Richland, WA

Orchard Owls Are Wise to Read

Last year, Orchard Elementary conducted a summer reading series at the clubhouse of a local apartment complex for families with low incomes. This gave many parents who had not come to meetings and events at school a comfortable place to meet teachers, strengthen partnerships, talk with other parents, and focus with their children on improving reading skills and attitudes. The program also aimed to reduce students’ summer slide in reading. Each Wednesday, teachers met at the clubhouse with food, books, and an educational activity for students.

At the clubhouse, students read to each other, to parents, or to siblings, and listened to a teacher read a story aloud. Some older students became reading teachers or tutors to younger siblings and neighbors. The students and parents ate snacks and completed reading and craft activities together. There was a reading theme each week (e.g., reading about owls for the Orchard Owls). A local reading foundation donated books each week so that children took a book home to read for pleasure.

This good project was thwarted by COVID-19 closures. The ATP, teachers, and partners at Orchard Elementary are redesigning reading-meetings as a virtual series for the whole school so that students and parents in all neighborhoods will become partners in reading and so that community partners provide free books to encourage children’s summer reading.

See more about Orchard Owls Are Wise to Read in Promising Partnership Practices 2020.