At the end of every school year, students receive a trademark WITS orange bag filled with brand new, culturally diverse books inside. These books are a way for students to extend their learning with their mentors from the program year into the summer with their families. In addition to the books, students have access to a reading kit to further enhance their reading experiences. WITS designed three family reading kits for each volunteer-powered program model. These kits are an interactive way to log the books students read over the summer and reinforce a few reading tips students learn during the school year.
WITS Kindergarten Family Reading Kit Download English Download Spanish
At WITS, we encourage students and mentors to reread favorite books. Rereading books with younger students has many proven benefits, such as building fluency and sparking a life-long love of reading. Kindergarten students and their families can track how many times they’ve reread their WITSummer books by coloring in the stars in their reading kits. Also, family members can review the reading tips to further reinforce what students learned throughout the school year to continue to foster this love of reading.
Mid-Day Mentoring Family Reading Kit Download English Download Spanish
Student choice is important so students feel empowered to build their own reading identities. Mentors support students during program in cultivating their reading habits by going up to book bins with students, asking them questions before, during and after reading, and recording books in their WITS journals. We recreated this by adding a summer reading log in the toolkit. We hope families can continue in helping shape their child’s reading identities by discussing why their student chose the ‘difficulty’ and making connections if they like a specific genre of book over another.
Throughout the program year, Mid-Day Mentoring students and mentors work on four Common Core standards to support reading comprehension and classroom skills. We’ve included a recap of each skill so students can review them with their families after reading their favorite books. This reading kit is a great resource for second through third grade students.
Workplace Mentoring Family Reading Kits Download English Download Spanish
Accessibility is key in supporting our students throughout their reading journeys. All the family reading kits are also available in Spanish, so students and their families can easily complete them together. As shown above, the Workplace Mentoring toolkit reinforces student choice in the reading log. The backside includes tips students and families can keep in mind while reading over the summer. A few highlights are reading aloud with family members and writing about the books. These are common tips that students practice with their mentors during the program year and can transfer to their summer reading habits. Fourth through seventh grade students can benefit from using this reading kit throughout the summer.
