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03/07/2017 11:00 PMIt was Dr. Seuss who said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” In that vein, J. Milton Jeffrey Elementary School students, staff, and guests, came together on Feb. 28 to celebrate Read Across America, an annual reading motivation program that coincides with the March 2 birthday of famed children’s author Dr. Seuss.
The Read Across America campaign started at Jeffrey several years ago when Library Media Specialist Jill Fayan and Reading Specialist Doreen Shirley teamed up to bring the event to the school. Read Across America is a national, weeklong campaign designed to get students reading. All Madison elementary schools participate, though it has been embraced with particular gusto by the Jeffrey School community.
All week students were treated to guest readers from the community, educational games, and a visit from guest author Tish Rabe, who has written more than 160 children’s books, many in the same style as Dr. Seuss.
Among the many distinguished guest readers were Madison Police Officer Phil Rosati, Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice, First Selectman Tom Banisch, State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-12), and American Idol winner Nick Fradiani.
“We thought this was a perfect time to showcase reading in a fun way,” said Shirley.
The theme for the week was “Have a Seat and Read.” Fayan said the idea is to keep reading exciting for kids, which she said was Dr. Seuss’ goal as an author.
“The reason he wrote the first reading book was because children were not enjoying reading,” she said. “Part of it was because the books they were reading were not fun, so he then went on to write his beginning reader books to get young children interested in reading.”
Excitement was a key element for the week. Kids had the opportunity to answer riddles all week for the chance to win a chair for their class that school officials had decorated in the spirit of Dr. Seuss’s work. When guest readers came in, kids had the opportunity to learn a little more about each guest and how they value reading today.
“My job here at school is to work with students who find learning to read challenging,” said Shirley. “I want the people here [the guest readers] to be talking about the challenges they may have faced…I always ask them to reach out to those kids who are the most at risk for not wanting to read.”
Fayan said the school works to bring guest readers in all year.
“We are very fortunate that so many people from the community donate their time to read to the students and talk to them about how reading is important to them in their lives as professionals and adults,” she said.
While the week is dedicated to keeping kids excited and engaged about reading, both Shirley and Fayan said the school strives to keep the enthusiasm up all year.
“We both feel the power of reading is so important in a person’s life that it is not a one-week-only event,” said Shirley. “We have this energy for teaching children to read and to love to read all year long. The energy is always here.”
Is that energy paying off? Looking at the data, Scarice says it is.
“Circulation rates [of library books] are triple what they use to be and our enrollment is down,” he said. “That is the data that matters most to us.”