Editorial
Front Page - Friday, November 19, 2010
Read 20 program prepares children for school, jobs, life
Erica Tuggle
Reading to a child for just 20 minutes every day can significantly improve their chances of success in school and in life. The Read 20 Program encourages awareness about the benefits of reading to children and has given away over 146,000 books in its four years of operation. The Readmobile travels to schools every day and to events around town to distribute these free books, and to allow volunteers to read to children.
- Photo provided
Because cities usually gauge how many beds they need for a prison by the number of children in the community that are unable to read at grade level by third grade is one reason. The fact that reading is the foundation for getting hired – if you can’t read you can’t work – is another reason. And the sad but true statistic that children in low-income areas share only one book per 300 kids is yet another one of the many reasons that Read 20 is in our community, working to make these shocking statistics turn in Chattanooga’s favor.
Read 20 is an initiative born out of the 2004 education summit, with the goal to get children to the place where they are successful and reading on grade level by third grade. Four years after their initial start-up, Read 20 has made a positive and profound effect in the community.
Almost everyone recognizes the Readmobile, a large truck with painted books on the outside and rows upon rows of books on the inside, handed out to children, completely free, wherever the Readmobile goes, which is practically everywhere. The Readmobile visits schools every day; has been seen at the Chattanooga Market and the county fair; and can be booked to go to any event that wants to bring reading and free books to children.
Shula Yelliot, the program director for Read 20, and Shawn Kurrelmeier-Lee, the chief reading officer, says the name Read 20 comes from research that if you read with your child for at least 20 minutes each day, they will be much more prepared for school.
Kurrelmeier says Read 20’s largest focus is on early childhood – birth to age eight – although they work with middle schools, too, and promote literacy for
all ages.
She says, “We know if we can get books in kids’ hands and get [parents] reading to their children, then we are doing a measure of prevention of those kids lagging behind when they get into school.”
With the raised standards in the school system, children will have to have several skills going into kindergarten or they are already behind. To meet this need of preparing kids for entering school, Read 20 is providing a checklist of all the skills parents need to focus on with their children to be successful in first grade.
These are things parents can do at home, things pre-K centers can focus on and things that will give a tremendous advantage for those starting school, Yelliot says. The Read 20’s Kindergarten Guide has also been translated into Spanish so that Latino parents can make sure their children have just as much of an advantage.
“The form doesn’t cost them anything, but gives them such a step up to build this potential in their children. It’s not really about poverty, but the engagement with children that will make a difference in the life of their child,” Yelliot says.
With over 700 hours of reading provided by Read 20 all over the community, they also work to hold the community together and create partnerships to activate the community.
Read 20 has been deeply involved in working with the Alton Park and Sale Creek area to put books in children’s hands in this area of need. Congratulatory certificates from Mayor Ramsey are given to children reading on grade level to recognize the importance of their effort, the program donates books to all elementary public school libraries and is trying to spread its reach from the county to the surrounding areas.
They are also working to help teachers with tools to educate students on literacy. Last summer, Read 20 partnered with others in the area to put together the first annual Scenic City Literacy Conference, where 450 educators came together to hear three experts in the field of literacy. The second year of this event is planned for July 19 and 20, 2011.
Since Read 20 began in July of this year, its staff has given over 146,000 books to kids and classroom libraries in this area.
“We hope we work ourselves out of a job,” Yelliot says, “Our next step is continuing what we are doing, growing more, having more support to put more books in kids’ hands.”
Read 20 will take donations of “gently loved” books, and are the largest recycler of books in the county. If community members are interested in making a private donation, they can write a check to the community foundation with Read 20 in the memo line.
“When we give books away, people are blown away by the fact that they have gotten a brand new book and it’s not going to cost them anything,” Kurrelmeier says, “But you got to promise you are going to read…it’s going to cost you 20 minutes a day.”
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