(upbeat rock music) - [Narrator] When a student is stuck and struggling with those tricky high-frequency words, who are you gonna call?

(teacher knocking on door) Sight Word Busters.

- Good morning.

- Hi, good morning.

- Ghostbusters came to my mind when I was thinking about what to name the program, and so I thought, "Who you gonna call?

Sight Word Busters."

(upbeat rock music) - [Narrator] Sight Word Busters is a volunteer-driven, non-profit based in Auburn.

It was started in 2011 by former teacher, Linda LoBue.

Her goal, find a way to help children master one of the most essential building blocks of reading, high-frequency words.

- High-frequency words simply means those words that occur most frequently in our text.

They make up for little ones in the first grade, kindergarten and first grade, about 80% of the words that are in their little books.

And if a student doesn't learn these sight words, then they trip over each word as they try to read, and it really interferes with their fluency, and their comprehension.

- Start.

- We get a start.

Good morning to Dale.

Is that your book?

- Yeah.

- [Narrator] The organization aims to create a classroom, where every child's eyes light up the moment they recognize a word.

- Okay, let's find our word of the day.

- [Narrator] Not by sounding it out, but because they know it.

- Our.

- Yes.

- [Narrator] Linda, the volunteers, and current and former students say, that's the power of Sight Word Busters.

- We finished the page.

- Yes.

- [Narrator] Every student learns at their own pace.

With personalized booklets, and no rush, kids stay on a word until it sticks.

- So you can take this home, and good job.

- I like learning the words.

- That I can learn more words to read.

- And kids love it.

They really look forward to it.

They see you coming in, and they have such a routine, and then they tap the next student on the shoulder, and so it's really fun to see how each kind of classroom has its culture that way.

- Good morning, Jennifer.

- Good morning.

- D-O-E-S, does.

- Our teachers just love our program, because we're teaching a part of the curriculum of their curriculum that needs to be taught, and they don't have to train their volunteers, they don't have to really lift a finger.

We just provide everything.

- Why did you choose that one?

- Because it says ... - The value is just incredible and I think I would say how much they allow you to do with the kids, it just, it's amazing, actually, what happens, and I think teachers often need to see things for themselves, and see how it's going to work in their environment.

- Hi, Valeria.

Is this your book?

- What began in a single classroom has grown into a network of over 350 trained volunteers serving more than 2,300 kindergarten through second grade students across 24 schools in California.

In addition to new and returning volunteers, the organization also trains older students to become what they call Buster Buddies.

- Sight Word Busters is complimentary to all the other things going on around the student during his school day.

The kids are so enthusiastic to learn, and the teachers, and the principals, and everyone else in the system is very enthusiastic about the results.

- Oh my goodness.

She passed every word.

- Ah.

Good job, baby.

Give me five.

(gentle music) (bell dinging) - Class, class.

Give it up for Maya, she passed her sight word club.

(students and teacher cheering and applauding) - [Narrator] The team says Sight Word Busters is designed to benefit all students, not just those who are struggling with reading, they say it's also important for children who are advanced readers to have one-on-one opportunities with volunteers to help further build their skills.

(ambient music) - We train our volunteers with different strategies to be able to work with kids at different learning rates, with different backgrounds, and special needs, and we have strategies that we discuss, and share with the volunteers.

- Stop.

- What Linda says she didn't realize is how important this work would become for the volunteers.

Many of the seniors felt like they had a new purpose.

They found a meaningful way to give back to the community.

Some say working with the children and watching them make progress was an exhilarating weekly experience.

- That was the best way to find it, wasn't it?

-Sight Word Busters is a win for the teachers, it's a win for the volunteers, and it's a win for the students.

(ambient music ending)