Read to Succeed

Dear friends,
Two of my current students are seeking a partner who loves writing and is eager to excel even further. Both students are 7th graders.
One class will be at 11 a.m. (EST), on Thursdays.
The other one is at 5 p.m. (EST), on Thursdays, too.
Together, we will review all four types of academic essays, work on the logic of narration, and explore the principles of written communication. All our projects are thought-provoking and engaging for young, curious minds.
I'll be happy to share the details with you!

I embarked on this vessel called Education about twenty years ago, being motivated by my students and believing in what I considered was best for them. Here is a short glimpse of my journey as an educator published by Marquis Who’s Who in America.

Marquis Who's Who Recognizes Irina Afanaseva-Frisher for Expertise in Education January 02, 2025 -- Irina Afanaseva-Frisher, founder of Read to Succeed, is a skilled educator and literacy advocate

Winter holidays are approaching, and my students use their essays to share their experiences, traditions, and memories. Our goal is to create a unique personal story that stands out and shines in its own individual way. The moment I mention the word “unique,” I can see a glimpse of confusion in my students’s eyes, “There is nothing special in how we celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, or New Year’s.” “There is,” I insist and never fail to demonstrate that. In times of speed and the downpour of information, young minds need help to learn the skills of observation and description. Little by little, snowmen in red hats and lights like candy canes and French bulldogs wrapped in tissue paper make their way to the paper or, which is more likely, a blank Google document. Together, we eliminate commonly used generalizations and substitute them with visually striking details. Using verbal associations and synonyms, we create invisible connections that hold the fabric of the written passage. By doing so, we observe the magic of turning “nothing into something,” we learn to weave beautiful texts patiently, and, most importantly, we preserve special moments and make them timeless.

“Can you describe the image of an ice cream sundae I shared with you?” The assignment sounds easy, and I am immediately bombarded with the answers. “It’s huge. There are M&Ms at the bottom. Lots of them! Some whipped cream is on top. And there is a cherry, too!” When I ask to connect the ideas into a paragraph, the enthusiasm winds down. Young writers don’t know how. “What if we look at the sundae and describe it as a real mountain?” I suggest, “What can we compare whipped cream to?” The ideas start pouring in once again, “Glistening like snow…, streams of the chocolate syrup… a cherry sits in a nest of whipped cream.” A well-written paragraph is ready in less than ten minutes, and there is no magic behind this but a skill.
Writing is a form of art that requires creativity and imagination. However, like any other form of art, it has a set of tools and techniques that can be applied to achieve a desired goal. Once students are introduced to these tools and strategies, such as changing the sentence subject to restructure the whole sentence or connecting the ideas within a paragraph while applying metaphorical language, their approach to writing changes. Equipped with this knowledge, students no longer dwell in the darkness, making each subsequent step blindly. Consequently, their confidence as writers grows, and so does the desire to work on a writing assignment.

The unique architectural design of Erica Mann Elementary School in Berlin results from the fruitful collaboration of aspiring architects and the school's students. The colorful images and unusual shapes inspired my 6th and 7th graders to share their opinions on what a school where they would like to study should look like. Transforming students’ perception of writing as “it’s a tedious purposeless activity” into “this is something that helps other people hear me” is a true game changer. Once students see how a carefully chosen word or phrase transmits their thoughts to other people’s minds, they become more motivated to keep searching for this word.