C.C. Pinckney Elementary School celebrated Read Across America with a multitude of events aimed at helping get children more interested in reading.
“Read Across America is celebrated across the nation to encourage educators and students to take time and stop, read and celebrate the fact they can read and write,” said Dr. Kerrie Ammons, school speech pathologist.
The school started Read Across America week with Goodnight School where teachers and others read to students on the school social media pages. Next, the school held its annual Reading Prize Patrol that surprised students at their homes. The week culminated in a guest author visit by Dr. Frank Clark, who spoke to students and read two of his books remotely.
The school’s Author’s Tea event, where students read their own writing, was postponed due to inclement weather.
The school set up a committee to plan events the school would like host. One of those was Clark’s visit.
“We knew we wanted to get an author in the building whether that be in person or virtually,” said Ammons, who is also a committee member, “to speak with the children so that they could ask them questions and hear what an author has to share from his perspective.”
The school was awarded $500 from the National Education Association to sponsor reading events focusing on “Celebrating a Nation of Diverse Readers.”
Clark, who is in a mixed marriage and has a biracial daughter, read two of his books and spoke briefly to the students about diversity.
“I think it is important that kids from all different backgrounds whether they are short or tall, black, white, Hispanic, Asian to read it,” he said. “I want kids to see themselves in books. I think sometimes there are a lot of kids who don’t really see themselves in books or people who look like them.”
That one was reason his daughter is represented in each of his books.
“So, the books are a way for my daughter to learn about positive affirmations about being kind to herself, but also for her to know that there are books that have kids that look like her.”
To view the Goodnight School videos, visit www.facebook.com/DoDEAPinckneyES.
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