Winona Area Public SchoolsAn ongoing collaboration with Winona State University (WSU) students and second graders at Goodview Elementary school is creating success for one another. Thirty-three WSU students who are studying in the education department visit Goodview Elementary school once a week to work one on one with a student. These visits help WSU students practice the education skills they are learning in classes, as well as help give each student a personalized lesson.
An area of focus in second grade is comprehensive reading. At second-grade, students know many vocabulary words so the next step is connecting everything into a story. By working in pairs, the second grade student can read the story out loud and the WSU student helps the student understand what they just read. Since it is one on one, each student gets assistance to meet their specific needs. “Our students really look forward to all their reading activities they do with their WSU partners. We would call this a real win-win situation!” said Mrs. Yess and Mrs. Tibor. Repeated reading is another way to teach students to comprehensively read. Pairs will read the story together first and then the second grader is tasked with reading it on their own. This practice helps gets second graders familiar with the story and they are better able to read and follow later on.
Second grade students are encouraged to read outside the classroom through various reading programs. The Green Read Program has students track the number of minutes they read at home and once they get to one hundred minutes, they return the signed sheet and can get a free book. A six hundred and one thousand minute club are also in place to encourage students to continue to read. This collaborations with WAPS and WSU helps build and encourage reading in students. Practicing in a real-world setting for WSU students helps reinforce what they are learning in class to real scenarios. This is the second semester of this collaboration and it has been greatly benefiting both students.