Each week children at Macdonough School are visited by students from Wesleyan University. There are several initiatives in place which provide opportunities for local college students to support elementary students at our school. One of the most popular programs is entitled WES Reads. This activity matches high achieving second, third, fourth, and fifth graders from Macdononough with Wesleyan students to form small group literature circles. The groups read classic children's books such as Stuart Little and Mr. Popper's Penguins and participate in rich discussions related to the reading. Making connections between the text and their lives, predicting future events, summarizing story lines, analyzing character traits are examples of some focus points for the literature discussions.
This semester over a dozen university students are meeting with more than twenty Macdonough students on a weekly basis. The groups will participate in an end-of-semester celebration of learning in early December.
