Reading Lab / Reading Alley

Los Alamitos has accepted the California Reading Commission's challenge to help Every Child Become a Reader by the end of third grade.  The role of reading as a gateway strategy for learning in school cannot be overestimated.  When children read well, they tend to do well in science, social studies and math.  Given its pivotal importance for school success, it is not difficult to understand why reading below grade level is a concern to all of us.

Thank you Target Foundation.  Your $2000 Literacy Grant is funding our Reading Lab and Reading Alley!

Los Alamitos opened the Early Literacy Reading Lab in the Media Center in 1996 .  Students in first and second grades who are reading below their grade level are referred to the Reading Lab by their teachers.  Under the guidance of teachers Jayli Casey and Ann Nelson, and with the coordination of director Sarah Kateley, these students are tutored by adult volunteers on a one on one basis for approximately 30 minutes each day. Our children make excellent achievement through this individual tutoring, and our second and third grade test results are well above the district level.

An important goal of our program is to incorporate our local community.  Since the daily problems faced by our children often go well beyond the bounds of school, it takes a concerted effort by the entire community to ensure that every child succeeds in learning to read by grade three.  Our Reading Lab volunteers include parents, grandparents, neighbors, and many residents of The Atrium retirement community. 

Adjacent to the Reading lab is our Reading Alley bookroom, which houses many sets of leveled books used for guiding reading by our primary staff.  Our Reading Alley provides support for 3rd graders, operating much the same way as the lab, and also supported by volunteers. The Reading Alley bookroom will start up in January under the direction of the third grade teachers who will conduct the same training as for the Reading Lab.

Find out what it takes to be a Literacy Volunteer...  read more