For the Love of Reading

Howard Elementary School

This purchase will provide students with reading material that will build fluency and support instruction at home and at school. Students will be able to use books in class during "warm up" reading in reading groups and they will also get to check books out daily for continued practice and support at home. Students will be able to practice reading strategies taught in the program by having reading material to practice those newly learned skills daily at the appropriate reading levels. Unfortunately our anthologies are not enough.

Our school has a great reading program and strong title 1 reading specialists as support. Where we see a gap is in the reading materials available to the beginning readers. We have all the "right stuff" to give specific and sequenced reading instruction, but we lack in the area of having appropriate leveled readers for the younger readers.

The "Matthew effect" comes in here where the stronger readers get stronger by reading material at their instructional level, while the struggling readers continue to struggle for the lack of leveled readers. These students need more opportunities to read material at an instructional level (just enough of a challenge, yet not at the frustration level). If the budding and struggling reader feels success in the books at the appropriate level, they will want to read more. As they choose to read more they get better at the task of decoding text which increases their vocabulary, which in turnimproves their fluency.

Why is this project important?

Our main hope is to put the "love" of reading back where it belongs, in the hands and hearts of budding and struggling young readers. The seeds of literacy planted early take deep and strong roots when tended to continually. These leveled books will be used for daily practice of fluency in class and at home. By making these types of readable text accessible to young budding readers, parents, teachers and community members like you will help plant an early love of reading as well as a reader who can read.

Who, and how many, will be served?

This proposal will serve Howard students K-2 grades, which is approximately 150 students.
How will you evaluate the success of this project?
The projects success will be evaluated by comparing the district reading screener from the beginning of the year and the one at the end of the year and then compare it to previous years growth. There should be a considerable in scores, but I hope to see, hear and feel considerable unmeasurable growth in the love of reading.

Does this proposal build upon existing programs at your school?

Yes, this proposal will build upon an existing take home reading program already in place, but what this will do is add lower leveled books that have predictable story lines, natural language pattern, clear sequence of events, variety of high-frequency words. picture support and some dialogue.

How will the funds be spent

Science Emergent sets A and B (72 books); Science Emergent sets C and D (72 books); DiscoveryLinks social studies (192 books); Discovery Links social studies (192 Spanish books).