Group-Centered Prevention - Free Reading Programs in Corpus Christi

Free Reading Clinic in Corpus Christi Continues to Help Children Learn to Read

10/26/2019

A dedicated group of volunteers continues to help children learn to read in Corpus Christi. The program is intended for first through third grade students, although we often include other ages. We use hands-on projects, puppet skits, and group-centered prevention techniques to teach vowel clustering. We are seeing exceptional results as students improve their reading skills week-by-week. St. John's United Methodist Church sponsors this non-religious program by offering space and financial support. We are located at 5300 S. Alameda St, in Corpus Christi, Texas. We meet on Mondays and Thursdays when school is in session from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

The program is absolutely free to students. There is no charge and all materials are provided. We are always looking for volunteers, and we currently have room to add a few more students. To contact Elaine, click the email button at the top right of the screen.

Students Make Progress in the Corpus Christi Reading Clinic

10/24/2019

The children are making fabulous progress at the reading clinic. One little boy went racing over to greet his parents at the end of the session to show them the new words he could spell. Each day we’re seeing improvement. No, we cannot erase reading failure in one or two months, but everyone is improving. The children use creative art therapy hands-on projects to encourage them to work on difficult tasks and to take the new words that they have “captured” home with them. When the child encounters a word they do not know, cannot read, or cannot spell, the child captures the word and uses 4 steps to learn that new word. Then, they place the word on their project and take it home to practice. Afton the Ant, shown here, is just one example. Afton is covered with 30 new captured words. (See my previous Reading News post for details!)

In October, we did a special workshop on “Reading for Details” to sharpen comprehension skills. Even beginning students, read a chapter book and worked on comprehension skills.

Each Thursday, the children end the session at 5:45 PM with a puppet play. The children practice reading out loud which builds reading fluency. Guests are always welcome for the puppet play.

We still need volunteers to help the children learn to read. We appreciate your support. Come and help us teach a child to read. Reading failure stops many children from being successful in life. When we stop reading failure and teach a child to read, we change that child’s life forever. I truly believe: If you teach a child to read, you can change the world.

Each of these puppets, which the children made themselves by following step-by-step directions, is covered with dozens of words that the children have captured. One group of children read the puppet play out loud, while another group displayed their puppets to illustrate the different characters.

Reading and following directions is an important skill.

To capture a new, tricky word, a student spells the word and says the letter sounds, gives the definition, uses the word in a sentence, and writes it correctly - four steps!

Reading Clinic Continues in Corpus Christi

10/16/2019

A wonderful group of children and dedicated volunteers continue to work on reading skills at the Reading Orienteering Club in Corpus Christi. The children are learning letter sounds using the principles of vowel clustering. Here are two of the projects that children completed to improve their reading skills.

As the children make their hands-on project of Afton the Ant, they also learn 30 new words. To capture a word, the student must spell the word and say the letter sounds, give the definition, write the word correctly, and use it in a sentence. Each of Anton's legs is covered with 5 captured words. Projects like this make it fun to learn new words.

Here's another project that a student completed during the reading clinic. Each of Sharigan the Snake's scales contains a carefully written manuscript letter. Research shows that when children learn to write in careful manuscript style, this helps them learn to recognize letter shapes and read more efficiently.

Please keep your eye on our Reading News. We'll soon report about the children's puppet plays, in which they learn to read out loud with expression and fluency.

The reading clinic meets from 4:00-6:00 pm on Mondays and Thursdays at St. John's United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi. The program is not religious; but the church simply provides space and support as part of their community outreach.

We're always looking for volunteers. Click the email link above and contact Elaine if you're interested.

September 28th, 2019

9/28/2019

Thank you to everyone for a fabulous week at the Reading Orienteering Club. The children are working hard and making progress, and we sincerely appreciate the work and support of parents, grandparents, university student volunteers, and community volunteers. A special thank you also to everyone at St. John’s United Methodist Church for making this project possible. The Camp Sharigan Project is truly an outreach and community endeavor.

This week, our first week in the Reading Orienteering Club, the students captured or worked on learning 20 new words to make puppets for their puppet play and to take home and practice. I hope all parents will encourage the children to sit down and practice the new words on their puppet. If your child did not finish their puppet, they will finish this next week.

We had excellent readers and puppeteers to close our weekly program on Thursday. I gave the puppet readers the task of reading the puppet play “cold” - without practice. They did an excellent job. This is important because many times children are asked to read out loud in class, so, they need to practice picking up a script and reading on the spot.

