Reading Frenzy at Jack Abrams School
The students and parents who help make the Jack Abrams Intermediate School community so special engaged in a reading frenzy over the course of three weeks last month. The building’s annual Parents as Reading Partners program was a sensational success that left the youngsters feeling energized and proud of themselves.
While some children eagerly take the initiative to read, others need a quiet little nudge. PARP provides the push that can help make reading at home a regular, fun and thoroughly enjoyable activity that opens up a whole new world for the students.
Chaired by parent Rebecca Sanin, students were offered a variety of activities during the nearly month-long program. A school-based book fair proved to be popular and succeeded in getting more than a thousand new books into the hands of the Jack Abrams School students.
“It was great,” Mrs. Sanin said about the initiative. “At Jack Abrams Intermediate, we celebrate Parents as Reading Partners in a big way! Instead of setting individual goals this year, we set grade-level goals and school-wide goals. The children signed classroom contracts pledging to read for extra minutes each week. On Wednesdays and Fridays, children wrote down the number of pages they have read during the week to hand into their teachers.”
School librarian Patricia Dillon said participants read a combined 30,479 pages during the campaign. The amounts were recorded on a “Read across America” hallway map of the United States. “Each grade tried to read from New York to California,” Mrs. Sanin said. “For every 20 pages a student read, ten miles was added to the journey. We hope this effort promoted reading, created momentum and also supported learning in social studies!”
“The sixth grade crossed the country 35 times, the fifth grade 11 times, and fourth grade 15 times,” Mrs. Dillon said. “PARP also included a book swap for students and each Friday librarians from the Huntington Public Library were available for students to sign up for a library card. Seventy students were able to get their cards due to the generosity of the librarians coming to the building.”
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