Rising STARS

Davison Elementary School’s Rising STARS (Students Achieving Reading Success) After School Reading Program

Davison Elementary School is currently running its third year of Rising STARS – An after school reading program targeted at struggling readers as identified by their teachers. Students are paired one on one with a high school mentor from Melville Comprehensive School. Meeting twice a week, the partners spend an hour reading a variety of texts, practicing spelling and writing strategies and playing an assortment of literacy games.

Both students and mentors gain valuable lessons through this program. Our students are given a pressure-free environment to practice the reading skills that they are learning in the classroom with guidance from their mentor. Mentors are given the opportunity to build a relationship with their buddy, develop leadership skills, and model responsibility to their buddies. Upon completion of our program, both mentors and buddies leave the program with a sense of success.

This program was funded through grants in our initial year from SIGMA and the Early Literacy Foundation. With these organizations’ generous contributions, we were able to purchase a wide assortment of texts (a variety of genres and levels) so we have our own collection of books for students to choose from. We were also able to purchase many different literacy games (scrabble, boggle, bananagrams, etc…) and other manipulatives and supplies to provide our students with the opportunity to practice all literacy skills. Every year, we ask for muffin donations from our school community so that when our buddies and mentors meet they can socialize and develop their relationship, as well as get rid of any hungry tummies that might distract from the task of reading. We are never disappointed with the number of donations that are received.

To date, we have had over 40 buddies and 40 mentors participate in this program. We look forward to continuing our success with this program in the years to come!