Diving into Reading at Anna Maria Oyster Bar

Gabriel, my "rising" second grader

You've probably heard the expression "reading is fundamental." It's not just a clever catchphrase. Reading comprehension is crucial to being a good learner. Having strong reading skills increases your ability to communicate and to think critically. And experiencing other people's lives and feelings through reading promotes empathy. The list of benefits goes on and on. And so the importance of children becoming proficient readers -- and appreciating the worlds it opens up to them -- cannot be overstated. 

Sadly, the reality is that many students fall behind in their reading skills at an early age. In Manatee County, 46% of students are not reading at grade level by the third grade. This percentage hovers just above 30% in Sarasota County. One of the issues is "summer slide," i.e., the reduction in elementary school children's reading and math skills over the summer. The question is how to combat this problem. 

Enter John and Amanda Horn, owners of the Anna Maria Oyster Bar restaurants. When the Horns learned about the issue of summer slide, they wanted to help. The Dive into Reading program was their response. On a June morning in 2017, 25 students students from a Title I school gathered at the Ellenton location of the Oyster Bar where they were matched with volunteer mentors. Each duo shared a hot breakfast (with mentors gently suggesting ways to improve table manners as needed) and then got to work on the student's reading and comprehension skills. The program took place weekly over the course of June. 

Dive into Reading was an instant hit with both the kids and the mentors. And so the program has expanded to three mornings a week at locations across Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto Counties. Since its inception, more than 3,000 "rising" first through third graders have participated. This summer alone, 400+ students could be found having breakfast and working on their reading skills with their mentors. Thanks to my friend Barb, I was one of this year's participants. 

I have to admit to being a bit nervous about meeting my student. Many of the mentors are teachers -- not to mention parents/grandparents -- and are used to interacting with children. Me, not so much. And while we'd had an online training session, I feared that I would falter once an actual child was sitting with me. My concerns fell away the moment the kids came single file into the restaurant. They were so little and cute and well-behaved. This was going to be fun. Before I knew it, I had been matched with Gabriel, and we were on our way to a table to get to work. 

While I don't know precisely what a second grader's vocabulary and comprehension skills should be, it was immediately evident that Gabriel's skills are at a higher level than those of many of the participating kids. We started by flipping through sight words, and I had to keep increasing the level of difficulty. Sure, he found words like "definition" and "certainly" challenging to pronounce, but I suspect I would have as well at his age. Once we were past the pronunciation threshold, we did some exercises to make sure he knew what the words actually meant. We talked about opposites and homonyms and used the words in sentences. He did well.  

Gabriel was cooperative throughout, but when we came upon the word "ghost" the second week, he became downright excited. He loves the "Ghostface" movies (also known as "Scream.") What???!!! He's only seven years old, and he's seen five of the movies -- multiple times. (He has three older brothers, which explains a lot.) Okay, I thought, I can work with this. For the final week, I made up some of our own sight cards with words relating to the movie, including mask and knife and scary. I was thrilled when he asked if he could take the cards home with him. I hope the school didn't get a call when he showed his parents his mementos. At least he was engaged. 

My thank you note from Gab --
I seem to be spewing information at him! 

A crucial part of the program is giving kids books to build their home libraries. Each week the student takes home a book selected by his mentor. One week I found a hard cover book in which monsters told each other jokes, so I grabbed it for him. I realize that cute monsters aren't quite the same thing as the characters in the "Scream" movies, but it was as close as I could get. In addition to reading, we used the books to work on Gabriel's writing skills. He enjoyed the game in which he'd roll a die, count words to the relevant number and then write them on a chart. I was pleased to learn his handwriting was quite legible despite spending a good deal of his time online. 

Each session ended with the program director reading a book aloud to the students. A copy of this book was added to the pile of goodies the kids bring home, so students who make it weekly end up with eight new books. At the final session, each child also received a backpack with school supplies and a Dive into Reading t-shirt. For a full year, any child wearing this shirt gets a free meal at Anna Maria Oyster Bar. The goodies also included a $25 gift certificate for an adult to use while dining. 

I had a great time working with Gabriel during this year's Dive into Reading program and am already looking forward to participating next year. For more information, click here. Maybe you, too, will be a mentor come 2026.