Eighth Graders Pay It Forward

“Wig,” said Fair Haven School eighth grader Dayana.

First grader Samaner sounded out the word, as Dayana helped her place a ​“w” to finish spelling it out.

That was the scene Thursday afternoon at the city’s largest middle school, as a group of eighth graders volunteered their time to mentor first graders in reading, writing, and spelling. 

The group of 16 eighth graders split up to support four first-grade classrooms. Their efforts were a result of the eighth grade class being ​“adopted” by New Haven Promise for the school’s annual Snowball event. The eighth graders decided that because New Haven Promise has a community service requirement, they would volunteer with some of the school’s youngest students. 

In each first grade class, for 45 minutes, the groups practiced writing upper and lowercase letters, reading and spelling, and played games that flexed their skills. As one pair flipped through a book together, they shared what their favorite colors were and pointed to the fairies on the book’s pages that they liked most. 

Dayana worked with Samaner, sounding out words like ​“car,” ​“jet,” and ​“sun.”

As Dayana pronounced the words aloud, Samaner listened to figure out the missing vowel or consonant. While practicing with ​“car,” Samaner looked at her spelling card, which left an empty blank space between the ​“c” and ​“r.”

Samaner first thought the missing vowel might be ​“e.”

“Close,” Dayana said, then pronounced the word again but a bit slower this time. Samaner then reached for the letter ​“a.”

After 20 minutes, the students switched stations. 

While eighth grader Beyonce worked with first grader Janelle Torres, the two read ​“After School Fun” by May Nelson. The duo agreed it was their favorite book of the day.

In a dual language classroom, students learned English and Spanish vowels by playing card games and bingo. 

First graders Khaleesi and Witsel said they enjoy working with the eighth graders because they not only practice learning words, but also not to say ​“bad words.”

Khaleesi said she hopes one day to work in a daycare, teaching young people lots of languages like English and Spanish. She said that she plans to teach more than just the two languages by using Amazon’s Alexa. 

“I want everyone to know how to make new friends because sometimes they don’t just speak English,” Khaleesi said.

Wiesel said he hopes to be an author who writes in both English and Spanish. 

Eighth graders Denairy, Beyonce, Riley and Angel have visited the first-grade classrooms twice per week for the last few weeks. They described their volunteer work as a chance to establish older-sibling relationships with the young students. 

While helping the students with their handwriting, spelling and reading, the eighth graders said they are able to learn about working with students at different learning levels, and students who may not have the most confidence speaking or working with others. 

“I want to make them feel like school is a safe space for them all,” Denairy said. 

Riley agreed and said she enjoys being a person for the students to lean on, apart from their teachers. She recalled her elementary years being influential for similar reasons. She said she would often read ​“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books with an eighth grader, and that that fostered her current love for reading. 

“I want them to be book nerds like me,” she said. 

They all agreed that they also learned that first graders are brutally honest. 

“The kids are our future, and I love taking care of them. They deserve the whole world,” Beyonce said. 

Angel said that he loves having a buddy around the school building who he can greet throughout the day. ​“When I help them, they get so happy, and that really does make me happy too,” he said.