Education Forum; A Literacy Journey

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You You You You You You You You Energy North Carolina ranks 41st in the nation in literacy, more than 50 percent of our population experiences significant adult literacy needs. With this concern in mind, UNC -TV in May of 2001 conducted a statewide literacy needs assessment, drawing on the expertise of state and local literacy professionals. These experts all noted a severe lack of public awareness on the importance of literacy, what literacy services are available and how to access those services. As a result, a family literacy project was created and 12 community literacy seminars were conducted across the state and conjunction with the North Carolina Reading Association. Today we're going to see some of the best practices that grew from those seminars. With me to talk about the state of literacy in North Carolina and what's being done to address the needs are three reading experts and members of local reading associations. I'd like to welcome Agnes Cherry, Area Director of the Central Region of the

North Carolina Reading Association and the Librarian at Darden Vick Middle School in Wilson. Also, Elaine Dupree, a teacher at Hornet Primary and President of the Hornet Council of the North Carolina Reading Association and Marsha Lewis, a teacher at Keynesville Elementary and co -president of the Dupland Council of the North Carolina Reading Association and the statewide coordinator for the North Carolina Reading Association. Good morning everybody. Good morning. I'd like first to see if you could tell us a little bit about your interest in literacy and how it got started. Perhaps Marsha, you want to start? I'm a two -fold one. I'm a local council president and I'm a teacher in local council and I'm a state coordinator of the North Carolina Reading Association. Both areas I really want to see literacy improved and doing all those things we can to help that happen. Great. And how about you and I? Well, I think as a teacher of 30 plus years and as well as a parent, I really

saw the need of literacy and how it helps children gain their goals that they want in their professional life. Wonderful. And Agnes? I like to read and I like for other folks to read. So I want everybody to read. Well can you talk to us a little bit about your beliefs about literacy and its importance? Well, I think it's the most important thing that we ever learned to do and I think there are all kinds of reading. You can read just a little bit by reading pictures and we can read big things like philosophies and directions to make a cake and all kinds of ways to read. How about you, Elaine? I agree with Agnes. I think that the reading for enjoyment, the reading for our knowledge, all those aspects are important and we need to have our children

understand that and find the joys of reading too. I think that's the important thing because with that they continue to read. And reading opens the world to people. Sometimes they might not have the money to travel or go to the world but it opens that world up and it makes everything revolves around reading and when children can learn early the joy of reading, it does open that other avenue and so that it reaches their lives. So important. So important. Yeah. Well how has technology become a part of your work in literacy over the years? Personally, there have been a lot of programs that have developed accelerated reader and programs that do encompass use of computers in length with comprehension of reading books and television programs that are designed to help children learn different skills, reading skills, all kinds of character development, math skills and just open that world and

they're very much of a need for it but it's just everywhere. We've been able to go on the internet and literally go to parks where great people have lived and been able to take the children after we've read a book to the actual place and so that really turns them on and they can find out so much more information about the person that we're studying and then they get excited about what they've learned. I bet they really do. How do you think this has really affected the definition of literacy? I think they all go together. I think it's a nice pack. I think books as well as technology and the computer, they are just hand in hand and help the child develop or the adults develop into a much fuller person. Are there any special challenges with adults using technology and literacy training?

Sometimes they are afraid of the computers or the technology when the children are not afraid but that's changing to like most things to change. I love technology. I think it's a neat thing for the kids to be able to find their own way. Sometimes you get that benefit from technology. I mean the chat with people from around the world and learn about what people are doing in other areas is such a not valuable knowledge instrument. They just can learn what in all different areas, math, reading, they just can know a lot more of what's going on out within their own world. I think that's where reading and literacy, that technology go together because they both help to build a knowledge base when you read a book and when you're internet and websites help

you know field trips or a little bit more of an enrichment factor when you're going somewhere if you can learn about it in advance. How is your knowledge about literacy changed as you've gotten more and more experienced? I think we've become more knowledgeable for how to teach children but I think the fact that it's also reinforced what we believed about reading to a children. As parents it's important to start very young to read to your child and to discuss the book with your child. Once that starts happening you really open that door that Martian was talking about to allow for exploration of the world around them and a very young age too by the way. And motivating them, motivating children to want to do it at an early age. They see you doing it. They see reading. They see words up when they get a restaurant. They see that well my mom knows where to stop because

and they learned that that is something if I am able to do that then I'll be better too and I can figure out things myself. Tell us a little bit more about the literacy efforts in your area of the state. We like to do a lot of projects in Wilson County that promote literacy and we allow our students or give them opportunities to participate in community projects as well as international literacy projects. We are asking the students to write books and in those books tell real simple stories and we send these to other countries. We also write books and give them out to social services or the Wesley Center for the abused children who don't have any books. The children also get an opportunity to write about themselves at the end of the books and we found that they like doing that and the folks that read the books enjoy reading that part a lot. So they see the

