Word Rebel has officially completed its fifth and final year of programming.
Because of your generosity, we are grateful to be able to close out our final year of programming with a second donation of books for all of our families, which includes Oh the Places You'll Go!, Horton Hears a Who and other modern classics by Eric Carle, Peter Reynolds, Mo Willems and more.
As you may know, Word Rebel is a volunteer-run charity. As the founder and program director, I can no longer lead Word Rebel's New York City programming while living out of state. While no longer donating books, Word Rebel will now be a one-stop shop for under-resourced families and educators to find free books, eBooks, literacy activites and other early childhood educational materials.
I founded Word Rebel on the belief that - despite limited time and resources - low-income families could give their children the same opportunities as affluent families. Since 2014, you have helped make this possible - raising nearly $35,000 to donate over 10,000 books.
In addition to book donations, our family engagement and literacy curriculum - delivered via weekly email and text message - has been proven to boost child learning by an additional three months over the course of one year. All of our families who enrolled over the past five years will continue to receive educational text messages until their children are in third grade.
Since 2014, Word Rebel has empowered parents living in poverty to make literacy part of their child's daily routine. Five years ago, I was teaching high school special education in NYC. I realized 9 of my 10 students did not truly have a reading disability; they had a vocabulary deficit. I was teaching 21-year-old seniors who believed they could not read. In reality, I was witnessing the cycle of poverty, which only allows a privileged minority to prioritize early learning experiences. I decided I could keep teaching or I could reach children before they were misclassified with learning disabilities.
If you would like to continue to support our mission to close the preschool readiness gap, I recommend the organizations below:
Please accept our deepest gratitude for your generosity over the past five years.
We hope you know how much we have appreciated your support.
Links:
Thanks to donors like you, we have officially launched our fifth year of programming! Our twenty childcare partners are now enrolling 1,500 families in our family engagement and literacy curriculum - delivered via weekly email and text message. Once enrolled, our partners will send families home with English and Spanish-English bilingual books to build home libraries.
Because preschool vocabulary predicts high school graduation rates, we empower families to teach children the words they need to reach their full potential.
Our programs include three unique components:
Our annual books shipment and ongoing family engagement and literacy curriculum are only possible because of your ongoing support. We cannot thank you enough for all you have already done to support our cause. Thank you for helping us close the preschool readiness gap one word at a time.
As always, we're working to make it free and easy for any parent to teach children the words they need to succeed from preschool through high school graduation.
That is why we've launched our YouTube Channel to share hundreds of read along children’s stories and animated phonics videos with our partnering daycares and families!
Every Monday, we email parents a video link to effortlessly teach their children one weekly phonics skill. Using animated videos, children have fun learning short and long vowel sounds (hop vs. hope, cap vs. cape, kit vs. kite), digraphs (ch, sh, ph, th), blends (fr, fl, sp, sw, sl, bl, br), diphthongs (oi, oa, ea, ai) and other challenging word pronunciations.
On Friday nights, families can simply open their inbox to enjoy one of our a read along bedtime stories.
Regardless of limited time and money, we hope to empower all families to prioritize daily literacy and subsequent academic achievement. Our weekly emails deliver a library worth of books to our families’ fingertips. When all children have equal access to resources, all children start preschool with an equal opportunity to succeed.
Thank you for supporting our mission to close the preschool readiness gap one word at a time.
Since 2014, Word Rebel has empowered parents living in poverty to make literacy part of their child's daily routine.
Why?
In 2014, I was a high school special education teacher with students reading 4 - 6 years below grade level. I realized only 1 in 10 truly had a learning disability; The rest had a vocabulary deficit. I researched the most effective vocabulary interventions only to find that high school and even elementary school is too late to intervene because the vocabulary gap begins before preschool. The average child born into poverty starts preschool knowing just 500 words, while their affluent peers know 1,100. This 600-word-deficit becomes a 15,000-word-deficit by 10th grade.
I was teaching 21-year-old seniors who had experienced 18 years of academic injustice. I could keep teaching or I could reach students before they were misclassified with disabilities.
I founded Word Rebel on the belief that - despite limited time and resorces - low-income families could give their children the same opportunities as affluent families. Since 2014, you have helped make this possible - raising nearly $32,000 to donate over 8,000 books.
In 2019, families will once again enjoy a shipment of best-selling books. They will also receive an entire year of weekly eBooks, literacy videos and evidence-based strategies - proven to increase childhood vocabulary and literacy skills in just minutes a day.
Thank you for joining me and my 20 daycare partners to launch our fifth year building home libraries and a culture of literacy in thousands of homes throughout New York City.
Please accept our deepest gratitude for helping us close the preschool readiness gap one child at a time.
Today, I have so much to be thankful for.
Because of donors like you, we have completed our 4th year of early childhood literacy programming. In 2018, 1,500 children took home new books and 800 parents are now enjoying weekly tips via text message - proven to improve child vocabulary and reading skills.
Thank you for joining educators like me and my 20 daycare partners to build 1,500 home libraries with award-winning authors: Dr. Seuss; Eric Carle; Denise Fleming; Mo Willems; P.D. Eastman; and more!
Please accept our deepest gratitude for helping us close the preschool readiness gap one child at a time.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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