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Hundreds of nonprofit organizations are working throughout the United States to help children read well. Nonprofit organizations are providing tutors for children, organizing book drives, and assisting teachers to instill the love of reading in children. Here is a sample of these efforts.
The Arts Education Partnership, representing more than 100 national organizations, researched the role of the arts in early childhood. The study sought to identify the best kinds of experiences for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and young elementary school students to build cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional development.
Under the philosophy that play is the business of young children, the partnership study found that the arts engage children in learning, stimulate memory, and facilitate understanding. Role-playing games, poems, songs, rhyming, dramatic storytelling, and other creative arts play can develop language skills and a love of learning.
The partnership's report, Young Children in the Arts, includes developmental benchmarks and appropriate arts activities for children from birth to age 8. Parents and adult caregivers are encouraged to use character voices and dramatic gestures when reading or telling stories and to make sock puppets to increase the enjoyment of the tale. Show-and-tell stories can be created with photographs, and young children can pantomime their favorite book characters before a mirror. Older children can write poems and improvise stories with simple costumes.
More arts resources, research, and programs are available through the database of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts at www.wolftrap.org/.
Contact:
Arts Education Partnership
c/o Council of Chief State School Officers
One Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001-1431
(202) 236-8693
Fax: 202-408-8076
aep@ccsso.org
aep-arts.org
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, serves children from birth to age 14 and their families and caregivers.
ALSC is a major partner with the U.S. Department of Education's America Reads Challenge in promoting summer reading. ALSC helped create the new Read*Write*Now! Activity Poster for kids and Tip Sheet for adults to start a community reading program.
Virtually all of America's 16,000 public libraries have summer reading programs. Over the past 20 years, preschoolers have been added to summer reading efforts through "Read to Me" programs, where children receive recognition for books read to them by parents, older siblings, and caregivers.
Story hours for preschoolers and school-age children flourish in almost every local library. Librarians also offer staff development and training to teachers and child care workers. ALSC encourages librarians to form partnerships with schools, museums, Head Start centers, health care providers, churches and synagogues, and other community groups. Librarians and community health centers are reaching out to new and expectant parents on the importance of reading daily to their child through national programs like Born to Read.
ALSC is also a partner with many public television programs that promote reading and literacy.
Contact:
Susan Roman
Executive Director
American Library Association
Association for Library Service to Children
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611-2795
(800) 545-2433, ext. 2162
Born to Read
(800) 545-2433, ext. 1398
www.ala.org/alsc
Cartoonists Across America & The World uses its members' artistic talents to promote literacy among children. Artists have painted murals on reading in 49 states and many different countries, often painting in shopping malls, on walls and billboards, buses, trucks and vans, bookmobiles, and a 53 foot truck trailer in front of the Library of Congress. The Library's Center for the Book is a sponsor of the 1999-2000 campaign, "Building a World of Readers, Artists and Dreamers."
Artists also write and illustrate books and comic books to encourage reading. The aim is to entice children away from television and into the world of art, books and music.
Contact:
Phil Yeh
Cartoonists Across America
P.O. Box 670
Lompoc, CA 93438
(805) 735-5134
Fax: (805) 735-7542
philyeh@gte.net
www.wingedtiger.com
The San Marcos campus of California State University hosts the Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents. The center aims to help more children develop an early love of reading and to become lifelong readers. The center offers workshops and publications, and boasts an 80,000 volume lending library of children's books in Spanish, believed to be the world's largest collection of its kind. The library also includes books in English on Latino culture.
The center offers a free searchable database of 5,000 recommended books in Spanish from publishers around the world. To assist Spanish-speaking parents and others, information on each book is provided in Spanish as well as in English, including subject headings, grade-level, bibliography, and brief descriptions.
Contact:
Dr. Isabel Schon
Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents
California State University San Marcos
San Marcos, California 92096-0001
(760) 750-4070
Fax: (760) 750-4073
ischon@mailhost1.csusm.edu
www.csusm.edu/campus_centers/csb
Child Care READS is a new national campaign that introduces literacy development to nurturing child care programs for young children. Child care providers are trained to develop appropriate language and literacy skills. The caregivers then use a wide variety of books to read to children during the day and encourage parents to build skills at home.
Child Care READS also promotes after-school and summer reading programs for school-aged children. While the campaign focuses its efforts on the child care setting, it also engages libraries, organizations, businesses, and the community to help all children become competent readers.
