GO TEAM READ!!!

Hi! My name is Tan Truong. This is my third year working with Team Read. I first started working with Team Read during my freshman year in high school. I wanted to join Team Read because I wanted to gain experience in teaching in order to prepare for a future where I become a teacher. I started out as a coach for my first two years with Team Read and am currently a site assistant at South Shore K-8. I have personally seen the huge impact that coaches have on readers. At my site I have observed many readers working with their coaches, one of the readers that I observed started out timid and shy around the coach. I later learned that even at school they tended to keep to themselves. As they kept working, the reader began to open up more to their coach and talk more about themselves. My site coordinator also told me about how at school they have started to open up to them about their interests and showing other students their toys. I’ve also learned about how much the readers see their coaches as role models. In every session coaches make sure to read a higher level book to readers to show them how they can also become fluent readers. Even when the coaches do make mistakes or don’t know a word it teaches the readers that even people who have been doing something for a long time can make mistakes and it is okay to make them. Sometimes readers can’t understand the importance of reading, but the coaches at Team Read always try their best to relate the content of the readings to their own life and how it is important to know how to read. I believe that Team Read is an organization that deserves to be funded because the coaches at Team Read make such a huge impact on readers and help to bridge the gap in educational opportunities.