Developing a school of readers - Putnam County School District - Civic Star Award for 2003

School Administrator, March, 2003

The Georgia winner of The Civic Star Award for 2003 is Putnam County School District in Eatonton for a multifaceted reading initiative at Putnam County Elementary School.

The faculty and staff at the county's only kindergarten-to-fifth-grade school believed a strong foundation at the elementary school level would help students succeed later and that reading skills were fundamental to developing a strong base. They saw such a program as a necessity in a county where the dropout rate at Putnam County High School is 25 percent and many families in the school district are headed by single parents with low incomes.

With the support of School Business Partners, the Huddle House Restaurant, Ingles Supermarket and Wal-Mart of Milledgeville, school administrators, faculty and staff hope the program's effects will spread beyond the school to create a community of readers. One aspect of the initiative, the Accelerated Reading Program, encourages kindergarten through fifth-grade students to read ability-coded books. Students are allowed to visit the school library each day to check out books and read and complete computer tests about their book selections.

Another program element, called Read to Me, invites guest readers to classrooms to share a favorite book. The Book in a Bag aspect sends books in zip-lock bags home with kindergarteners and first and second graders. Parents are asked to sign a sheet contained in the bag as acknowledgement of having read the book with their child. A similar element enables children to take home books in English and Spanish with accompanying audio tapes.

Funds for the books, canvas carrying bags, zip-lock bags and recorders came from a reading grant, business partner donations and school instructional money The school's family literacy coordinator periodically contacts families to answer questions about the reading program, provide guidance and monitor the success of each aspect of the program.

TO LEARN MORE CONTACT:

Dr. Dennis McWilliams Superintendent

Putnam County School District

162 Old Glenwood Springs Road Eatonton, GA 31024

Phone: 706-485-5381

Web: www.putnam.k12.ga.us