The reopening of Green Bay Elementary School as Green Bay Early Childhood Center provided the opportunity for Reading Power to address an additional part of our mission: to provide quality, one-to-one literacy tutoring to our youngest North Chicago students - intervening even earlier before some children begin to fall behind. Thanks to the generosity of the United Way of Lake County's Women's Leadership Committee, a seed grant was donated to pilot a pre-kindergarten, push-in program in two classrooms. The curriculum, developed by Rebecca Mullen, MSEd, Executive Director of Programs, and Mary Jane Hender, EdD, co-founder and board member, is rooted in accelerated oral language development through quality literature led by a trained Reading Power volunteer tutor. As with all of our curricula, our methods are research-based, developmentally appropriate, and individualized for each student. The teachers and tutors are witnesses to the daily successes and excitement each child brings to the tutoring session. Tutoring within the classroom instead of in our own classroom is new to Reading Power. For this age level,  all students participate in rich, one-to-one discussions with our trained, volunteer tutors to accelerate oral language development through quality, interactive literature. Our pre-k pilot program is being led by Mullen and new professional tutor, Joy McGreevy. 

Pre-kindergarten tutoring at Green Bay

"I am excited to be a part of our new pre-k program. The kids are smart and so receptive to the books and literacy discussions. It's obvious we're already making a huge impact with our youngest students." 

~Betsy B. Rosenfield, pre-kindergarten tutor and Reading Power board member