Education United States Project #61094

Read to Me Project

by The Read to Me Project

Project Report | Apr 25, 2024
April 2024 update - Read to Me Project

By Amanda Evans | Director of Marketing and Development

The 2023/24 Monterey County school year is in its final stretch and Read to Me Project coordinators are getting ready to celebrate all the reading that students have done this year with their little ones at home. But before the certificates and medals are handed out at the end of May, we are looking back at some highlights.

At our very popular Holiday Book Wrap event, 4th-6th graders had the opportunity to select and wrap a new book for the little one they are reading to at home. Not only does this provide another book - one they can keep - for the siblings to read together, it also sends the powerful message that books are gifts. Volunteers and staff helped students in Monterey County wrap 794 books at this event throughout December.

And having coached students throughout the year on the 9 Best Ways to Read to Young Children, program coordinators are currently helping students complete end-of-year surveys so we can ensure Read to Me Project continues to deliver.

Read some unedited responses from participating students and a teacher, sharing what they like best about our program:

“I like that now that i joined i have more books to read my little baby brother and not read him the same book over and over again.” 5th grader, King City

“It helps the small kids get ready mainly beacuase i didn't get that chance.” 5th grader, Salinas

“what I like the best is that my little sister could be smart before she go's to school”. 4th grader, Greenfield

“how it helps kid and people read and find a book that's right for them.” 6th grader, Greenfield

"This is the first year that I have used the Read to Me Project. This is an excellent program to reinforce the importance of reading at all ages. The program coordinator explains the concept to the students and teaches them how to read out loud to entertain younger children in the home and keep them engaged with the books by pointing to pictures and words. The coordinator explained where in the home was a good place to read. My students became more responsible with borrowing books. My three student helpers in the Read to Me Program were great role models for the other students in the class as they kept track of the books each week that were being sent out and returned. I highly recommend this program and wish I had known about this before." Kevin R., 4th Grade Teacher, King City, CA

Low literacy is the root cause of most societal issues. As Anne Fernald, acclaimed Stanford Psychologist, proved, there is a direct link between the number of words a little one hears before they start kindergarten and their future success in school and beyond. In fact, students who cannot read proficiently by the 3rd grade are four times more likely to drop out of school. Two-thirds of students who cannot read on grade level by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail and/or on welfare. Over 70% of inmates in the U.S. read at or below the 4th grade level. Read to Me Project helps ensure that children hear the words necessary to give them the pre-literacy skills needed to start school on track and stay on track.

Links:

Read to Me Project website

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Dec 30, 2023
Read to Me Project

By Mary DeGroat | Director, Development & Marketing

Read to Me Project (RtMP) is having a significant impact on underprivileged children facing academic challenges and preschoolers who might otherwise enter school unprepared for learning to read. Thanks to your generous donation, young learners are gaining an equal opportunity to excel in school and their older siblings are benefiting as well. The positive changes unfolding in their lives are not only shaping academic progress but will extend to a successful future. At the mid-year point of the current 2023/2024 program year, 1,742 4^th-6^th grade students and 1,109 little ones ages 6 months to 5 years old, and 20 teen parents are participating in the program. 83% are located in South Monterey County, 17% in Salinas, California.

RtMP’s purpose is to provide preschoolers in no/low literate families with the essential foundation of early literacy. RtMP prepares pre-school aged children to start school on par with their peers, primed for learning to read, while student participants are improving their reading skills.

One teacher describes the benefits this way: "RtMP is designed to develop early literacy for pre-k children, but in doing so it also covers upper-grade common core reading standards. For example, when the students read to their little ones using “Read to Me Project’s 9 Best Ways to Read to Young Children,” they are practicing Reading Literature Standard 5.7: Which is to analyze how visual elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text. Even though the RtMP books are not necessarily for the fifth-grade level, the connections the student makes are a fifth-grade standards and better prepare students to make these same connections when reading fifth-grade level text while in class. In other words, students are practicing most of the reading literature standards when participating in the RtMP. The reading content isn’t at grade level, it’s for the little ones at home, but that doesn’t matter. The connections made when reading, analyzing, and discussing the text and illustrations with their little one is important to the overall comprehension of the standards and better prepare the students for grade-level reading. “

At the beginning of the school year, RtMP program coordinators explain to classes of students in simple terms how babies learn through the senses and that their brains are sparked by added information. That information is later connected to corresponding words for concepts and items. The students hear that their own brains spark too when they learn something new. It’s an exciting “Cool!,” “Aha!” moment for those students that inspires them to want to keep learning.

RtMP also delivers crucial training to parents with limited literacy skills, equipping them with tools and information to foster their young child's literacy development.

To-date, the Read to Me Project has impacted more than 23,500 children from low-literate families.

Attachments:

Read to Me Project 2022-2023 Annual Report (PDF)

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