Students across Richmond County participated in Read Across America Day, a national event honoring the birthday of Theodor Geisel, who under the name of Dr. Seuss, wrote books that have sparked a love of reading in generations of children.
Volunteers spread out through the hallways at Hornsby Elementary School on March 2 to read Dr. Seuss books to classrooms of students.
Kayla Cooper, chair of the literacy committee of the Downtown Augusta Rotary Club read “Green Eggs and Ham” to Latisha Chiles’ second grade class.
“As Rotarians we tried to give back to the community, we tried to have service above self,” she said. “But as an organization of professionals, we understand the importance of reading and literacy, and how it’s important to read and how basically that’s the fundamentals that you need to succeed in life.”
Older students from Richmond County high schools also volunteered, including the Laney Pearls, a mentoring group for girls in ninth through 12th grade at Lucy Laney High School.
Teacher Selina Davis chaperoned the young women from the high school.
“Read Across America is good for the small children to see how the, you know the high school children are giving back into the community,” Davis said. “So, we definitely want to do that, we want to help out. We want to read things that are engaging to them and exciting for them. Let them know that reading is important.”
Dressed in colorful, Seuss-themed hats and scarves, the emphasis was on the fun of reading and engaging the students.
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But Cooper said the volunteers were rewarded seeing young children holding a book.
“When we were younger you know we didn’t have these electronics and just to have an actual book in front of you with the pictures and read along and see how they respond to it and light up is very rewarding,” said Cooper.
The Read Across America Day was coordinated by the district’s Early Reading Coordinator, Josephine Lane.
“We know how important it is for students to be reading on grade level by third grade. And so, we have a program that we have 10 schools that are a part of called Growing Readers. And it focuses primarily on kindergarten through third grade,” she said. “We’ve got growing reader specialists in our school system, working with teachers on great instructional strategies, and really developing a passion and a love for reading.”
Lane said the district also has an early intervention program where teachers work with students in small groups to identify where they need to start reading with students.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
