Reading Is Cool!

The following guest column by Gulf Coast President/CEO Mark Pritchett appeared in the August 19 edition of SRQ Daily:

What does it take to transform a child’s life? In the case of first graders who struggle the most with reading and writing, it takes well-trained trained teachers, generous donors, and school-district leaders who are willing to invest in solutions. Here in Sarasota County, through an initiative called Reading Recovery, this potent combination is not only improving students’ lives, it’s also changing their families, teachers, and entire school district for the better.

Reading Recovery is an intensive, short-term literacy program that involves daily, one-on-one tutoring by highly trained teachers for the poorest-performing first graders. (First grade is key, because that’s when most children are learning to read. By third grade, they are reading to learn.) It’s also proven to be most effective when made available to all students who need it and used as a supplement to good teaching in the classroom.

Reading Recovery was introduced here to our school district two years ago by philanthropists Keith and Linda Monda. They knew from experience elsewhere (and decades of rigorous evaluation data) that this early intervention works in helping low-achieving students quickly catch up their peers, and that those gains stick.

Sandee Coward, one of our district’s first Reading Recovery teachers, recently shared an example of that success in action at Atwater Elementary School in North Port: “One of my students told me, ‘Ms. Coward, I remember when I was in kindergarten how much I hated to read. I didn’t like when I had to sit and do the words. It didn’t make sense. Now I can’t wait to get books in the Media Center, and I know the answers to the questions. Reading is cool!’”

Read the rest of Mark’s column in SRQ Daily…