The Children’s Trust (TCT) is challenging South Florida families to work together to help close the gap of summer reading loss by announcing the launch of #Read30, a social media campaign asking South Florida parents and caregivers to read with their children for 30 minutes each day this summer.
Extending from June through August, the initiative is an extension of TCT’s Read to Learn program, which is aimed at increasing the number of elementary school children who read at or above grade level.
The #Read30 campaign serves as a social call-to-action for parents, families, and mentors to snap and post photos of themselves reading with their children using the hashtag #Read30. By practicing and sharing positive habits daily, this community-wide effort is helping yield students’ educational advancement and development into the school year.
“To lessen the impact of academic loss during the summer months, the #Read30 initiative is designed to help children retain the knowledge and skills learned during the school year by promoting 30-minute reading a day,” said James R. Haj, president and CEO of The Children’s Trust. “Our goal is to encourage parents and caregivers to help their children excel academically not only during the school year but also in the summer when reading loss is most prevalent.”
As a child’s first and best teacher, parents and caregivers, can help them succeed in school and in life by reading with them every day, and by following these simple guidelines, in addition to reading together every day for at least 30 minutes:
• Create a own home library of children’s books.
• For very young children, select books with faces, animals and objects to point to and talk about.
• Read in a fun voice, using different intonations for different characters.
• Talk to the child and answer questions. Ask questions of your own and listen to the child’s responses.
• Talk about the words on the page, letter sounds and how we read from left to right and from top to bottom.
The importance of summer reading is far-reaching. Children who read for 30 minutes daily are more likely to read at grade level by the third grade, increasing the likelihood of schooling and professional success. According to a 2010 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “reading proficiently by the end of third grade can be a make-or-break benchmark in a child’s educational development.”
Until the end of third grade, most children are learning to read, but beginning in the fourth grade, they are reading to learn.
For more information on The Children’s Trust and the Read to Learn program, visit www.thechildrenstrust.org/read30.
