For each of the Reading Buddies sessions, we will use the Zoom Video Conferencing platform. Once you have officially joined as a volunteer, Ashley Winslow will send you a Zoom link with a meeting ID and passcode to join the weekly sessions. If you have not received a Zoom link or need one to be re-sent, please reach out to Ashley for assistance.

Once entered into the meeting, the volunteer and student will be separated into a breakout room where the volunteer will share the session components as well as that week’s book. Please ensure you are familiar with how to share your screen on Zoom prior to your first session.

Ashley will be monitoring the sessions throughout the allotted time both virtually in the breakout rooms as well as in person with the students. Volunteers will be notified when there are five minutes remaining and everyone will come back together for the end of the session. As a reminder, there are two sessions back to back so there may be a slight wait time while switching out the students between sessions.

If you have any questions about the Zoom technology, please reach out to Ashley for assistance or to schedule a practice session ahead of your first day.

The icebreaker activity should take about 2 minutes at the beginning of each session. For the icebreaker activities, we have two different PDFs that offer fun questioning to help provide a weekly opportunity to get to know your Reading Buddy. You can choose a few questions each week from either the “Would You Rather” document or from the “All About Me” document.

An important part of our Reading Buddies experience is working to increase vocabulary and listening skills. We do this through practice and repetition using appropriate literacy tools such as charts and flash cards for the alphabet or for early sight words. This component should last about five minutes.

We have three separate documents to use and your choice should be based on the individual student’s reading ability.

Through the Luzerne County Library System, we use BookFLIX as an online literacy platform to share books virtually with the students. A Luzerne County Library Card (which can be obtained for free) is all that is needed by a volunteer to access this program.

BookFLIX is an online literacy resource that offers nonfiction eBooks from Scholastic to build a love of reading and learning.  This engaging resource for will help early readers develop and practice essential reading skills and introduces students to a world of knowledge and exploration.

The book titles used each week will be announced ahead of the session. This part of the session along with the comprehension discussion after reading should take about 20 minutes, but may be shorter or longer depending on the specific title and follow-up discussion.

Here are the steps to access Scholastic BookFLIX and the book of the week.

• Go to kids.powerlibrary.org/
• Click on BookFLIX tab.
• Enter your library card number and click Submit.
• Click on Start.
• Enter title name in search bar (be sure it is exact title with apostrophes and punctuation marks or title may not be found) or find title within in one of the nine categories.
• Once you have found the title, click on Read the Book.
• Use arrows in corner of book screen to enter full screen mode.
• If you need to Zoom in, click on Zoom to go in and Fit to go back to original view.
• Click on Right Arrow to move forward to the next page and the Left Arrow to go back to previous page.
• Words highlighted in yellow are vocabulary words. Click on the highlighted words to review definition with student.
• Once you see the cover of the book again, that means the book has reached the conclusion.

If you do not have a Luzerne Library Card, please visit powerlibrary.auto-graphics.com/ to sign up for an e-Card. Also, please be sure to write down your card number as that is the only way to access the BookFLIX program.

While reading the weekly book, be sure to reinforce the main ideas from the book as well as any supporting details. While there are some questions mixed in with the non-fiction BookFLIX titles, it is always important to keep the children engaged by reviewing and fostering discussion of the material.

Attached below is a Sample Comprehension Question List that will offer a volunteer guidance on questions to ask before reading the book, questions to ask as you are reading, and some follow up questions once finished reading.

If there is enough time at the end of the session once reading has been completed, we offer the children a reward by playing an educational literacy game. We have compiled various worksheets together that can be screen shared with the students each week.

There are four different sets of worksheets to choose from and once again, your choice should be based on the individual student’s reading ability.

We have also developed a Reading Buddies Supplemental Lesson Materials List. This list has links to YouTube videos, reading games, and other lesson tools that can be used to help enhance your experience with your students. These ideas may be a great way to change up your lesson if your feel students have successfully mastered our Reading Buddies worksheet sets within the first half of the year.

We have also found a set of roll and read sight word lists since one of the online tools on our list is a virtual classroom dice, along with an easy sight word tic tac toe game that might be fun to use with your students.

You do not have to use any of these ideas if you are comfortable with the other materials currently being used. They are just some additional options to help keep your students engaged as their reading levels progress throughout the year.

Finally, we have about three minutes at the end of the session allotted for a proper goodbye with your student. Notification will be given when five minutes remain in the session so each volunteer should plan for that time at the end of the session. This is the best time to remind your student to keep reading when they are home and to let them know when you will see them again. After a 60 second countdown at the end of the breakout session, all students and volunteers will come back together for a final group goodbye, led by Ashley.