Book-a-Bration II

On Friday, May 16th, we will host our annual Book-a-Bration reading festival in the gymnasium of the Ridgecrest YMCA. If you didn’t get a chance to join us last year, Book-a-Bration is our grant funded service-learning project designed to prevent the “summer reading slide.” (http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3911 ) Book-a-Bration, is a free book fair that will give any Ridgecrest student who reports owning few or no “just right books” a chance to self-select 5-10 new and gently used books for their home library. We’ll have free snacks, reading games, souvenirs, and lots of great books.

According to Richard Allington from the University of Florida, “By the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss has accumulated to a two–year lag in reading achievement. A 2007 study by Karl Alexander, et al. reveals that the achievement gap between high–socioeconomic and low–socioeconomic students at 9th grade traces back to the loss in reading proficiency that occurs over the summer months throughout the elementary grades.” However, Allington also found that children who read as few as six books over their summer vacations maintained their reading levels. And children who read 10-20 books actually made reading gains.

We seek book donations of new or gently used books, especially for K-3 students. If you would like to “put good books in the hands of kids who need them,” please bring them to school before 5/14. We can pick them up from almost any location too.

Thanks for your support. If you have any questions, just let us know.

Thursday, May 8, 2008