Skip to main content

Rotary Proud Reading Sponsor

In June 2017, the Rotary Club of Decatur generously agreed to fund $1,500 for Innovative Reading Tools in Decatur City Schools.

Since their very first donation of $500 in 1998, the Rotary Club of Decatur has modeled a lifetime of giving through the Decatur City Schools Foundation totaling over $11,000 to date.

With partners like Rotary and many others, it seems like the Foundation is always celebrating something new and exciting.

The change we’re celebrating this time is the introduction of reading materials supporting the Decatur City Schools effort to increase the reading skills of over 4,000 students in Kindergarten - 5th grades.

These reading materials are called Leveled Reading Libraries, and will be used in all 12 of Decatur’s elementary schools. Leveled Reading fosters a level of ability that is custom-made for each reader; in which student reading is guided not by a certain age, but by a certain level.

The entire project budget is $23,723, but library sets can be purchased as funding is raised, thereby making an immediate impact one grade at a time.

Now we’ll tell the reason we’re so excited about these reading libraries.

Leveled reading removes the "one size fits all" approach to reading, giving each child the opportunity to develop essential skills at his own pace. With leveled reading, a child is usually placed in a group with other children who read at roughly the same level of ability. Rather than having the entire class read the same book (which some students might find too hard and some too easy), leveled reading allows teachers to use a more personalized and precise approach to monitor a child's progress and help him learn to read.

Bam. Finally someone invented a reading program that works. For every reader. For every level. For every single child.

Rhonda Reece, a longtime DCS elementary principal says, “Children who read appropriate level books, read real literature and are able to discuss the stories with others are provided the strategies to be successful readers.”

And that’s what we’re trying to build with partners like Rotary. Strong Schools. Strong Community. Successful readers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funding from 3M Keeps the Wheels Turning for Career Tech STEM Initiatives

3M has awarded a grant to Decatur City Schools Foundation that will provide resources for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education f ocused on career-­ and college-­readiness for more than 500, 6th­– 12th-grade students. The Foundation is committed to working with Decatur City Schools to ensure that students graduate ready to enter the workforce or continue their education. In August, Decatur City Schools combined the Career Technical Education (CTE) efforts of Austin and Decatur High Schools at one center on a portion of the campus previously occupied by Austin High. The center is known as The Career Academies of Decatur. The center provides students the opportunity to explore the type of career or secondary education that they may want to pursue through the use of CTE pathways. STEM career pathways, such as Engineering and Machine Tool Technology, are popular with area students. Introducing students to a variety of career pathways beginning ...
13 comments
Read more

Foundation Working with High Schools to Create Alumni Directories

DECATUR, Alabama (November 30, 2015) – Decatur City Schools Foundation has launched an Alumni Directory Information Solicitation for Austin High and Decatur Schools. The Foundation is working with Harris Graduate Connection to create a directory for each school. Foundation Executive Director, Jesslyn Reeves said, “We are not starting an Alumni Association, we are simply wanting to communicate with and engage DCS alumni about our schools and the Foundation.” The directories will assist the schools in their communication with alumni. Harris Connection has worked with the Foundation and Decatur City Schools to gather graduate information and will compile up-to-date directories. These publications will only be made available to alumni, the Decatur City Schools, and the Foundation. Harris Graduate Connection does not charge the Foundation for their work. The mission of the Decatur City Schools Foundation is to enhance excellence in education for all students in Decatur City Schools....
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cure to "Worksheetitis" Teaches Kids Computer Science

Are your students suffering from Worksheetitis? Tired of learning their lessons through written work alone? Luckily, our elementary teachers learned the cure, and thanks to some help from Representative Terri Collins, they’ll be getting the tools to cure it in their classrooms soon. The Technology Department of Decatur City Schools hosted Professional Development for all DCS elementary teachers last month. The gym at Oak Park Elementary School became an escape room, where all of the teachers worked through stations to collect items they would need to escape. To complete each station, though, they had to learn some new things. At each one, they found a new tool or game related to coding, computer science, and technology. From simple tools like Coding Hopscotch that teaches sequencing, to Augmented Reality Cubes that let the user hold our Solar System in the palm of their hand to discover new facts about the planets, our teachers were able to see a wide variety of new wa...
4 comments
Read more