Posts Tagged ‘willow street’

Hello, my name is Abigail and I am the new Willow Street Assistant Site Director! It has been a busy time here at the Willow Street location. Setting up for the summer session after this building had been empty since March 2020 was a huge undertaking but Carol and I are finally reaching the end of that long to-do list. Our first week back was consumed with creating learning packets for the students, sorting books, scheduling tutoring sessions, and finally, organizing the space to facilitate learning and comply with COVID-safety protocols.

The building was painted, light bulbs were replaced, and everything was cleaned- this was much needed after the space was vacant for a whole year and a half!

Shown is one of the new air purifiers set to filter away germs and allergens.


This summer, we are offering both in-house and online tutoring for students. Some families have chosen to stay remote for tutoring and we look forward to seeing these students’ faces online, wherever they are logging in from. NHR has instituted a new program called myON to help students find digital books tailored to their interests with much more ease. We have also simplified the number of activities to complete during the hour-long session in order to reduce any technical difficulties previously experienced by students. This way they can focus on the best part of NHR – reading with their tutors!

New books carefully selected by Carol for students to choose from when arriving during the first days of summer session.

 As for the families who have chosen in-person tutoring, we are thrilled to finally see the kids! It will be so nice to get a little closer to the warm, fun, and dynamic tutoring atmosphere. The building will be filled with the buzz of students reading, laughing with their tutors, and playing choice-time games. All this will be happening through masks as people remain 6 feet apart from one another and air filters hum in the background. Additionally, thorough cleaning will happen in between sessions. 

We are excited to start our summer session and to see students at New Haven Reads once again – both in-person and online!

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The New Haven Reads Creative Writing Club has been busy! The students from all four sites, including Saturday at Bristol St., in grades 3 and up have put together an amazing newsletter. They worked for three sessions to create the “New Haven Reads Chronicle.” The talented writers included stories about current events, breaking news, and even super heroes!

Check out the full New Haven Chronicle here.

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Mary Connors, New Haven Reads’ literacy specialist, can be found every Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. on Zoom with a room full of students, challenging them to think creatively, write beautifully, and share their finished written products with each other. For the second time, Mary is leading the Creative Writing Club. Even better, due to immense student interest, she’s leading two different sessions, one at Dixwell with older students and one at Willow Street with younger students.

Mary draws on a wealth of experience, having taught high school English and led an after-school Poetry Club before coming to New Haven Reads. Anyone who joined the Creative Writing Club for a day would not be surprised to learn about Mary’s background. It shows in her interactions with students, dedication to the process, and genuine interest in bringing out their best writing during every session.

She recently asked her younger students to write a two-person play. “They did a fabulous job. Being younger kids, I didn’t know they’d get rolling that quickly with their plays,” Mary said.

The students broke into groups of two after learning about the project, and they began with only 10 minutes left. Mary was surprised to discover that some kids had already completed their short skits by the end of the 10 minute period.

Most of all, though, she was just pleased that the students were enjoying themselves and improving their confidence in their writing in the Creative Writing Club. 

Mary shared, “I wanted to bring in social interaction, and really, I wanted them to truly grow as writers, which requires consistent practice with lots of writing. That’s the main difference between the Creative Writing Club this spring versus the one in the summer.” 

This summer was about giving the students an opportunity to express their feelings while they dealt with the unprecedented, compounding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial tension. “During that time,” she said, “I wanted to give them a platform to express how they felt, as well as expose them to different genres.”

However, the spring Club is an opportunity to write. Mary summed it up nicely, saying, “The students write in the beginning, they write throughout, and they write in the end.”

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Every year, New Haven Reads celebrates Black History Month at every tutoring site, with Site Directors and Assistant Site Directors deciding what the celebration at their location will entail. 

This year, Site Directors and Assistant Site Directors had to adjust to the virtual format, figuring out what could be done online to celebrate Black History Month.

Carol Sarmiento, the Site Director at Willow Street, explained her past efforts, saying, “In-person, we would put up posters of past and present influential Black Americans. The kids would always walk around and look at them. I also had these Black History comprehension cards, and we used to go around and ask the kids to pick a card, then we would read it to them. There were also lots of books on display for the kids to read, and they loved it.”

With the distance-learning model still in effect, Carol decided to use two digital platforms, Epic and ReadTheory, to assign books and articles relevant to Black History Month to all grade levels, so that tutors could read the stories with their students. Other sites took similar steps, including using worksheets with biographical information for the students to investigate and learn about Black History.

Audra Clark, the Science Park Site Director, created a slideshow presentation for the students. The first slide names the accomplishments of a certain Black American, and then asks, “Who Am I?” The students have a moment to posit a guess, then the answer is revealed on the next slide, along with further information with pictures and text. 

“The students seem to enjoy learning about the individuals from a first person perspective and it made it more of a riddle,” Audra explained.

We were thrilled that our Site Staff were still able to honor and celebrate Black History Month, despite the limitations of the virtual format. We look forward to being able to celebrate in-person with decorations at all of the sites next year!

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