Retired Catholic teacher helps SLC's Roosevelt Elementary students win visit from Chopper 5

Friday, May. 30, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — A program in Salt Lake City started by a retired Catholic school teacher to increase reading among children, many of them immigrants, was honored May 22, along with the students.

Roosevelt Elementary School students sang “Roosevelt reads” as Chopper 5 landed and Nadine Wimmer, KSL Read Today spokesperson and news anchor, emerged May 22 to congratulate the students for increasing their reading comprehension. 

Dozens of tutors, business partners and community members also cheered on the chopper and showed a collective effort behind the students’ accomplishments.

Roosevelt Elementary was rewarded for improving the most out of 125 schools in the year-long Read Today program with a visit from Chopper 5 and the opportunity of “being on television,” said Wimmer. They also had their class pictures taken with Chopper 5 and its pilot. 

The students sang “Movin’ on up in our reading … to be the very best we can,” to the tune of “The Jeffersons” television sitcom, to Wimmer and the volunteers who tutored them. 

Jeanne Pence, a retired Saint Vincent de Paul School teacher who is now an Americorps volunteer, started the Roosevelt Lending Library and wrote the lyrics to motivate the kids. 

“The kids worked really hard in the Read Today program,” said Jennifer Reed, principal. “Every student who participated made progress in their reading fluency, with 21 students reaching their grade level. More than 60 percent of the school population is learning English as a second language. One student came to school worried that she didn’t have the book she had borrowed from the Lending Library because her mother hadn’t finished reading it. We have found that the parents are also starting to make reading a habit at home now that they have books to share.” 

Nasir, who immigrated from Egypt, reads with his mother to help her learn English, he said. He is in the fifth grade and has been in the program for two years. “The first day I came to Utah, I didn’t know any English,” said Nasir. “After I started the reading program, I learned how to say vowels and how to read. I learned word by word, sentence by sentence and book by book. Then I started to read chapter books and invited some other kids to start the program to learn more English.”

Books are essential to the program, said Pence. “The books are the building blocks to create a strong foundation of reading; they are so beneficial because they provide access, inspiration and ignite imagination, but most importantly they are so beneficial for these children who come from different countries because they can learn so much.” 

When Pence began reading with the children, they would not make eye contact, she said. “They had been through trauma and it was a trust issue, but the power of love pulls people together. I believe in helping them achieve their dreams, and once that trust was established, they would come to me even during their recesses and ask for books.” 

Pence’s goal is to teach the children that the sky is the limit, she said. “That coupled with the school principal’s passion for the students learning to read was the key for our success.”

Jenna Gardner, a volunteer, said it’s been exciting “to see their progress and to see them develop a passion for reading.” 

“I love seeing the spark in their eye as they learn new concepts,” said Cindie Selbo, another volunteer.

Smith’s Marketplace on 3300 South in Holladay and Soluna Salon also were recognized for their significant donations to the Roosevelt Lending Library.