Reading is fundamental. Roughly, 781 million adults worldwide are illiterate and this crucial, essential skill can be detrimental to an individual’s life and impact the way they live, work and function in society.
The Cumberland County School System will celebrate Read Across America Sunday, March 2 – Saturday, March 8.
“Read Across America started in 1998 and the National Education Association (NEA) began the celebration with a focus on Dr. Seuss and the joy of reading that his books brought us,” said Donna White, K-5 ELA Curriculum Specialist for Cumberland County Schools. “His literature served as the impetus for setting the stage for the Read Across America celebration.”
Read Across America is the nation’s largest celebration of reading. “In more recent years, Read Across America has expanded to include not only a celebration of Dr. Seuss, but also to celebrate a plethora of author’s books,” said White. “The reason that we celebrate Read Across America is because we want to instill the love of reading, inspire kids and adults to read, spark kids’ imagination and teach them empathy as they step into the shoes of other characters,” said White. “We want to strengthen their reading skills through things like improving their vocabulary, comprehension and critical thinking which sets the children up for success in school and beyond.”
Literacy is an important skill and it is never too early to expose children or a baby in utero to the reading of a book.
“We know that reading opens doors and early exposure to reading has been shown to improve the cognitive development of kids, to boost their academic performance and to spark their creativity,” said White.
This year, the National Education Association’s celebration resources entail opportunities to incorporate music into the reading as well. A plethora of events are planned for Read Across America for Cumberland County students. “Each school and teacher classrooms have found fabulous ways to celebrate Read Across America,” said White. “Kids will get to dress up as their favorite character or their favorite book and parade around the school or around the classroom.”
She added, “Other schools and other classrooms may decide to have a spirit week where they might have a hat day, a favorite book Friday, family reading nights, invite guest readers such as county and city leaders to read a book to the students or a reading challenge where they are challenging students to read a certain number of books or pages during the week.”
Motivating students to read can be an arduous task.
“What helps to motivate students to read is when they see adults and other students around them getting excited about reading and that rubs off on them,” said White. “It is important that we always ensure that our kids see reading as a fun activity that they want to do rather than something that they have to do in order to do something fun.”
White added, “Even with the most reluctant readers that I have encountered during my years of working with young students, finding out what interests them the most can motivate them to read.”
The goal at home and school is to have a literacy rich environment for students.
“We want to make sure that our students have access to lots and lots of books,” said White. “Fortunately, our schools have wonderful libraries and Cumberland County is particularly blessed to have many public libraries that have programs for the students after school, on the weekends and during the summer that can help provide students with that literacy rich environment.”
White’s goal for Read Across America week is for every Cumberland County student to be inspired in some way by literature whether it is hearing a special guest read to them or experience a book tasting.
“It is important that our children see their families reading and for parents to have that conversation with their child about what their favorite books were as a child,” said White. “It is even more important now to show our children how to put those digital devices away and interact with a good old-fashioned book.”
For more information visit www.ccs.k12.nc.us.