Read Across America | In the Spirit of Seuss
Q & A: Reading and Older Kids | Taking Reading to Task
Resources

Cover Story
Read Across America!

NEA's Read Across America will be bigger and better than ever this year, as millions of people of all ages join to read together in town halls and shopping malls, homes and schools, across the United States, from Wall Street to main street. And what will you be doing March 2?

Sarah Clopton, a pitcher for the University of Kansas softball team, and Moran Norris, a running back for the KU football team, read to first grade students at Hillcrest Elementary in Lawrence, Kansas. This event was a prelude to a March 2 celebration that will find 500 KU students reading at area high schools. University of Kansas men’s basketball coach Roy Williams has also made a public service announcement for Read Across America.

The Cat in the Hat will be at the New York Stock Exchange on the morning of February 29 to sound the opening bell. Cat in the Hat Jack Kinnaman, a former Delaware teacher who’s now an NEA-Retired activist, and New Jersey elementary teacher Barbara Keshishian recently visited the Wall Street trading floor to participate in a preview of the event. America Online, Random House, and First Book executives will help NEA ring the bell later this month.

Pennsylvania parent Kathelleen Parsons is well into fulfilling her Read Across America pledge. The mother of four children, Parsons plans to read one Dr. Seuss book a day to her kids for 100 straight days. To underscore the value of parents reading to their children at home, she’s encouraging other parents in her local school district to join in Read Across America activities. You can check the Read Across America Web page to read all about other pledges.

As part of NEA’s Read Across America celebration, students at Madison's Island Avenue School in Connecticut will be deepening their geographic skills. The students will be “traveling” to 14 other Madisons in the nation, at the rate of one mile for each minute of reading they do. On an oversized map in the school's main hallway, Mary Fitzgerald, the school's reading language coordinator, helps students track their progress across the country.

Country music recording artist Reba McEntire has recorded a public service announcement for NEA's Read Across America. McEntire also promostes First Book, which offers free books to kids unable to afford their own reading materials.

Looking for ideas to help celebrate this year’s Read Across America event on March 2?

NEA members, parents, and school and community leaders are posting all sorts of ideas on the Read Across America Web page, each designed to focus attention on the importance of reading in kids’ lives. Here’s a sampling.

• In New Jersey, NEA member Amy Prestifilippo’s Hudson Elementary School class has decorated a hallway bulletin board with a U.S. map. The goal: having students read a book from each of the 50 states.

• In South Gardiner, Maine, 111 students at River View Community School will don Cat in the Hat tall hats purchased for them while parents and other community residents read aloud.

• Parents visiting Terra Vista Elementary in Rancho Cucamonga, California, will be treated to a green- eggs-and-ham breakfast and invited to read their favorite Seuss books.

• Pennsylvania’s Bobtown Elementary school librarian, Annette Powelko, is “growing a bookworm” that lists all the books students have read—a pledged 1,000 books for the new millennium.

• In Washington State, at Bremerton’s West Hills Elementary, educators are inviting former teachers and community residents, including the mayor, to read to all 400 students, who’ll be rotating to at least three different readers for 20- to 30-minute reading sessions.

Resources

For up-to-the-minute info on Read Across America, make your first stop the Read Across America Web site.

At the site, you can click on the Read Across America “Resources” link for tools to help plan a perfect celebration. You’ll find everything from “to do” lists to sample letters to local newspapers and ideas for school board presentations.

You’re also welcome, at the Read Across America site, to join in on “threaded discussions,” electronic forums where you can share ideas and stories with Read Across America activists all across the country.

Want to find out who the Read Across America coordinator is in any state? Click on the “States” link to find state-by-state contact information and event updates.

Also available: the Random House Seussville, a source for games, contests, and other fun ways to enhance basic reading, math, science, and reasoning skills.

Over the coming weeks, NEA members will see a wide variety of Read Across America events unfold. Here’s a quick list of the events on tap as NEA Today went to press.

• On March 1 and 2, the largest Cat in the Hat hat in the world will be the Empire State Building! It’ll be sparkling with red and white rows of lights.

• On February 29, the Cat in the Hat himself will ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange, with Bob Chase and several corporate executives on hand.

• In February, radio stations across America will begin airing singer Reba McEntire’spublic service announcement about NEA’s Read Across America and the importance of reading.

• Many local newspapers will be co-sponsoring a contest that teaches tolerance, “Write What’s Right,” based on the witty and wise Dr. Seuss book, The Sneetches. Over 150 newspapers with over 13 million readers have already indicated an interest in using The Sneetches to discuss how to improve group relations in their own communities.

