four schools closed in the district<\/a>. While students went to new campuses, many of the schools\u2019 library collections remained unused \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n\u201cPeople always think, well, can you just take the books immediately over to the library?\u201d said Dr. Tiffany Hall, teaching and learning executive director for the district. \u201cA school library really can\u2019t be an archive. It really needs to be a living body. We\u2019ve got to have enough space on the shelves that kids can see the books. So our librarians will order books, and then as books kind of fall out of fashion, we put them out. And when we read them out, we\u2019d like to share them with our families.\u201d<\/p>\n
After sitting untouched for months, the books are being sorted, cleaned and packed by volunteers, who hope to give them a second life in students\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n
The effort was spearheaded by a teacher at Meadowlark Elementary School. Students in Pre-K to first grade will get three to four books each. Older students will receive two to three books.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we want to do with those books is get them into the hands of our students who may not have as many books at home,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
The collection spans a range of subjects and reading levels, from early childhood titles to books about dinosaurs, dragons and Navajo history.<\/p>\n
Volunteers worked to organize the books by age group and prepare them for distribution, packing them into bags for students. For some, including Fidelity Investments volunteer Antonio Cuenca, the experience was nostalgic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese covers are bringing a rush of memories,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cuenca, a parent, said he is already encouraging his 4-year-old son to enjoy reading, even before he fully understands the words.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoes up to mom, and he\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, we\u2019re reading this one today,’\u201d Cuenca said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t even know the words, but sometimes he\u2019ll pretend and he\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh, this one says,\u2019 and he\u2019ll just come up with a random gibberish story, which is probably the best part of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuenca wants his son to use his imagination.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll see me on my computer, he\u2019ll see (me) on my phone,\u201d Cuenca said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to show him that I\u2019m really using it more as a resource or a utility, so that when I\u2019m looking for more creative pursuits or something to make my mind actually use the imagination, a lot of that comes from books, and he\u2019s noticing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
District leaders said access to books during the summer months is critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve known for a long time that over the summer, students can lose several points of proficiency because they don\u2019t practice,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
She encourages every family to read with or to their child, in any language.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildren who see their parents read, read more themselves and so we want to see parents and families reading together, because that practice is one of the things that\u2019s going to help our readers become more fluent and more proficient,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
The need is especially acute for students who lack books at home, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always something we worry about, kids going home without access to books,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
Teachers plan to hand out the books during the last week of school, giving students the chance to trade titles with classmates before summer break begins.<\/p>\n
Related: Community rallies to build inclusive playground to support students with disabilities<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SALT LAKE CITY\u00a0 \u2014 Hundreds of library books from several closed Salt Lake City schools are being redistributed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-192940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}