Contact:
Laurie Miller
Child Care READS
330 7th Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 239-0138
Arthur Tannenbaum, a retired New York executive, had a simple idea-why couldn't adults take time to read with children one-on-one during their lunch hours? Through Everybody Wins!, the foundation he started in 1989, office workers, police officers, executives and Members of Congress are now doing just that.
Adult volunteers spend one hour per week reading for pleasure with an individual child. A school coordinator manages the volunteers and schedules the reading time with the child, often during what Everybody Wins! calls the "Power Lunch."
Everybody Wins! has 2,100 volunteers from 70 organizations serving 1,800 students in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area, and a total of 4,500 volunteers nationally, including ten United States Senators.
Contact:
Everybody Wins!
350 Broadway Suite 500
New York, NY 10013
(212) 219-9940
Fax: (212) 219-9917
Family Place Library is a national project operating programs in six communities. The Family Place Library in Centereach, New York recruits parents and child care providers to bring young children to the library for learning fun, beginning at birth. The Children's Services Department serves children from infancy through eighth grade, and their parents and professional caregivers. It offers abundant programming for pre-readers in early childhood. The schedule is chock-full of fun events and learning opportunities that involve singing, dancing, nursery rhymes, computers, math, science and of course, reading.
This library also provides Storytime Kits for parents and child care providers to use in their homes. The kits include books, videos, puzzles, puppets, and activities. Educational toys, including adaptive toys for children with disabilities, are also loaned to families and caregivers.
This program offers learning opportunities based on family strengths, cultures, and interests. The Family Place Library, a joint venture between New York's Middle Country Public Library and Libraries for the Future, is funded by the Hasbro Children's Foundation.
Contacts:
Sandy Feinberg
Middle Country Public Library
(516) 585-9393, ext. 200
Feinberg@mcpl.lib.ny.us
www.mcpl.lib.ny.us
Libraries for the Future 121 W. 27th St., Ste. 1102
New York, NY 10001
800-542-1918
(212) 352-2300
First Book's primary objective is to distribute books to children participating in community-based tutoring, mentoring, child development and family literacy settings. First Book works through its network of volunteer-led Local Advisory Boards, which are responsible for navigating First Book activities at the community level. First Book also works with national literacy partners such as America Reads to provide new books to children most in need.
Since the organization's beginning in 1992, First Book has provided more than 4.5 million new books to hundreds of thousands of children nationwide. In 1998 alone, First Book distributed more than 2.4 million books. First Book is active in more than 215 communities throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In June 1999, First Book launched Reba's First Book Club, with spokeswoman and entertainer Reba McIntyre. Joining the Club helps others to read, too. When one of McIntyre's recommended books is purchased at any Barnes & Noble store, B. Dalton Bookseller or through the First Book Web site at barnesandnoble.com, 10 percent of the book's price is donated to First Book, to buy new books for children in need.
Contact:
Lynda Lancaster
Vice President of Community Outreach
First Book
1319 F Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 393-1222
Fax: (202) 628-1258
fbook@aol.org
www.firstbook.org
The Girl Scouts are inspiring girls throughout the country to "Read to Lead." Girl Scouts are encouraged to read for pleasure, to learn about prominent women, to write stories and plays, and to volunteer to help younger students with their reading skills.
Southeast Pennsylvania Girl Scout Council runs a multicultural literacy program for girls whose parents are recent Asian immigrants. Through the Girl Scouts' Border Initiative, the Texas Migrant Council is fostering bilingual family literacy in three Girl Scout Council areas. Other states to adopt this initiative are Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
San Jacinto (Texas) Girl Scout Council continues its Read*Write*Now! program, and held its first Storytelling Institute in partnership with the Benefactory, Inc. Girl Scouts continue to offer community service in partnership with other organizations, including Literacy Volunteers of America's Incredible Reading Rally. The Scouts' Web site, Just for Girls, offers monthly theme activities, authors' biographies, and a new "Girl Scouting in the School Day" kit.
Contact:
Sheila Lewis
Girl Scouts of the USA
420 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10018-2798
(212) 852-8076
www.girlscouts.org/girls
The Hawaii Education Literacy Project designs free software to promote literacy. Their goal is to use the instruments of technology to multiply the potential of each child to read. The software may be used by educators for one-on-one sessions as well as by independent students.
The HELP Read software supports both English and Hawaiian language and has many features for the beginning reader. For example, it highlights words or sentences while reading, looks up word definitions, allows customizing of reading speed, pitch, and volume, and links to nearly 500 classic works of literature.
