The Reading Buddies program at Edison Elementary School began as a way to improve students' reading skills through reading to therapy dogs. Research shows human-animal interaction can lower stress and boost self-esteem, empathy, and engagement with reading. Students in the program take the Scholastic Reading Inventory test in November and May to measure growth. They receive individualized reading recommendations and intervention. After implementing Reading Buddies and home reading links, the school saw reading achievement rise from a 38% to 52% growth rate between school years. The program continues into the following year with additional parent and student surveys to evaluate effectiveness.

1. Reading Buddies Edison Elementary 7025 Madison Ave Hammond, IN

2. How it all Began The Delta society (an organization dedicated to improving human health through service and therapy animals) found that after two decades of research, human-animal interaction can: lower blood pressure and reduce heart rate help children develop empathy and nurturing improve self-esteem and alleviate depression help establish mutual trust provide non-threatening pleasant physical contact foster a sense of oneness with life and nature According to the National Assessment on Education Progress," children who do not read for fun have much lower scores than children who do. Reading to dogs provides a fun, non-judgmental environment where children can improve their reading skills."(Bideawee's Reading to Dogs)

3. SRI ~ When students log in to SRI, they are shown a grade-appropriate interest screen where they choose three areas of interest. Next, the student is provided with instructions for taking the test and is then given a short practice test to become familiar with the item format. A computer-adaptive algorithm works behind the scenes to continually adjust the difficulty of the items based on student responses, enabling SRI to produce highly-accurate measures of text comprehension. In approximately 20 minutes, SRI produces an accurate measure of a student’s reading ability and provides a Lexile score for the student to see. Students receive instant feedback on their reading performance and a reading list that is customized to their chosen areas of interest and their reading ability. The student can then find books that are both interesting and appropriately challenging.

4. Monitoring and Intervention Animal Birthday’s were celebrated (candy was passed out) Each child named their animal and were given a special place to store the animal when it was not being used Students are given the SRI test in November and again in May Home links web materials were used in the classrooms to enhance performance and at home participation

5. www.schoolhomelinks.com

10. EDISON ELEMENTARY OUTCOMES FOR ’08-’09 SCHOOL YEAR Overall rate of change for ’07-’08 school year was38% Overall rate of change for ’08-’09 school year was52%

11. The Future~~ Reading Buddies is continued into this school year (3rd grade) Parent and Child Survey’s Continuation of Home Links RTI Groups for Reading Intervention

12. Final Child Survey: Please circle the answer that best applies to you How many times per week do you read? A. One to Two times per week B. Three to Four times per week C. Daily D. None at all What types of things do you read? A. Books from School B. Books from the public library C. Newspaper or magazine articles D. Articles or information found on the internet How many times per week do you read for fun? A. One to Two times per week B. Three to Four times per week C. Daily D. None at all What types of materials do you read for fun? A. Books B. Magazines C. Newspaper D. Information from the internet