A Secret Society of Readers: Constructing Possibilities Through Mentored Reading Experiences

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Mentoring Through Storytelling, Writing, and Reading (Table 2)

Abstract

The following research study took place within an initiative called The Secret Society of Readers, a pilot project conceived as a literacy and mentoring program designed to build positive reader and learner identities among middle school students in an underserved school context. Through a near-peer mentor model, 27 sixth-grade students were paired with 24 college mentors to interact with and around books in an approach to reading that emphasized relationships, belonging, and reader agency. The study revealed the ways in which mentor and learner relationships affect and support students' interests in reading and learner identities.

Authors

• Dulcey Hunter, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Lindsay E. Persohn, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee

• Cheryl R. Ellerbrock, University of South Florida

• Karyn Z. Mendez, University of South Florida