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.
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