The Rotary Club of Biñan believes that development of good reading skills to kids as early as possible is an important tool for his or her success in life in general. Study shows that the earlier the kids learn how to read the more likely they will enjoy it thus making it a habit rather than a chore. As the child develops reading habits, it will cultivate curiosity and encourages to read more, better comprehension, better communicator. This is the club's main motivation to work on projects to enroll preparatory children as much as we can in a reading program that teaches the children to be able to read in just 20 days of about an hour sessions each day. This reading program in called Instant Reader.
From its website Instant Reader program was develop around the essential elements of Reading Instructions which is a result of the research conducted by the National Reading Panel on how children learn to read and the development of effective teaching methods. The essential elements are as follows:
To know more about Instant Reader , click on the link to access their website.
In the first quarter of 2019, Rotary Club of Biñan partnered with Eyelectric Inc. and Readright Inc. enroll 20 eligible Grade 6 students from Soro Soro Elementary School to the Instant Reader program. The 20 student program participant were recommended by the school based on their current reading skills evaluations which prior to the program is behind from their current academic level peers. The students were divided into 2 batches and as designed went through an hours session with an Instant Reader teacher handling each class for 20 school days. The program also provided snacks for each student after each sessions to encourage student's social interactions with each other. It often noticed that student's that are academically behind from their respective peers also tends to lose their confidence thus the tendency to not participate in other school activities and keep to themselves. If left unattended, the child will likely at some point completely lose interest in going to school then completely dropping out.
Within the duration of the program, teachers from Soro Soro Elementary School were already giving feedbak noticing a gradual improvement on the reading skills of the enrolled students and most important, have also notice a boost in their confidence during regular classes, participating and engaging better in other school activities. These noticed improvements have been consistently observed even after the 20 sessions.
On September of 2021, inspite the COVID19 pandemic and face to face classes still suspended, the club again partnered with Instant Reader to enroll 2 students for the same 20 one-hour sessions program only this time, the sessions are being conducted online.
One of the participant, 7 year old Gwynette Gutierrez Grade 1, prior to taking the program, reading is "very challenging for her" according to her mother Geraldine, but after only a few sessions of the Instant Reader program, the improvement is very noticeable her mother added. This little improvement encourages Gwynette to be more engage in the succeeding sessions. Not only did her reading skills improved after the program, this also upped her confidence in other school activities. After the 20 sessions, Gwynette along with Mhiel Jhayze Magcamit another grade 1 student both graduated and got their certification for the Instant Reader program.
From the results of the 2 successful projects above, the club is motivated to enroll more deserving students to the program. We are planning to initially engage with the public schools within Biñan to survey for a list of deserving students that might need to be enrolled in the program. If you are interested to partner with us to sponsor sessions for a student, send us an email at rcbinan@gmail.com and we will be very glad to discuss how we can work together.