Reading to Kids News

July is here and enough teachers have committed to being Zoom hosts for our reading clubs on July 10th!

We have very few reader spots available this month, and we have now opened the July 10th reading clubs RSVPs! Sign up quickly if you know you can join us!

If you have ever read with us at any of our prior reading clubs (face-to-face or virtual), please RSVP now at our homepage at www.readingtokids.org or keep checking back to submit your RSVP for our "Wonders of Science & Technology" virtual reading clubs on July 10th!

We are again limiting RSVPs for these virtual reading clubs only to returning volunteers - people who have volunteered with us at least once before at any of our previous face-to-face or virtual reading clubs. See further below how virtual clubs work.

MORE SPOTS MAY OPEN
OVER THE NEXT WEEK!
It's no surprise our July reading clubs will be smaller since the teachers and kids are on their well-deserved Summer Break. If you check the website and find it is full, please keep checking back throughout the next week. We hope additional teachers will confirm as Zoom hosts, allowing us to open additional volunteer spots.

OPERATIONS VOLUNTEERS WANTED

Volunteers checking in with their Site Coordinators on Zoom

For our virtual reading clubs we need experienced volunteers to help train volunteers to use Zoom or be a second or third virtual Site Coordinator in our Zoom reading clubs for any of our schools.

These smaller summer reading clubs are the best times to step into any of these important roles - all training pleasantly provided safely at home!

Being a Site Coordinator guarantees you a (non-reading) spot at our next reading clubs, so please e-mail us at info@readingtokids.org if you can help us create wonderful reading clubs!

Because LAUSD teachers continue to use Zoom to reach their students, we will use Zoom for these virtual reading clubs. The reading clubs will be hosted by participating teachers at each school using their school Zoom accounts, but you will need your own Zoom account to join the reading club. If you don’t already have a Zoom account, you can sign up for a free, Basic account here: https://zoom.us/pricing

IMPORTANT: You will need to use Zoom from a desktop or laptop computer. The phone and tablet versions of Zoom do not have the necessary features for our virtual reading clubs.

Ideally, anyone who volunteers for these virtual reading clubs will be comfortable using Zoom. If you wish to test out your Zoom connectivity prior to the reading clubs, we encourage you to email us at info@readingtokids.org so we may do a brief test run with you before the virtual reading clubs.

Once you and your fellow volunteers are checked in, that same Zoom session will have a Zoom Volunteer Orientation / Virtual Reading Club Training that will start promptly at 9:15 a.m.

At 9:30 a.m. you and your volunteer partner will leave that Site Coordinator session and then join the teacher's Zoom session. The teacher will host the Zoom call and make you co-hosts. The first 30 minutes will be for troubleshooting and a prep session for just you and your reading partner and the teacher.

The kids will join that same reading club Zoom session at 10:00 a.m., and it will likely go until 10:30 or 11:00, at the teacher's discretion.

After the reading clubs end you will then rejoin your Site Coordinator's Zoom call for a brief wrap-up.

To screen share the book you will be reading with the children, you will need Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader from https://get.adobe.com/reader.

We will provide you a PDF of the read-aloud book so you can prepare for the reading clubs. You can see the read-aloud book titles for this month at https://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksMonth.php.

We will provide at the above link activities and simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would prepare to lead the kids in an activity and craft, though you may not actually do a craft, depending upon how the Zoom session goes. The kids may just want to talk to new faces!