Carter in the classroom

Students Struggling to Read Find Success With Help From Older Students

The Teen Trendsetter program is helping both age groups bond and grow

Let's face it. Learning to read isn’t so easy.

Second grader Vivian and a handful of other students who needed some reading help were in luck.

Each morning the Midway Park Elementary students have breakfast with a friend from another HEB ISD high school. It’s called the Teen Trendsetter program and it's helping both age groups bond and grow.

They started last year with students who were at least six months behind their peers.

"By the time we finished with those 14 students, all of those 14 students were reading at grade level and two of them were reading beyond grading level," organizer Catherine Kazyaka said.

"With practice it is going to work. She has improved so much with just two weeks of reading," said Krishna Patel of her reading partner.

Vivian, who struggled to read last year, now doesn't just have a favorite book, but can buzz right through it.

"She just comes over one day and starts reading and I am like, 'Wow where have you been my whole life?'" said her teacher, Sarah Tomlinson.

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