We are meeting on Mondays and Thursdays from 4:00-6:00 pm.

See everyone back on Monday. Have a good weekend

We Have Just Begun

9/22/2019

We had a fantastic kick-off week at Camp Sharigan, but there is more to come. We have 22 children enrolled at Corpus Christi. Thank you to parents, grandparents, and volunteers for all your hard work. I especially want to thank those who stayed and helped to pack up on Friday evening. Your help was greatly appreciated. Thank you.

We still need volunteers to fill all the slots for the coming weeks, so, if you would like to join us, please come. The children are eager to learn and appreciate it when you help them learn to read. You can contact me for more information at: clantonharpine@hotmail.com

Writing Stories

I was very proud of all of the children for standing up and reading their stories so well on Friday. Fantastic job!

We start with very simple stories because we want the children to be able to actually read the story they write. Often, when we as adults try to help a beginning reader write a story, we let the student dictate an oral story to us, we write it down for them, and then have them copy what we wrote. Yes, this produces a more complex story. The problem then is that the student cannot read that story. The student becomes frustrated. If we start with simple stories, then the students develop step-by-step and are able to read what they write.

One Step at a Time!

We learn to speak before we learn to read, so, our oral language system is more advanced than our written language. If we begin teaching children through very simple stories, then we allow their reading skills to catch up with their oral skills. At the Camp Sharigan Project, we start with very simple stories—some only one sentence. We will build upon this concept. By the end of the year, we will work to help the students write each and every story they desire. As a piano teacher explained to me once, if you want students to learn to read music, they must begin with simple songs. The same is true in reading and writing.

Our Schedule

This week, our schedule changes. We meet only on Monday and Thursday. We still meet from 4:00 to 6:00 PM in the Community Life Building of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi. We are all grateful that the church provides housing and funding for this non-religious program as part of their outreach.

Our theme starting September 23 will be Let’s Go Exploring. The children will also present their first make-believe TV show on Thursday. Come join us.

Children read and follow directions to make the pop-up books. They had already listened to a story about following directions. They wrote a story and pasted it inside the house to make a book. During our closing time Friday, they read their stories to their friends and families. This helped them to develop their oral and written language skills. The children all did a great job!

Thank You to Everyone as We Finish Camp Sharigan and Move to the Next Stage of the Reading Program

9/20/2019

Thank you to all the parents and volunteers for all you have done this week. The children, even the very young ones, are already making progress. A very special thank you to parents and grandparents who have been willing to work and volunteer. Please help us find even more volunteers. If we have more workers, we can help the children learn more. They'll make faster progress as well. We have 22 children enrolled. We want all the children to read at their age level or above by May.

Camp Sharigan meets today (September 20, 2019) from 4:00-6:00 as usual in the Community Life Building at St. John's Church. A special thank you to St. John's for sponsoring this non-religious program as part of their community outreach.

Remember, the children are reading their stories at 5:30 this afternoon. The children are reading at their ability level. Some are reading beginning "at" stories, while others are reading much more challenging stories. We are proud of each and every child. They are working hard. They will be having their wrap up party with refreshments. We hope you can come.

Also, remember that next week, we meet only on Monday and Thursday from 4:00 to 6:00.

Students at Camp Sharigan Captured 120 Words Yesterday

9/20/2019

At the Camp Sharigan reading camp yesterday in Corpus Christi, Texas, the children captured 120 tricky words. We never tell children that they missed a word; we tell them that the word is tricky and they need to capture it. When they capture a tricky word, they learn to spell it and understand its use and meaning using a 4-step process.

After they learn a tricky word, they write the word neatly in their best handwriting, decorate it with colored pencils and cute rubber stamps, and hang it on a make-believe poison ivy vine. Each leaf on the vine can have anywhere from one to five words written on it. Thank you to the wonderful volunteers, and to St. John's United Methodist Church, which provides space and funding to make this non-religious program possible.

This picture shows the poison ivy vine from just one day, yesterday's 120 captured words. Wonderful work by the children who are learning to read better and better every day.

This is the Match the Sound station at Camp Sharigan, where students train their brains to think of words in terms of sounds.

Pop-up Books Help Children Learn to Read

9/19/2019

The children are making their own book today at Camp Sharigan in Corpus Christi. They have made a pop-up book that they are very excited about. Creating the book helps them learn to read and follow directions. They will be writing a story for their book. Each child will work up to their ability in story writing.

