By Shelley Kolasa

Redwood Literacy Intervention Specialist

Eda, Redwood's first international student, came to Redwood in the summer of 2019. She was attending an English-only international school in Ankara, Turkey when her family discovered that she had dyslexia. Even though Eda also spoke Turkish and Spanish, her parents thought it would be best for her to receive literacy intervention in English to better help her with her academics. However, finding support for dyslexia in English proved to be very difficult. Her parents started looking outside their home country for a summer program. It just so happened that Eda had family and friends in Chicago. The friends had heard about Redwood’s excellent dyslexia intervention and Eda’s mom also had family living in Chicago that could host them during their visit. After extensive research, they decided to take a leap of faith and head to Chicago for a summer.

At the time, Eda was going into third grade and reading at approximately a kindergarten level. She attended Redwood's 6-week summer intensive program that met four mornings a week. She participated in small group reading instruction using the Wilson Reading System®. In addition, she met in the afternoons with our instructor Jordan for individual Wilson sessions.

Throughout the summer, Eda made excellent progress, but she needed more intervention to continue building her literacy skills. When Eda's family went back home to Turkey, they arranged for her to work with Jordan online three times a week for 60-minute sessions. This was before the pandemic and before Zoom classes were normalized. Even so, Jordan was able to seamlessly continue services for Eda and she continued to flourish.

When Jordan took maternity leave in the summer of 2020, I took over as Eda's online instructor. I had some big shoes to fill, as Jordan and Eda had built a solid relationship. However, when I met Eda and her family online for the first time, we connected quickly. Our families were quite similar. Eda was about the same age as my own son and Eda's brother was about the same age as my daughter. We both had dogs, and even they shared a few moments of screen time during that initial meeting. These similarities are not necessary for making a great connection, but they definitely helped us hit the ground running. We were off to a great start and our bond continued to grow over the next two and a half years.

Eda made wonderful progress during our time together. We met twice a week for 60-minute sessions. Not only did her literacy skills improve, but her confidence continued to soar! By the time we completed our intervention, she was in 6th grade and reading at grade level. Toward the end of our intervention, Eda would excitedly tell me about the books that she was reading from her school library. She would often read them aloud during our sessions and I was blown away by her accuracy and fluency. She had transformed from a timid, self-conscious reader, into one that couldn’t wait to pick up a book.

Teaching Eda was an absolute joy. I looked forward to meeting with her each and every session. I often forgot about the screen between us. Our sessions were so natural and easy. It was not only an honor to see her literacy flourish, but also to see her grow into such a self-confident, mature 6th grader that loves to read. We are so incredibly proud of all the hard work that she put forth to attain her reading goals.

I hope that other international families will read Eda's story and consider Redwood as a viable solution to their children's literacy development. With today's technology, our tutoring services really have no borders.

Turkey has recently been struck by a devastating earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8. The impact has been widespread and many communities have been severely affected. If you are interested in donating to the relief efforts on the ground, feel free to do so here in honor of Eda and her family.