Today [Tuesday, March 24] every student at Tallahassee\u2019s Ruediger Elementary School will get two free books of their own choice. It\u2019s part of a plan to boost literacy, education and community engagement in the Big Bend.<\/p>\n
The event is a book fair, the second this year at a local Title I school.<\/p>\n
A weekly deep dive into Tallahassee’s most talked about news topic. Hosted by Gina Jordan every Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re pulling us aside and they\u2019re, like, \u2018Are these really ours?\u2019 and \u2018Can we take more than one?\u2019 and \u2018Can I take ANY book that I\u2019m interested in?\u2019 And it\u2019s just exciting to see them all light up about reading and about finding things that are of interest to THEM.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Caylee Wilson, the manager of Midtown Reader. She grew up attending Title 1 schools in the Tampa Bay area \u2013 elementary, middle and high school. These book fairs are her labor of love. The students can indeed choose books they\u2019re interested in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings that we know are interesting to kids, that they\u2019re watching on TV. For instance, \u2018The Last Kids on Earth\u2019 is a TV show on Netflix. We\u2019re going to bring those titles to the schools so they have that interest to start reading along with the things that they\u2019re seeing on TV and on social and on web and all that fun stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leon County School Board Chair Marcus Nicolas represents District 5, which contains five Title I schools. To qualify as Title I, at least 51 percent of the students at a school must be dealing with poverty. Nicolas says it\u2019s more like 75 percent at these schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may come to school hungry. They may come to school sleepy. They may come to school with the same clothes they wore yesterday. They may come to school without jackets. They may come in the winter with shorts because they have no other options. We do food drives for those quite frequently, because the only meals of the day could be at school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicolas says books aren\u2019t likely to be found in those students\u2019 homes. But now the school district is working with Midtown Reader and the Community Foundation of North Florida to change that. Midtown owner Sally Bradshaw says the Read and Rise project can use books to build literacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the challenges that not reading at the end of third grade \u2013 at a third-grade level \u2013 present in terms of high-school drop-out rates and more likely to need public assistance, more likely to commit a crime. What I don\u2019t think we knew until we leaned into Title I book fairs is what a difference it can make to have a book at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hence the book fairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren who receive a book and begin to build their home library are more likely to have a higher vocabulary. They\u2019re more likely to learn critical thinking skills. They\u2019re more likely to stay in school \u2013 just because they are surrounded by books at home. So, our goal is to build that home library.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book fairs are just for the kids and teachers. But the public can help with donations and by volunteering to mentor kids with their reading. Here\u2019s School Board Chair Nicolas:<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t underestimate the power of volunteering in a school. Don\u2019t underestimate the power of reading to a kindergarten, a first-grade, a second-grade, a third-grade, a fourth-grade class. Don\u2019t think that that hour you spent there didn\u2019t make an impact. Because it absolutely did. You\u2019ve exposed and engaged students in a way they wouldn\u2019t have been exposed and they wouldn\u2019t have been engaged earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month there was a Title I book fair at Oak Ridge Elementary, and next month there will be one at Hartsfield Elementary.<\/p>\n