During this past school year, a number of TI congregants participated in a Montgomery County school literacy program, officially known as the Ruth Rales Comcast Kids Reading Network. This program, developed in Israel and adapted for countywide use, is aimed at helping below-level 2nd graders improve their reading and comprehension skills through regular tutoring sessions.

TI's volunteer team included Doris Curchack, Mina Smith and Ellen Eisner, who began tutoring last October, and Mae Bernstein and Helene Kram, who started the program in January. All tutors received a two-hour orientation and training session before meeting their second-grade students and beginning their weekly, one-on-one tutoring sessions at Meadow Hall Elementary School, located around the corner from the synagogue on Twinbrook Drive

During each tutoring session, tutors read pre-selected books with their student, helped their student relate the subject matter to their own life, and engaged in a post-reading activity, such as writing a poem or making a chart. Each session ended with the student completing a take-home letter that could become the catalyst for discussion at home.

"This one-on-one attention definitely makes the child feel special," said Ellen Eisner, TI's team leader, "but it's hard to know who gets more out of these sessions - the student or the tutor." Mina Smith, another volunteer, put it this way: "My student just beams when she gets it, and that's very gratifying to me."

In making the commitment to tutor one hour each week, TI's volunteers joined volunteers from 10 other synagogues and Jewish groups in the Washington area. Recruitment and sponsorship was handled through the Greater Washington Jewish Coalition for Literacy, part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.

Involvement by the Jewish community is based on the understanding that literacy and education are the keys to personal success and that we, as Jews, are mandated by our tradition to give our time and energy to achieving a better society. Experts have found that children who haven't mastered the fundamentals of reading by the third grade are likely to face much greater challenges in life.

If you are interested in becoming a literacy volunteer for the 2006-07 school year, please contact Ellen Eisner at eeisner@comcast.net.

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	Tikvat Israel Congregation 2200 Baltimore Road · Rockville, Maryland 20851 Phone: (301) 762-7338 · Fax: (301) 424-4399 · Send us an email!
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