|
|
| |
|
 |
Volume
2 Summer
2001 |
|
| |
| |
|
|
 |
The
Abell Foundation of Baltimore Salutes CLI
Assessment scores show that Baltimore pre-kindergartners
in CLI-trained classrooms are way ahead of Head Start
national goals — a report from The Abell Foundation
which helps fund CLI's work. continued
|
|
|
Philadelphia
Sixth Graders are All Reading this Summer
A children's book author, a Philadelphia Eagles fullback,
the public schools and a group of literacy advocates work
to reduce summer reading regression. Continued
|
|
|
CLI's
"Story-Book Man" on the Eagles Book Mobile
Dressed in a vest made of book illustrations and a whimsical
hat styled like a library, CLI's Storybook Man is delighting
youngsters with his dramatic and humorous read-alouds.
Continued
|
|
|
The
Gallery: Children's Writing on Display
Click here to see samples of writing efforts of children
from pre-k through the second grade. Continued
|
|
| |
|
|
Published
by The Abell Foundation of Baltimore, MD
Abell Salutes Children's Literacy Initiative for helping
poor children become successful students
It is a challenge to prepare young children from disadvantaged
school districts to enter school as ready to learn as
their counterparts in affluent school districts. Children's
Literacy Initiative (CLI) has been working to meet this
challenge in Baltimore City for three years; its programming
provides children's books of a very high quality, professional
development for teachers so that they are able to instruct
more effectively, and supportive literacy materials for
classroom enrichment.
After three years, it's safe to say, CLI works.
Here are the results of three tests administered to the
students participating in the CLI program, with comparisons
to the school system's goals, and with children participating
in the Head Start program.
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) gains over time
are uncommon for children of any background, because the
test determines a child's vocabulary knowledge with respect
to other children his/her age. Thus, in order for a child
to increase her PPVT score from 89 to 100 in the course
of a year, she had to learn more words than the child
who had a score of 100 and kept it.
The Abell Foundation salutes Children's Literacy Initiative
for leveling the playing field - for helping to provide
children from high poverty neighborhoods with the same
opportunity to succeed in school as their affluent peers.
http://www.abell.org/publications
 |
|
|
back
to top
|
| |
Philadelphia
Sixth Graders are All Reading this Summer |
In
January of 2001, several local literacy advocates met
to discuss how to encourage Philadelphia students to continue
reading in the summer. Children's Literacy Initiative
was joined by the Philadelphia Free Library, The 100 Book
Challenge, Philadelphia Reads, Public/Private Ventures,
the Eagles Youth Partnership, the Reach Out and Read program
of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia
School District — an impressive combination of talents,
knowledge and experience.
The group called themselves the Summer Reading Coalition
and hired Kathy Hayden to manage and execute their first
campaign: a unique effort to encourage all of Philadelphia
public school sixth graders to continue reading over the
summer in an effort to avoid reading skills regression.
After much consideration, the group chose the book Maniac
Magee by award-winning author Jerry Spinelli. Eagles
Youth Partnership donated the funds to purchase and give
a copy of the book to every Philadelphia public school
sixth grader. The Philadelphia School District developed
a short lesson to go along with the book, and all 16,000
copies were distributed in the schools by early June.
Other funders (see below) are supporting the project's
other costs.
Sixth graders were targeted because this age marks the
onset of adolescence, when reading can become a low priority
when competing with social life and popular culture. These
students will enter seventh grade in the fall, and will
be only two years away from ninth grade, when the highest
percentage of kids drop out of school. (In Philadelphia,
the number of students that drop out of school altogether
is an astonishing 56%.)
On June 5, Philadelphia Eagles football player Cecil Martin
and Philadelphia City Councilman Michael A. Nutter joined
author Spinelli and a class of sixth graders for the project
kick-off to emphasize that reading is important, and that
reading Maniac Magee this summer is not only what
"everyone" will be doing, but could also lead to some
fun benefits. Motivational prizes including gift certificates
for books, an opportunity for two students to interview
author Spinelli on Channel 51, and lunch for five winners
with an Eagles football player have been gathered for
the fall.
Spinelli spoke about being an author: "A book is a collaboration,
a joint project, between writer and reader. With every
hand that turns to the front page, with every pair of
eyes that begins to read the first sentence, a book is
born anew. A writer's most honored mission is not only
to reach and touch a reader, but to encourage him or her
to become a reader in the first place."
Eagles Fullback Cecil Martin compared "off-season" reading
to his vigorous regimen of off-season training, suggesting
that young people have a similar challenge when school
is out of session. "They need to stay on top of their
game and reading is the best way to work out that muscle
between your ears."
Supporters of this project include:
Eagles Youth Partnership
The Comcast Foundation
Urban Cable Works
Power 99 Radio
Carol Haas-Gravagno
The Lenfest Foundation
PNC Bank
The Drumcliff Foundation
Pizza Hut
Tom Cosgrove
The Sara Nerken Charitable Fund
Samuel Fels Fund
Tow Foundation
The Mellon 1957 Trust
|
|
back
to top
|
| |
CLI's
"Story-Book Man"
Travels with the Eagles Book Mobile |
CLI's read-aloud personality, The Story-Book
Man, is dressed in a vest made of book illustrations and
a whimsical hat styled like a library. His lively, colorful
reading of books such as The Banzaa, Red Riding Hood,
and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, are replete
with whimsical and fantastic voices. His readings of humorous
poems become hilarious dramatizations.
The Story-Book Man travels on the Eagles Book Mobile —
one of several projects run by the Eagles Youth Partnership
(the foundation of the Philadelphia Eagles Football team)
— to schools, play streets, shelters, libraries and
recreation department sites in Philadelphia and nearby
towns such as Camden, NJ, and Norristown and Chester,
PA. When The Story-Book Man arrives, he reads books to
the children and helps the Eagles Book Mobile staff distribute
a new book to every child.
This
project is the product of a collaboration between the
Eagles Youth
Partnership, the Free Library
of Philadelphia, and Children's Literacy
Initiative, developed to promote literacy by visiting
children in high-poverty neighborhoods, enchanting them
with a dramatic read-aloud, and then distributing new
books to the audience. It began in the summer of 2000
with a ten-week pilot that visited more than 100 sites
and distributed more than 10,000 new books. This year,
the project started earlier in April and will continue
making three visits a day, almost every day of the week
through August, reaching thousands more children.
|
|
Back
to top
|
| |
The
Gallery: Children's Writing on Display |
|
Please
click on any of the images below to enlarge. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
Kindergarten
writing progress |
|
A
Philadelphia
first grade assignment |
|
Frogs
and tadpoles
are studied in this kindergarten Science Center |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| |
Pre-phonetic
writing by
a Newark pre-schooler |
|
A
kindergartner's work |
|
A
first grader
re-tells a story |
|
back
to top
|
 |
|
|
