Do It. Prove It. Share It. Grow It.
How Hope for Youth and Families and Storyshares Are Changing the Story for Striving Readers
As educators, we want nothing more than to see every student thrive. But for those who teach older striving readers, the journey is rarely straightforward.
Recently, I sat down with Samantha Krzyzanowski (Sami), Director of Innovative Reading at Hope for Youth and Families (HYF), who shared her powerful story as both a classroom teacher and leader of reading intervention.
“I’ve taught everything from ninth-grade introduction to high school English all the way through to senior AP,” Sami explains. She’s worked in big city schools, rural outposts, and even abroad: “Everybody comes with a different story.”
Working across these settings, she saw firsthand the system’s challenges:
“I really want to put students first, and I’m not finding that the environments I’m in are where I get to… I wanted to make sure that I was an advocate for the students in a stronger way.”
She describes how test scores and school image often overshadow actual student growth, leading to frustration:
“If I don’t get them to the test score they need, then I’m not going to get paid as much the next year…That shouldn’t be what this is about.”
I asked Sami to tell me about her experience working with older striving readers. Sami’s experience echoes a truth many educators know: “I have 10th graders who had been in 10th grade for two years…That’s not meeting a student’s needs. That’s putting the school first.”
“When I worked in a school setting, I had tried to bring that voice up and perspective up, I would just get pushed down or told, ‘No, that’s not how we do it here.’”
Another part of the challenge is that educators aren’t always equipped to teach literacy at all levels:
“I was an English teacher, I learned how to teach literature…But you’re never told that you could meet a 10th grader who would be at a second-grade level.” Sami admits: “They didn’t even recognize that could be the problem…It might not be a special education issue. It’s just a missing piece to their puzzle.”
Sami pivoted from her career as a classroom teacher to HYF because it allowed her to be the advocate her students needed.
Sami and her team at Hope for Youth and Families focus on what’s possible immediately. A sticky note above her desk reads, “Do it. Prove it. Share it. Grow it.” She explains, “Okay, we did our first summer [reading intervention program], and we proved it, we shared it, we grew our after school program… Now we’re proving and sharing our summer program to continue to grow our school year program.”
“You can’t do all of it at once… It’s incremental, it’s a marathon.”
Then there’s the heart of intervention: connection.
Sami recalls a student who attended the summer program every day, working hard through paired reading and skill practice. A few weeks into the school year, she ran into him: “He goes, ‘I didn’t have to take extra reading this year.’ …That’s why he got to do [Junior] ROTC and have that choice.”
She’s seen more teens gain confidence, move up reading levels, and even return as mentors. For many, the ability to finish a book is transformative:
“That’s the Storyshares magic, I think — it’s accessible, it’s that connection, and that ability to finish a story.” Sami adds, “Our higher reader would fly through some of them, but… were extending into [comprehension] connections they could make, talking about JFK, MLK…It’s not like reading for little kids.”
She notes that students and adults alike find value in texts that stretch and relate to their experience: “They buy into it. It’s a story that was made for them.”
Finally, Sami speaks to the flexibility and educator support Storyshares provides:
“No question is silly. No question is too small. [Storyshares] makes sure these materials are for the students… They’re flexible enough, not scripted, they have suggestions, but also space.”
Sami’s story is a reminder that the journey to literacy for older students is ongoing, iterative, and deeply personal. With leaders like her and partner organizations like Hope for Youth and Families, more students are discovering confidence, skill, and belonging — one book, one story at a time.