By Terry Shanley, SMART CEO

In the 2007-08 school year I had the privilege of reading with a very bright and clever second grade girl named Sidney. She read with such enthusiasm and inflection, and always with a bright smile on her face, except when she came across a dreaded, unknown word like "lasagna", or "specialists".

In our first reading session, when she saw one of these unknowns, Sidney would quickly mumble through it to the next known word. She would apologize later for mispronunciation.

I reminded her that students were here to learn new things like unfamiliar words, and her eyes sparkled with renewed confidence. Sidney was glad to know she was doing her job by learning new things.

In a later session she selected Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham – but in Spanish. Unbeknownst to me Sidney could read and speak two languages! She delighted in the fact that she knew a language I did not.

On the last SMART day of the school year, Sidney seemed preoccupied with the time, saying she did not want SMART to end. I assured her that the skills she developed over the past several months would continue to improve if she read through the summer.

When the site coordinator gave us our “five minute warning”, Sidney put her head down and read faster and more furiously than before. I suspect she thought time would slow down if she continued to read, and that the SMART session would not end.

Those last few minutes were some of the most precious. My experience with Sidney was like reading a wonderful book—we were both reluctant to turn the last page.

By reading aloud and for fun, Sidney grew immensely as a reader this year. You can make a difference in a child’s life.

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To protect student identity, names and details have been changed.