s excited to see the program come back for her first-grade students.
In addition to helping their reading, “it’s also a great way for the students to build a relationship with the volunteers,” she said.
During a two-minute conversation with a reporter, several students interrupted to show off their new books.
“They come bounding in on the day they get free books,” she said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