• Dr. Seuss would be smiling at the planned antics in the NEA building on his big day. NEA will host the first-ever “Acat-emy Awards” to honor great reading programs from around the country. D.C. children will fish in McElligot’s Pool, eat green eggs and ham, and learn about Hop on Pop.

• NEA state and local affiliates are putting Seuss on the Loose in their own neighborhoods. The Ohio Education Association, for instance, has arranged for rock stars to read with children at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. The Virginia Education Association is passing out tens of thousands of Teachers’ Favorite Children’s Books list to excited parents.

• Nearly 30 national organizations are backing Read Across America, and their local chapters make great potential partners for community events. See the list of national supporters on the Read Across America Web site. NEA’s Read Across America is a remarkable way to reach out and work with groups and people who normally don’t partner with the Association.

• March 2—the birthday of Dr. Seuss—is the single day NEA has chosen to spotlight the importance of encouraging children to develop a passion for reading. But encouraging reading, of course, is work for every day. To help, the Cat is offering reading resources for parents and teachers. Again, check the Web site for details.

• To make the celebration festive, the new Cat-alog is out with new “Seuss devices at splendiferous prices”! How about great Cat in the Hat mylar balloons over 2’ high? Or lapel pins, hats, and ties? Go to the Web.

Q&A
Reading and Older Kids

Nebraska middle school reading teacher Geri Marshall believes reading instruction shouldn't end when students leave elementary school.

Should the teaching of reading skills concern only elementary teachers Geri Marshall doesn't think so. A teacher at Walnut Middle School in her hometown of Grand Island, Nebraska, Marshall has helped design a reading program for all her district's middle schools, out of her conviction that getting all students competent in reading means providing reading instruction past sixth grade.

How serious are the reading problems of students entering middle school?
Pretty serious. Seventy percent of the kids on my teams are reading two years below grade level or lower.

What strategies can content area teachers use to help students learn while improving their reading skills?
Give students three minutes to preview the material they're going to read. Have them read the first sentences of paragraphs, the bold print, the captions, and any charts, summaries, and questions.

Discuss what they've previewed to see if they understand it and find out what they already know about it.

Teach the vocabulary critical to the content, and help students become skilled in using a dictionary to learn pronunciations, derivations, and uses of words.

What single thing should teachers know that would help them improve a student's reading?
Teachers need to know each child's weaknesses and strengths and build up the weak areas. A child's phonemic awareness--the ability to understand that words are made up of sounds--can be assessed, and there are screening tests for this. But, unfortunately, they're not widely available.

One useful book is M.J. Adams' Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print.

What strategies do you use with your 7th graders?
I teach them that words are made up of sounds and phonograms--letters or groups of letters that make individual sounds. They hear the sound and see and write the phonogram as they repeat the sound. Then we reverse the process and practice again and again.

How do you interest older students in reading--and avoid embarrassing them with easy books?
Last year, for Read Across America, I told all the 7th grade students they'd be reading Dr. Seuss books to elementary students. The low level readers had no problem picking up Dr. Seuss.

I've found there are more books now written for students at low reading levels. Publishers are catering to the need.

Taking Reading to Task

One of NEA's top-priority initiatives is promoting reading, helping to make sure that all nine-year-olds are competent readers.

Toward that end, NEA has assembled a task force of members and reading specialists from around the country that will be presenting recommendations later this year. On the task force:

Becky Pringle, chair, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rpringle@ezonline.com.

Keith Armour, second grade teacher, Cincinnati, Ohio, KEArmour@aol.com

Andy Baumgartner, 1999 National Teacher of the Year, kindergarten, Augusta, Georgia, abaumgar@doe.k12.ga.us.

Linda Cornwell, Indianapolis, Indiana, lcornwell@indy.net.

Cathy Powers Forbes, second grade teacher, South Mills, North Carolina, cforbes@coastalnet.com.

Janice James, 1999 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, 1-3 multi-level class, Louisville, Pricem04@bellsouth.net.

Michael Johnson, president, New Jersey Education Association, Mjohnson @NJEA.org.

Ginny Kalish, Arizona Teacher of the Year, second grade, Paradise Valley, gk0149@aol.com.

Greg Kurek, middle school teacher, Douglas, Michigan, Geoggreg@wmol.com.

Geri Marshall, middle school reading teacher, Grand Island, Nebraska, Gmarshal@genie.esu10.k12.ne.us.

Robin Nettinga, middle school reading teacher and president, Idaho Education Association, Boise, Rnettinga@nea.org.

Carolyn Olson, first grade Title I teacher and president, Auburn Education Association, Auburn, Washington, colson2@psesd.org.