They will be reading their stories on Friday at 5:30. We hope you will come and join us on Friday. St. John's United Methodist Church, Community Life Building.

We are still in need of volunteers. If you can help, please come.

Camp Sharigan Reading Program Is in Full Swing!

9/18/2019

We have 21 children enrolled in Camp Sharigan this week in Corpus Christi. The ages range from 5 years old to 6th grade. The stations are progressively arranged so that each child works at their ability level. We are also stressing working together in a group. As we tell the children, we are a team--not a competitive team. We are a cooperating team; we help and support each other.

The children captured and have been learning 112 words in the first two days. This week so far we have stressed oral reading, handwriting, spelling, writing paragraphs, three types of comprehension, oral fluency, vowel sounds, blending consonant sounds, and listening skills.

For handwriting, we are working to strengthen hand muscles by tracing and cutting so that children will be able to improve their handwriting. Research shows that how a child shapes their letters plays an important role in learning to read. For the theory behind the importance of handwriting in teaching reading, see my reading blog. The children are working hard. The improvement in handwriting clarity from Monday to Tuesday is amazing.

For reading, we have been working at the vowel center. We are working on vowel sounds and consonant blends. We worked on distinguishing letters b and d yesterday. At the vowel center, we are learning the 7 sounds for letter a. Instead of memorizing word lists (we never memorize), we teach students to break words down into letter sounds. We use vowel clustering. Vowel clustering is a teaching method that stresses the relationship between the written letters and the oral sounds used to form words. Vowel clustering also teaches, comprehension, spelling, handwriting, word meanings, and working with compound and multi-syllable words. To succeed in the classroom, students need to go beyond just recognizing that letters represent sounds. They need to learn how to work with letter sounds. We use a vowel center game called Match the Sound. The vowel center (placing words on the floor game board by their letter sound) makes it easy. Being able to visually see the different sounds helps struggling students learn to read. However, not every student finds it easy to identify vowel sounds. Vowel clustering teaches students to break words down into individual sounds and then put those sounds back together to read the word.

For more information on the teaching methods that we are using, see my reading blog.

Do You Know a Child Who Needs Help in Reading in Corpus Christi?

9/14/2019

Camp Sharigan Project for Reading!

The Camp Sharigan Project is looking for 1st through 3rd grade children who need help in reading.
St. John’s United Methodist Church at 5300 South Alameda Street in Corpus Christi (phone: 361-991-4342) is sponsoring a FREE reading clinic for children in the first through third grade who need help in reading. This is a free, non-religious program; St. John’s is simply providing financial support and classroom space. We use the latest research-based techniques, including vowel clustering and group-centered hands-on intrinsic motivation. We also use 12 different teaching techniques. We believe that every child can learn to read, and we look forward to helping them.

This year-long program will run on school days from September 16th to May 7th, 2020. We start on September 16th. All sessions are held from 4 to 6 PM in the Community Life Building at St. John’s UMC. Children must be registered by parents, and parents provide transportation.
Some of our success stories have been:

A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one tutoring, learned to read and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
Six children who entered the program reading at the pre-K level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level. Only one child in the group was a first grader.
One student started at the pre-primer level (pre-K) and ended the year at the third-grade reading level, while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.
Three students moved up four grade levels in reading, four students moved up three grade levels in reading, and eight students moved up two grade levels in reading in one year.

We invite you to contact us if you know of a child who struggles or has problems in reading or comprehension. We would be happy to talk with you. We mostly work with first through third graders, but if we have openings, we are happy to include fourth-graders as well.

Sessions start on September 16th. There’s absolutely no charge.

Dates and Times
We kickoff with a week-long reading camp on September 16th. The children will come each day Monday through Friday, 4:00 to 6:00 PM for Camp Sharigan. This is a hands-on reading camp that concentrates on reading, writing, comprehension, spelling, and oral fluency.

After that first week, starting on September 23rd, we will settle into our year-long schedule, meeting only on Monday and Thursday from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. We will still stress reading, writing, comprehension, spelling, and oral fluency, but the Reading Orienteering Club curriculum for this portion of the program will also stress the individual needs of each student. All sessions are 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

Please register by contacting:

Elaine Clanton Harpine, Ph. D.
clantonharpine@hotmail.com 361-867-8040

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If you teach a child to read, you can change the world.