Latin School of Chicago

24 L AT I N M A G A Z I N E participating, and Finkle, who was now a curriculum coordinator, brought together 75 or so of her reading students from different grades to pair up with the Latin buddies. Between visits, the Latin kids raised money for books to give to their buddies or collected school and art supplies. Behind the scenes, Finkle and Houck wrote grant proposals, middle school librarian Barb Etchingham culled her collection for books to donate, and a core group of middle school faculty made gathering much-needed resources for McCutcheon a priority. Latin's IT Department provided used computers and technical support for the school. As budget cuts eliminated programs like art at McCutcheon, these efforts became even more important. Nineteen years later, Houck and Finkle, who is now a middle school teacher at Latin, are as committed as ever to the McCutcheon partnership. e enduring relationship has touched the lives of countless students and It was 1995, and English teachers Andrea Finkle and Mary Jo Houck were taking a poetry class together at Northeastern Illinois University as part of their work toward master's degrees in reading education. "We were having a conversation about where we worked, and at some point one of us said. 'We should do something to connect our kids,'" said Houck, who taught sixth grade at Latin at the time. Finkle was a second and third grade teacher at McCutcheon Elementary School, an underserved public school in the Uptown neighborhood. "We both saw how much the other person was invested in reading with her kids," Houck continued. "I think that is what connected us, the passion for what we were doing." eir goal was to find ways to bring literature to life for their students by having them share in the experience of reading. Within a few months of their initial conversation, Houck was able to bring her class of sixth graders to McCutcheon to pair up with Finkle's class of third graders as reading buddies for the first time. Over the next years, Houck brought her sixth grade class to McCutcheon three or four times a year for a day. Sometimes Finkle brought her class to Latin. Students worked on reading and writing activities with their buddies, played games, did arts and crafts, and ate lunch together. ey built friendships. Later, when Houck became a team leader, the entire sixth grade began Teachers' shared love of reading binds students and schools Mary Jo Houck and Andrea Finkle

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