Have a nose for a good book? Speak up
|
|
Lt. Rob Kittle, of the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department read "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Trout!" to Carol Miller's second grade class at Schmitt Elementary School Monday September 8, 2009. Stick Your Nose In a Book Day has become a traditional part of celebrating International Literacy Day in Bartholomew County Schools.
Stop. Pick up a book. And support literacy in the process.
Bartholomew County residents for the seventh straight year are being encouraged to stop what they’re doing at precisely 10 a.m. Friday to read for 20 minutes, part of Put Your Nose in a Book Day for International Literacy Day.
The idea: Celebrate literacy and model to children the importance of reading for joy, self fulfillment and the chance to have a quality career.
Citizens who want to participate more directly should contact the elementary schools to arrange to read to students throughout the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
|
A day for literacy More than 24 percent of Bartholomew County students read below grade level. International Literacy Day, first observed in 1967, is celebrated each year on Sept. 8. It will be observed a day early this year, because Sept. 8 falls on a Saturday. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization created the day to focus attention on the need to promote worldwide literacy. An estimated 780 million of the world’s adults do not know how to read or write, and up to 115 million children lack access to education. Nearly two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. Source: Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. and the International Reading Association. |
Although 10 a.m. is the preferred time, the hour that reading takes place — when readers wear round, red-sponge noses — is flexible based on the readers’ schedules, said Teresa Heiny, the school system’s director of elementary education.
“The time investment is small, but the impact it will make as a model, highlighting the importance of reading to all, will be substantial,” she said.
Put Your Nose in a Book Day, now in its seventh year, traditionally has been held on Sept. 8. It is being moved up by a day this year because Sept. 8 falls on a Saturday.
Heiny, who is reading to a group of students at 8:30 a.m. Friday, said teachers and community residents who take part in reading to students can choose among different books.
Suggested given the event’s affiliation with the Literacy Task Force’s Community Book Read are:
“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine is being recommended in the high schools.
“The Year of the Hangman” by Gary Blackwood is being recommended in the middle schools.
“Those Rebels: John and Tom” by Barbara Kerley and “Scarlet Stockings Spy” by Trinka Noble are being recommended in the elementary school.
“If you’re a strong reader,” you’re usually successful at whatever you do in life, Heiny said. “You have to read to be successful.”
Think your friends should see this? Share it with them!
comments powered by Disqus
