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Read and Rise hopes to improve student literacy

The Read and Rise program is designed to build literacy in children and prepare them for elementary school and, eventually, college. Teachers and community members met at the 5th Avenue Christian Church Monday to learn about the program.

The program aims to boost reading, writing and language skills of pre-K to elementary school students, citing disparities in mental stimulation in student’s early years and the resulting ill-preparedness of the kids when they enter school systems.

Lorraine Verploegen, the executive director of United Way in Havre, is pushing for the program to be used by parents to educate their sons and daughters.

“We want children to be able to learn by preparing them through language and literacy proficiency,” Verploegen said. “We’re all being trained as facilitators for workshops we call ‘conversations.’”

John Robinson, from the Houston Independent School District in Texas and the main researcher for the Scholastic Press’ Read and Rise program, was the main speaker at the meeting.

“Everybody in this community is a stakeholder in educating children from birth,” Robinson said. “(Read and Rise) is making sure everyone in this community realizes they are their child’s first instructor. If you don’t have education, health goes down the tube.”

In addition to the Read and Rise program, United Way is also implementing the Imagination Library. The Imagination Library is developed by the Dollywood Foundation and provides age-appropriate books once a month for preschool children from birth to age 5, free of charge.

Simply providing books to families is not enough to help them, though, Verploegen said.

“You can’t just give the books to families,” she said. “We show parents how to use these books.”

With programs such as Read and Rise and Imagination Library, parents, families and community members can learn how to use the books and other tools to further their child’s education.

Educational and intellectual inactivity during the time children are born until they begin attending schools, as well as summer vacations, is leaving them ill-prepared for public education, said Robinson.

“If you don’t start early, at conception, using the right tools, the children will be left behind,” Robinson said. “Our kids can’t catch up because they can’t catch on.”

According to statistics given by Robinson, 79 percent of students entering kindergarten from low-income families do not recognize the letters of the alphabet, around 30 percent of them will not receive a high school diploma and more than half will not acquire a college degree.

 

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