Woodland Park Academy's motto is "
Creating relationships to change the world." And as one of their teachers wrote us, "
I believe positive relationships with books can change a student's world." We couldn't agree more.
We heard that some of the school's students were struggling to reach the reading level required by their grade. Transportation challenges make it difficult to go to the public library, and family finances often can't cover the price tag of books to keep at home. So like the dedicated teacher she is, Beth Debano came up with a plan. She told us:
My goal is to create a Lending Library for our school. Providing the opportunity to choose from hundreds of colorful, high-interest books will encourage the love of reading at home for our students. Every week, students will fill their personalized Lending Library Bag and borrow new books to enjoy at home which, in turn, will increase their reading ability! Students will choose books they can read independently (just in case no one at home can give reading support). Studies show that "students who read at home for 20 minutes/day will read over 800 minutes by 6th grade and will perform better than 90% of their peers on standardized tests." I want to provide my students the opportunity to borrow books at their reading level so they can experience the benefits of reading at home. It may sound simple (and it is!), but this will boost my students motivation and success in reading.
Yes, yes, and yes! We sent Beth and her students a selection of books to help stock their school lending library, and we're delighted to report that one of our authors wanted to pitch in and help even more.
To Beth and Woodland Park Academy, thank you for the outstanding work you're doing with your students! You believe in them, and we believe in you. Let's stay in touch and keep the lending library abuzz with activity.
