Classroom libraries, leveled to state standards using American Reading Company’s leveling system, provide a continual stream of new trade books moving through classrooms and into every home each night. Three hundred different titles are supplied to every participating classroom, with up to 10,000 unique titles in each school, providing an instant source of the best books in print for young people selected from 220 U.S. publishers. Every student logs 100 hours of successful independent reading each year, to include thirty minutes daily in school and thirty minutes daily at home.
Each classroom will receive 100 Book Challenge Benchmark Smart Start Modules that include Classroom Libraries of 10 baskets of 250–300 multicultural titles, Reading Skills Cards, Incentive Reading Folders, Incentive Kit, Milestone Awards, and Take-Home Book Bags. In addition to the extensive classroom library collections, each school will receive a Principal Start-up Kit, Principal’s Conference Notebook, Teacher Resource Kits, Site-Coordinator Kit, and Home Contract Magnets. Action 100 materials are selected because of their high quality and their proven support of successful school-wide 100 Book Challenge implementations.
The independent reading proficiency level of every student, using a standards-based assessment framework (American Benchmarks for Excellence), is determined and entered into a student tracking system (KidPace), providing summary dashboards and reports for stakeholders. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators know at what reading grade level every student is currently able to demonstrate proficiency, what specific skills and strategies each student needs to practice in order to make progress, and have the tools and training necessary for ensuring every student makes that progress.
Students bring home books at the “just right” level to read with their families. Take-home skills cards outline the standards for each child, helping parents frame their conversations about the books they are reading together. Daily reading progress is tracked on reading logs moving back and forth between home and school. Students who do not receive adequate home reading support are provided an in-school, or after-school, reading coach.
To their existing program, teachers add 30 minutes of daily, structured, accountable, coached, independent reading time, during which they conduct formative, standards-based assessment conferences with individual students. This provides immediate feedback on the extent to which what is being taught is being transferred to real reading. Teachers begin to internalize state standards and use them as their internal compass for instructional decision making throughout the day. This 1-1 time also provides an opportunity for the additional intensive instruction and reading friendship required for our most vulnerable students.
Teachers and principals receive initial training/introduction to the program, followed by ongoing in-class/in-school support to ensure effective program implementation. Parent workshops explain the importance of this daily home reading and teach parents how to coach and support their child’s reading.
American Reading Company, a female-owned and managed Pennsylvania business, has a 60,000 sq. ft. warehouse in King of Prussia, PA and a documented track record of employing undereducated, hard-to-employ, non-English speaking workers. A grant supporting 50 schools would employ 250 Pennsylvania workers, under the direction of a company of educators, dedicated to and experienced in workforce development. In addition, dozens of teachers would be hired for school support and thousands of reading coaches from our communities could be hired to work with students in the classroom.
Call or e-mail American Reading Company today.