Read First! began in 2008 as a new initiative based on the success of our two-session READ from the
START program. We sought partners in ten towns who would work with us to see if the transformative
education that affects individual family networks could be extended to cover
entire commnities.
The idea in the first round was to plan a solid month of community activities in each town. Our aim was to dramatically increase awareness of the importance of reading to pre-school children.
But the initiative didn't end with "awareness." That was just the kickoff for what will be an extended period of work to create a community environment in which every new parent, caregiver, and babysitter knows what to do with a baby. This is serious work that will take several years of concerted effort and serious evaluation.
Now we are into the second year of the initiative, and our community partners are thinking of ways to extend activities throughout the year.
The Ten Read First! Communities
- Butler County Community Resource Center, working in partnership with a network of organizations.
- Cuba
- LaPlata
- Macon
- Marion County
- Moberly
- Mountain View
- Savannah
- Tarkio
- Washington
How does the program work?
We work with a team of local organizations as they develop ideas and plans. Then we provide sustained follow-up. We will roll out online resources and video podcasts to augment our face-to-face learning in the phenomenal READ from the START program. We will also include professional evaluation services that will shape how we meet the challenges from one year to the next. This evaluation component will help all participating organizations improve their fund-raising abilities. We want nothing less than a dramatic and observable improvement in the readiness of youngsters to succeed in school.
What is the point of Read First?
We know that family life is transformed when new parents take our two-session training class called READ from the START. The knowledge we convey in the class is quite easy to master, and the interactive nature of READ from the START empowers parents to go home and try out their new skills.
READ from the START makes a difference in the brain development of the baby and pre-school child, and it also makes a difference in the way parents think about words, sentences, and meanings. People who engage in this special form of attention develop a sharp mind for the ways that meanings are developed and "spun out" by a speaker or writer, and this mental sharpness applies not only to books, but to conversation, advertising, news reports, political speech, and multi-media narratives like movies.
An acute sensitivity to the method and content of a narrative is the "gold standard" of literacy. Without it, children enter school with a poor idea for sequence, how one thing follows another, with consequences. They don't notice as well, don't discern details in their environment. Parents who learn to use stories, books, and play can shape a different sort of intelligence.
Literacy is far more than being able to read traffic signs and decode instructions. Literacy is the ability to engage the qualities of thought in a narrative, to imagine layers of possible meanings, to judge distinction and quality. It is that ability that is "finished off" in higher education, but that begins in the cradle.
We have seen the power of releasing this energy in small numbers of families in a town. What would happen if all families had this power? What would happen if every new parent, care-giver, and babysitter knew what we are currently teaching only to a few? That is the central question of Read First! The month of activities is a kick-off for work that may take several years to properly tune and evaluate.
The potential pay-off in the community is enormous. Since this initiative promises a long-term partnership, we are concentrating resources on only ten towns in the first test of this vision.
Who can we contact at MHC?
Julie Douglas, of course. Julie is a former Kindergarten teacher and
an author of monthly features on children's literature. We're so lucky
to have her as the "face of family education" at MHC! Feel free
to contact Julie at 800.357.0909 or Julie@mohumanities.org
