Letter from the Executive Director, Dawn Miller
All year, Read Aloud chapters around the state have adapted and adapted again to best serve children, families and schools as conditions have changed. Volunteers read online when possible, by recording when desired, and ramped up book distributions. They handed out books with meals, at special drive-through events and increasingly, as schools have re-opened, first to students, then to guests, at more traditional in-person events.
Many volunteers have expressed interest in reading at programs this summer, they miss their classes so much. We are taking requests from summer programs and matching them with eager volunteer readers. (To arrange yours, contact your local chapter or email stateoffice@readaloudwv.org.)
While readers were cut off from their classrooms and students were cut off from their classroom libraries, Read Aloud doubled up on its usual book distribution efforts. In a good year, Read Aloud gives away 10,000 books and magazines to children around the state. Since Jan. 1, 2020 to this spring, Read Aloud has given out more than 25,000.
As regular volunteers know, Read Aloud is particular in how it gives out books. All of Read Aloud’s efforts emphasize choice because choice is an important factor in motivating children to read for pleasure, just as it is important to adults.
With the restrictions of the past year, volunteers sought and found new ways to engage students, to ask, “What are you reading?”
We adapted classroom “book tastings” where students get to discuss and recommend books. They, their teachers and volunteers may read excerpts. After a chance to “taste” a variety of books, children choose a book to keep.
Thanks to a windfall of books for middle- and high schoolers, we were able to offer a school wide book tasting at Buckhannon-Upshur High School. You can read the details on page 1.
Teachers and volunteers adapted events to their particular needs.
In Jackson County, Chapter President Janet McCauley organized half a dozen classroom book tastings in elementary schools. Teachers in those classrooms chose to lead the events themselves, sampling and reading books with children, and then giving students the opportunity to choose their books.
Just recently, Alban Elementary teacher Allison Stephens and her colleagues invited Kanawha Chapter President Derek Hudson and me to virtually attend their in-person classroom book tastings. Teachers gave children opportunities to preview the books. During the event, the children recommended books to us and to each other. When there was a lull, which was not often, Derek and I were available to build on the conversation about Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems, or The Lost Dinosaur Bone by Mercer Mayer, for example. It was a good time.
Berkeley County reader and chapter member Casey Willson and Kanawha County reader Jackie Thompson both tried a different approach, a “read along.” Every student in their classes one week received a copy of the book they read virtually.
Whatever the approach, all of these efforts give children opportunities to practice what they are learning, to find the words to express their thoughts, and to make connections with each other and with caring adults.
Even when they don’t admit it, children, even teens, are influenced by the adults who care for them. That means if parents, grandparents, teachers, and other mentors make time to discover good things to read and share their discoveries, young people will be influenced.
We will continue the stepped-up book distributions, because nothing beats summer learning loss like reading books for fun.
Looking ahead to fall, we are hopeful that schools will be able to welcome volunteer readers back to their classrooms. We are eager to be there, and plan to adapt to whatever the next normal is.