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Dr. Seuss Day makes family literacy fun
by SF Ed Fund on
Innovation Grant fuels Literacy Initiative at Charles Drew Elementary[caption id="attachment_348" align="alignright" width="400"]
“Fon” is a completely acceptable way to spell phone in Kindergarten, teacher Tamara Fields explained to parents at the school’s Dr. Seuss-themed Family Literacy Night on Monday.[/caption]Working in a high crime, high poverty neighborhood, Kindergarten teacher Tamara Fields faces an array of challenges in the classroom. Too many of her students enter the classroom with too little exposure to books, and too few have books in their homes. Last year, she set out to change that. With her own funds, she planned a Dr. Seuss Day and Literacy Night for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students and their families. The event was an overwhelming success, generating strong parent engagement, which research shows leads to increased student success.This year, with an Education Fund Innovation Grant, Ms. Fields expanded the event to offer more resources and include Transitional Kindergarten and first-grade students and their families. 
“In the time I have been at Drew, I have noticed that most parents want to help their students be as successful as possible, but often they don’t know exactly how to help them,” she explained. “I wanted to plan an event that would be fun for my students, get them excited about reading and support the families by giving them free books and discussing with them what they could do to best support their children around literacy.”Kids came to school Monday adorned in their finest set of PJs for a day of reading, writing and literacy activities in honor of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day. Then families were invited back in the evening to share at-home literacy strategies, discuss expectations for their students in the next grade-level and receive resources to help prepare their students for the year ahead.
“Learning to read is really hard. Learning to write is really hard. You want your kids to enjoy reading and you want your kids to enjoy books,” Ms. Fields told a group of Pre-K parents. “Those kids who have those special memories will want to read the rest of their lives.”She handed out CDs with a letter sound song for kids to sing along with, as well as a copy of the sounds spelling chart and sight words list.“You can take as many as you’ll use, but I apologize because I’m the one singing,” she joked.For Dalishia Jones, whose daughter will likely be in Ms. Fields’ class next year, the event provided some needed positive reinforcement and inspiration.“
She knows all her letters and she knows how to say them when they’re out of order. And, she knows how to spell her name,” she said of her daughter Deja with a smile. “That made me proud to know she’s ahead.”Dalishia also said Ms. Fields encouraged her to read more often and try some new approaches to further her daughter’ literacy development.“I like when she was reading and she asked, ‘Now what do you think?’ I ask at the end, ‘What happened in the book?’”
“Fon” is a completely acceptable way to spell phone in Kindergarten, teacher Tamara Fields explained to parents at the school’s Dr. Seuss-themed Family Literacy Night on Monday.[/caption]Working in a high crime, high poverty neighborhood, Kindergarten teacher Tamara Fields faces an array of challenges in the classroom. Too many of her students enter the classroom with too little exposure to books, and too few have books in their homes. Last year, she set out to change that. With her own funds, she planned a Dr. Seuss Day and Literacy Night for Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students and their families. The event was an overwhelming success, generating strong parent engagement, which research shows leads to increased student success.This year, with an Education Fund Innovation Grant, Ms. Fields expanded the event to offer more resources and include Transitional Kindergarten and first-grade students and their families. “In the time I have been at Drew, I have noticed that most parents want to help their students be as successful as possible, but often they don’t know exactly how to help them,” she explained. “I wanted to plan an event that would be fun for my students, get them excited about reading and support the families by giving them free books and discussing with them what they could do to best support their children around literacy.”Kids came to school Monday adorned in their finest set of PJs for a day of reading, writing and literacy activities in honor of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America Day. Then families were invited back in the evening to share at-home literacy strategies, discuss expectations for their students in the next grade-level and receive resources to help prepare their students for the year ahead.“Learning to read is really hard. Learning to write is really hard. You want your kids to enjoy reading and you want your kids to enjoy books,” Ms. Fields told a group of Pre-K parents. “Those kids who have those special memories will want to read the rest of their lives.”She handed out CDs with a letter sound song for kids to sing along with, as well as a copy of the sounds spelling chart and sight words list.“You can take as many as you’ll use, but I apologize because I’m the one singing,” she joked.For Dalishia Jones, whose daughter will likely be in Ms. Fields’ class next year, the event provided some needed positive reinforcement and inspiration.“She knows all her letters and she knows how to say them when they’re out of order. And, she knows how to spell her name,” she said of her daughter Deja with a smile. “That made me proud to know she’s ahead.”Dalishia also said Ms. Fields encouraged her to read more often and try some new approaches to further her daughter’ literacy development.“I like when she was reading and she asked, ‘Now what do you think?’ I ask at the end, ‘What happened in the book?’”