We have very exciting news and a chance for our experienced volunteers to participate in an experiment at Reading to Kids - Virtual Reading Clubs this Saturday at all of our eight schools!
HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WILL WORK
Because LAUSD teachers are using 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.
We are limiting RSVPs for these first, virtual reading clubs to returning volunteers (people who have volunteered with us at least once before).
Ideally, anyone who volunteers for these first 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.
Prior to the morning of the reading clubs, you will receive a link for a Zoom "check-in" session with your Site Coordinators that will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. this Saturday.
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 9:45 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 fifteen minutes will be 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 10:45, 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 provide at the above link simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would prepare to lead the kids in a 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!
LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE
We are continuing to add groups as teachers decide to join us on Saturday, so please sign up today for one of the limited spots available. As the week progresses, additional spots may open up. So if you check the website and find it is full today, please come back later in the week.
HOW TO RSVP
Visit our home page at www.readingtokids.org and submit your RSVP as usual! We hope you can join us in this fun experiment.
