PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia School District is launching a new program to encourage third graders to read for fun and students will be going home with a supply of books.
The district is encouraging all of its third graders to read 20 books over the next 20 weeks. Kids are getting a head start with a bag each of ten culturally-relevant children’s books. They’ll be asked to keep track of how many they finish.
La Tanya Miller, the district’s executive director in the office of Academic Supports, says the kids are not being evaluated on how well they read, but they will be asked to keep track of their progress.
“Each student will receive a bookmark, and on the back side of that bookmark, it’s an opportunity for them to track every book as they check off,” she said. “There is also a reading log that parents will be able to monitor that their students are reading the books.”
After reading with kids at Fanny Jackson Coppin School in South Philly, Superintendent Tony Watlington pointed out that less than a third of district third graders were proficient in reading on state tests. He says that’s why the five-year plan he’s developing will lean heavily on the science of reading, and how Philadelphia can use it to improve student performance.
Watlington says the $588,000 program is not about grades but instead designed to spark a love of reading.
“One of the reasons we’re taking the time to develop a strategic plan is to dig into what does the research and our best teachers’ experiences tell us how to do it better across the board so that we can significantly improve third-grade reading performance.”
District officials say any incentives for students who read 20 books in 20 weeks have not yet been determined.
