Reading Quest, a 501c3 non-profit, is an expansion of the student – led literacy campaign, Hooked on Books and the NM Alliance for Literacy, created by Santa Fe middle school students, their teachers at Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences and local high school students in 2012.
Hooked on Books students helped create the ‘Reading is Magic’ Summer Program which trains and hires teens and master reading specialists for intensive summer reading programs for students who are 1-2 years below grade level in reading.
During the past seven summers, our campers have made, on average, slightly more than one year’s growth during each two week camp session, as measured by a standardized reading assessment, The Oral Reading Test.
Young children are particularly motivated when teenagers are reading with them and encouraging them to persevere and work hard. We train teen tutors using multi-sensory hands-on, phonics-based strategies for our Reading Quest Tutoring Center, community service outreach, and Reading is Magic work opportunities.
We collaborate with the Mother Tongue and GRADS Teen Parent programs at Capital and Santa Fe High Schoolswhere we train young parents in early literacy practices such as, read aloud, rhyming and phonemic awareness. Several teen parents have now completed the first two parts of our Tutor Training program.
We also tutor low-income and homeless students in coordination with Communities in Schools, Adelante and PMS programs, in addition to providing free training for their volunteer tutors.