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Giving Matters: Teaching a Love of Reading

Nora in a tutoring session at Windy Row Learning Center.

It started in third grade. Nora Rogers was having problems. “It’s not like she couldn’t read – it’s just she wasn’t progressing as fast as her peers.” Nora’s mom Erica said the reading circle was causing Nora anxiety. “When it gets around to her turn, she felt like she was holding things up because it was taking longer. And that was starting to hurt her confidence.”

Erica turned to the Windy Row Learning Center, which specializes in after-school tutoring in reading and math. Nora’s tutor, Nancy, started by laying a strong foundation. “She’s learning rules about spelling, and how to decode reading that I don’t think I ever learned,” said Erika. Once the foundation is laid they build on it layer by layer, “and that worked very well for our daughter.”

“Nora really loves her tutor, they have a great relationship. She looks forward to going to tutoring; so she’s definitely a friend as well as a teacher.” The tutoring sessions quickly build Nora’s confidence in read and improved her spelling skills.

“Only in school does anyone care how fast you get through a book. No one is monitoring our bedside reading.” But as Erika explained when you struggle with reading skills at a young age it can affect your relationship with books for the rest of your life. “The tutoring has kept Nora wanting to read, and that was the whole goal.”

"They care deeply, they run this thing on a shoestring and its really impressive what they’re providing; it’s a little hidden gem that not enough people are aware of."

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