Contact:
Christopher Hayden
Hawaii Education Literacy Project
P.O. Box 230
Honolulu, HI 96810-0230
(808) 531-4304
reader@pixi.com
www.pixi.com/~reader1/
HIPPY is a home-based, early intervention program. It assists parents in laying the foundations for their children's success in school. The two- to three-year program for parents targets preschool children ages three, four, and five.
Through home visits, group meetings, role playing and structured activities, parents are provided the tools and support they need to help their children build school readiness skills. Parents spend approximately 15-20 minutes each day, five days per week, doing HIPPY activities focused on language development, problem solving and discrimination skills.
Contact:
HIPPY USA
220 East 23rd Street, Suite 300
New York, NY 10010
(212) 532-7730
(888) 35-HIPPY
Fax: (212) 532-7899
www.c3pg.com/hippy.htm
The Dollywood Foundation's Imagination Library promotes early learning by encouraging and enabling families to read together. Long committed to dropout prevention, the foundation has responded to research showing that investment in early childhood can build a strong foundation for school success.
Administered by singer and actress Dolly Parton, this innovative program provides free books to families in her home region in Tennessee. Each baby born in Sevier County receives a special locomotive bookcase and a copy of The Little Engine that Could. The child then receives a new book each month until he or she begins kindergarten at age 5, for a total library of 60 books. The program has distributed more than 100,000 books to 5,000 pre-kindergarten children.
The Imagination Express, a specially designed train, is driven by The Imagineer, who reads aloud and promotes reading at child care centers and community events throughout the Sevier County region.
Contact:
Madeline Rogero, Executive Director
The Dollywood Foundation
1020 Dollywood Lane
Pigeon Forge, TN 37863
(423) 428-9606
www.dollywood.com/foundation/library.html
The International Reading Association is an organization whose members include classroom teachers, administrators, parents, reading specialists, psychologists and students. The Association has more than 90,000 members in 99 countries, and the group issues more than 100 print and non-print publications. The association's professional journals include The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly, and Reading Online, an electronic literacy journal.
In addition to the energy that the Association puts into published research, the group works to increase the level of literacy for people across the world through enthusiastic promotion of reading.
Contact:
International Reading Association
Public Information Office
800 Barksdale Road
P.O. Box 8139
Newark, DE 19714-8139
(302) 731-1600
Fax: (302) 731-1057
pubinfo@reading.org
www.reading.org
Jumpstart recruits college students to help children who are struggling in preschool. The mentors are paired for almost two years with 3- and 4-year-olds in Head Start or other programs for children living in poverty. The Jumpstart mentors work one-on-one with children to teach and reinforce basic academic and social skills.
Jumpstart forms partnerships with early childhood caregivers and involves families in their preschooler's development. The summer program provides an intensive preschool experience for young children during the two months before kindergarten.
Jumpstart serves children in Boston; New Haven, Connecticut; New York City; Washington DC; Los Angeles; and San Francisco. The program aims to engage 1,000 college students as mentors to reach more than 12,000 children by the year 2000. Mentors may receive stipends or wages through AmeriCorps or the Federal Work-Study program.
Contact:
Jumpstart
93 Summer Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 542-JUMP
Fax: (617) 542-2557
www.jstart.org
Hearing loss is a significant risk factor for reading difficulties. The National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) was established in 1995 at Utah State University to promote the earliest possible detection of hearing loss and the best possible techniques for assisting people with hearing loss.
With funding from federal, state, and private sources, the center conducts research, develops training materials, provides training and technical assistance, and disseminates information about early identification and management of hearing loss.
Only one in five newborns today is screened for hearing impairment. More than 500 hospitals offer these screenings, and five states operate universal hearing screening programs. NCHAM works to build momentum toward universal newborn hearing screening.
Contact:
Karl White
NCHAM
Utah State University
2880 Old Main Hall
Logan, UT 84322
(435) 797-3584
Fax: (435) 797-1448
nchamhelp@coe.usu.edu
www.usu.edu
Parents as Teachers (PAT) is an international family education program for parents of children from birth through age 5. Parents learn to become their children's best teachers. Evaluations have shown that PAT children at age 3 have significantly enhanced language, problem-solving, and social development skills. PAT parents read more often to their children and stay involved in their children's education.
The program has four main components: 1) home visits by trained parent educators; 2) group meetings for parents to share successes, concerns, and strategies; 3) developmental screenings to determine early if a child needs assistance; and 4) families' connections with community resources, including lending libraries, diagnostic services, and help for children with special needs.
