"The most important 20 minutes of your day...
is spent reading to a child."
Media
Springfield Becomes a Reach Out and Read Bookend Community!
Congratulations Springfield! Springfield is a Bookend Community with the Reach Out and Read (ROR) program. On May 13, ROR gave Mayor Domenic Sarno a set of bookends to honor the City as a Bookend Community and congratulated Springfield because it is the largest city in the country to have achieved that milestone, with 19 pediatric practices participating in the Reach Out and Read Program.
That means that every pediatrician in Springfield is part of the Reach Out and Read (ROR) program. As a ROR pediatrician, the doctor gives each child a book as part of every well-child visit, and gives each family a "prescription" to read to their child regularly. The book program continues with each well-child visit until the child turns 5.
Reach Out and Read promotes early literacy and school readiness with a research-tested, evidence-based model that's proven to help children develop the language skills they will need to learn to read and succeed in school.
Dr. Nancy Miller, Reach Out and Read's Medical Champion in Western Massachusetts and pediatrician at Baystate Children's Hospital, said, "The response to the program has been wonderful; parents have reported more book sharing with their children, and the children are very enthusiastic and look forward to receiving their new book during their visit. Reach Out and Read is a simple healthcare intervention which is fun and helpful."
Download the press release for more information.
New effort made to aid young readers
Sunday, April 26, 2009
By JEANETTE DeFORGE
Reprinted with permission.
SPRINGFIELD - An education foundation, pediatricians, business leaders and a nationally recognized author will join together to find a way to ensure all city children can read well by the time they finish the third grade.
Reading Success by Fourth Grade is a grass-roots initiative being launched through the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation and combining dozens of groups focused on improving the lives of children.
"The third grade is a critical milestone. Until third-grade children learn to read and after third grade they read to learn," said Sally C. Fuller, project director for the Davis Foundation's Cherish Every Child project.
Read the full article on masslive.com...
Parents urged to read to kids
Thursday, April 30, 2009
By JEANETTE DeFORGE
Reprinted with permission.
SPRINGFIELD - Reading guru James J. Trelease wants everyone to know a "dirty secret." It isn't really the fault of teachers that two-thirds of city children are not proficient readers when they finish third grade.
Parents are children's first and most-important educators. They spend more time with their children, they decide if children have access to newspapers, books and libraries and they should be reading to children 20 minutes a day, said Trelease, a Springfield author of the best-selling "Read-Aloud Handbook."
He joined with school Superintendent Alan J. Ingram, members of the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation, local business leaders and others at the Springfield Central Library to kick off an all-city initiative to ensure children have the skills they need to be proficient readers by age 9.
Read the full article on masslive.com...
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