Contact:
Parents As Teachers National Center
10176 Corporate Square Drive, Suite 230
St. Louis, MO 63132
(314) 432-4330
Fax: (314) 432-8963
www.patnc.org
Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society of the Two-Year College, has chosen the America Reads Challenge as its service project for 1998-2000. Phi Theta Kappa has thousands of chapters whose members are working in their communities to help all children learn to read. Phi Theta Kappa members serve as tutors, organize book drives, and raise funds for literacy organizations.
For example, Phi Theta Kappans at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma created the Readers and Leaders series at a local elementary school. Tulsa's mayor, local celebrities, and athletes read children's stories to emphasize the role that reading had played in their successes. The speakers also donated the books to the school library.
Contact:
Jennifer Westbrook
Director of Chapter Programs
Phi Theta Kappa Center for Excellence
1625 Eastover Drive
Jackson, MS 39211
(800) 946-9995, ext. 532
www.ptk.org/sprogram/amreads/amreads_into.htm
Innovative principals across the nation are striving to raise reading achievement for all students in their schools. Some take a school-wide approach by engaging non-teaching staff and teachers from other disciplines. Others are pairing children from different grades to read together. Many are reaching out to parents and the community to support young readers through extended learning time after school and in the home. Creative events and book challenges inspire students and motivate them to read more often. Here are some examples from award-winning Blue Ribbon Schools, compiled by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
School-wide Focus: At an elementary school in Cape Coral, Florida, teachers, staff, parents, and peers all serve as reading "teachers." As a supplement to classroom instruction, school-wide activities build reading and writing skills in social studies, science, health, and mathematics. A principal in Washington, Pennsylvania, rescheduled a dozen Title I teachers to reduce class sizes for longer language arts sessions. Many schools are instituting school-wide computer programs and other technology to aid, motivate, and monitor young readers.
Parents: At an elementary school in Boca Raton, Florida, parents support students in friendly competitions between teams to read the most books. Parents are coached to ask comprehension questions about each book before validating its completion, and the local newspaper publishes the pictures of top readers. School murals monitor team progress for all to see. Some schools hold Family Reading Nights each year, with vocabulary word bingo, musical chairs with phonics, computer reading games, and treasure maps for reading comprehension.
Peers: Many schools, such as one in Shreveport, Louisiana, use a "book buddy" system, which pairs an older student with a younger child for extended reading time. This approach can build skills of both learners as it boosts their motivation to read.
Another school in Talladega, Alabama, encourages older students to be "roving readers" by reading aloud before lower grade-level classes to earn certificates of accomplishment. These students build fluency and confidence as they model successful reading for younger pupils.
Community: Schools such as one in Springfield, Illinois, bring tutors into the school for supplemental reading and writing activities. Tutors may be trained through AmeriCorps, senior citizens groups, or colleges in the America Reads work-study program, among others. This approach connects the community at large with young learners who benefit from one-on-one attention to their reading progress. It also provides positive role models for pupils. Some schools, like one in Irmo, South Carolina, partner with the local library to engage elementary students in summer reading with the U.S. Department of Education's free Read*Write*Now! kits.
Fun with Books: A school in Grove City, Pennsylvania, holds an annual event at Halloween, which motivates students to dress up as characters from favorite books and tour senior centers and nursing homes. Teachers also don costumes for this Literacy Parade, which is preceded by oral book reports that develop skills in comprehension and analysis. A Houston, Texas, school uses Scrabble games to build vocabulary. A Coventry, Rhode Island, school sponsors "Reading Month," with a PTA book fair, picnic, presentations of children's original books, and a challenge to choose books over TV. Other principals promise fun rewards for the whole school for exceeding book goals, such as a hot air balloon demonstration, ice cream parties, or seeing the principal eat lunch on the roof.
Contact:
National Association of Elementary School Principals
Best Ideas For Reading from America's Blue Ribbon Schools
Corwin Press
2455 Teller Road
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
(805) 499-9774
Fax: (800) 4-1-SCHOOL
www.corwinpress.com
Developed at Boston City Hospital by Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Reach Out and Read is a national pediatric literacy program that trains pediatricians and volunteers to read aloud to children as part of their well-baby check-ups. The doctors also "prescribe" reading as essential to raising a healthy child from infancy through age 5.
At each check-up, the child is sent home with age-appropriate books, and parents are encouraged to develop the habit of reading with their children. This trailblazing program, with over 350 sites in 45 states, relies on funding from businesses and private foundations, in addition to book donations from publishing companies.
Contact:
Reach Out and Read
Boston Medical Center
One Boston Medical Center Place
South Block High Rise, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 414-5701
www.reachoutandread.org
The National Education Association unites millions of Americans through Read Across America Day on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. On this annual celebration of reading, all citizens are asked to read with a child.
On March 2, 1998, one million teachers, parents, and community leaders put on their Cat in the Hat hats and shared favorite stories with ten million children, sending a crystal clear message that reading is important. 1999's celebration sounded an even louder rallying cry: all children will become good readers by the end of third grade. More than 20 million people participated, from sailors on the Navy's U.S.S. Saipan to the Tennessee principal who ate worms after his students read 10,000 books. Celebrities including Kirk Douglas, Shaquille O'Neal, Carly Simon and Jamie Lee Curtis also donated time for reading to children.
Contact:
National Education Association
Read Across America Day
1201 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 822-SEUS
www.nea.org/readacross
Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the nation's largest nonprofit children's literacy organization, serving 3.5 million children annually at 17,000 locations. In recent years, RIF's volunteer corps has grown nearly 10 percent, to 240,000. RIF involves children in reading-related activities, encourages families to participate in their children's education, and enables children to select free books.
RIF partnered with Scholastic Inc. to donate 250,000 books to District of Columbia schoolchildren for summer 1999 reading. By 2000, RIF will have placed 200 million books in the hands and homes of America's children.
Among its many innovative programs, RIF has a partnership with the Mississippi State Department of Health called Healthy Start/Smart Start. Rather than using candy or tote bags as incentives for immunizations of small children, state health clinics are distributing books. Every child who is immunized receives a free book, and any accompanying siblings are also offered a book. Volunteers read with patients and coach parents on the importance of reading. Up to 60,000 poor children could be reached annually.
Contact:
Margaret Monsour
RIF Inc.
600 Maryland SW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20024
(877) RIF-READ
www.rif.org
The Reading Success Network is a national network of schools actively pursuing schoolwide change to propel the reading achievement of every student. Schools join the network and identify a coach, who receives ongoing support, training, and materials, and participates in a Leadership Forum.
Coaches work with classroom teachers to provide powerful instruction in reading that allows all children to succeed, including those at risk of reading failure. Publications, a Web site, and a listserv support teachers, administrators, and parents at local Reading Success schools.
The Reading Success Network is operated by the U.S. Department of Education's Comprehensive Assistance Centers, a network of 15 regional centers designed to improve teaching and learning for all.
Based in California, the network is aligned with Every Child a Reader, the report of the California Reading Task Force, and Teaching Reading, the program advisory.
The network promotes:
Contact:
Janie Gates
9300 Imperial Highway, Suite 299
Downey, CA 90242
(562) 922-6482
Henry Mothner
(562) 922-6343
After noting the profound effects of reading aloud to his own son, the late Rolling Readers founder Robert Condon volunteered to read to children in a homeless shelter. Condon recognized how rewarding it was both for him and the children. A letter to "Dear Abby" on this experience exponentially increased the number of Rolling Readers throughout the country. Rolling Readers volunteers now read weekly to thousands of children and distribute books to the children at least three times per year. In 1997-98, 40,000 Rolling Readers served 250,000 children nationwide.
The Read Aloud program allows for collaboration between schools, local businesses and community agencies. Volunteer Readers donate an hour each week to read to a classroom of children. Twice a year, each child in the program is given a complimentary, personalized copy of a quality children's book. In 1998, more than 300,000 books were distributed to disadvantaged children nationwide.
The Tutor USA Program recruits tutors, professionally trains them, and matches tutors with students. It strives to establish, develop, and practice effective one-on-one reading strategies. In partnership with school and community-based site coordinators, tutors form a focal team to enhance child's learning capacity and comprehension of reading.
Contact:
Rolling Readers USA Headquarters
P.O. Box 4827
San Diego, CA 92164-4827
(800) 390-READ
(619) 296-4095
Fax: (619) 296-4099
www.rollingreaders.org
This organization tapped into its talent bank to bring the joy of reading to children in schools. The Screen Actors Guild Foundation's BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) utilizes the talents of professional actors who volunteer to read aloud one day a week to children in public elementary schools.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1993 by former Mission Impossible television star Barbara Bain, BookPALS is reaching more than 35,000 children each week in more than 825 school classrooms in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, Baltimore, Boston, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC.
Contact: Marcia Smith, Executive Director
Ellen Nathan, National Director
Screen Actors Guild Foundation BookPALS
5757 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036-3600
(323) 549-6709
www.tc.umn.edu/~mcdo0300/
Reading Resources