connection between reading and writing. Elaine you talked a little bit earlier about the importance of reading what would you say the role of parents would be in encouraging a love of reading with their children? I think just reading and discussing books with the child and just open up a lot of different books to them, I mean fiction as well as nonfiction type books, whatever the child's interest is to develop and explore maybe new interest along the way. I think that would be the most important thing I can see a parent doing with their child is sit down and enjoy a book with their child. I agree with that. I think that it's very important for parents to start when they're babies. Go ahead and start exposing them to literature, put those pictures, those beautiful pictures and let the child know my mom and dad think this

is important and start that early. We're speaking rhymes. Do those nursery rhymes? I think that's just neat. When the kids come to school and they know nursery rhymes, I've noticed they don't know them as often these days as they did when I first started teaching. Do our all of you parents and have you been able to watch the love of reading Awakening in your children? Yes. I'm a parent and a grandparents and so I have that opportunity to share books with my grandchild and we really enjoy all kinds of books together and it is amazing what a three -year -old can pick up from books and we even have what we call a sane silent reading. She'll pass up books to all of everybody sitting there and everybody has to sit down and just read quietly by themselves so she can explore the books by herself too. I have a granddaughter who loves to read and I do love to

see her read. She's full work and I have three daughters and a son. My daughters are a lot better at reading. I have a little girl that is developmentally disabled but she reads. She opens books and checks them out of the library. I believe one of the most, the fun things that I really enjoyed doing was going to the library or to the bookstores and looking at all the various kinds of books that were available to introduce to children. I imagine as a grandparent you probably had a lot of fun doing that. I just like picture books. I can read above picture book level but I like picture books a lot. The light for ways to get information. Let's take a moment to look at the federal definition of family literacy. Family literacy services are defined as services that are of sufficient intensity in terms of hours and of sufficient duration to make sustainable changes in a family and that integrate all of the following activities. Interactive literacy activities between

parents and their children. Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full partners in the education of their children. Parent literacy training that leads to economic self -sufficiency. And an age -appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences. Family literacy encompasses the ways parents, children and extended family members use literacy at home, at work, at school and in their community life. In many areas this term has developed broadly into two types of efforts. Comprehensive family literacy programs and family centered literacy programs. Well Agnes let's talk a bit with you about how your programs fit this federal definition of literacy. Family literacy probably starts when parents and children communicate with each other. And they just when the children are not really talking but trying to talk and parents talk back, that would be an initial part of family

literacy. And when parents are taking the children places when they talk with them about where they're going and what they see along the way, would be another way that they're learning teaching and learning the children. And Elaine do you have members of the community that would be taking sort of a role in the process of literacy or how does that work in your county? In our county we have one of the schools has a public library or has open -knit's library as part of the public library system. Because we're a rural community and access to the public library isn't quite as near for some people in the western part of the county. So they've opened up the school library and allowed it to be a public library in the evening. As far as our ESL program we have a number of Spanish -speaking people that have come into the community. And we're trying to address their needs as well as their language

communication between the schools and the community. And then we as the Reading Association have taken on the foster care program basically helping children who are in foster care realize that somebody really cares about them. Celebrating their birthday with books, both books of reading and books to write in to help promote literacy as far as reading is concerned as well as part as far as writing is concerned. And that's been very successful in our county. And Marcia, do you have also a need for ESL training in literacy in your county and what other aspects of the federal definition are present in your work? Well in Dupland County we do, we have an increasing population of ESL students moving into our area. This year we did planning a program that was a cooperative effort between the Dupland County Schools and Linda Smith who's in charge of our federal programs work with us helping us to set up the program. We worked with

Smart Start and we did an intensive program on ready to learn and ready to earn and we had more than 250 in attendance. We've had quite a bit of support from our Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Tommy Benson is very eager to help us as well as Linda Smith with our federal programs in bringing in information that has large population of Hispanics and we've had interpreters that have come so that all can glean from the programs we've had. Wonderful, thank you for sharing that with our viewers. We had the pleasure of visiting the counties where each of our guests work and found some wonderful literacy efforts being carried out there. So right now we're going to visit Agnes Cherry's region of Wilson County where they've been very busy with the Kids to Kids International program. Let's take a look. These students at St. Teresa's School in Wilson County don't mind talking about the special reading assignment they have been working on for several months. It's a project that has

international implications. I would tell them that I was making a book for people in other countries and I would tell them I was doing it because I wanted other people to be able to read. The program is called Kids to Kids International, 23 public schools and five private schools in Wilson County are involved in the initiative. Collectively the schools produced 200 books. These books will be shipped by the United Nations. They have a group that send these books to refugee camps for children. They started out, I think, just sending them to children in various countries and now they're trying to target the refugee camps. Pencils, crayons, paper and other items are also included so the recipients can create imaginative stories of their own, just like the stories that were written by the students. It's called

Bunnies Color Book and when I was little I really liked color books and so I decided to make a book about how you can learn your colors and I think it's a really easy way for the kids to learn in a fun way. My book is about a kitten and she just had a new baby sister who was born and she's in the hospital looking to see where her sister is. We write a book about insects and how we have different types of insects in the world and how they look and everything. Although the students wrote the stories to help others learn about various subjects, the young authors learned a few things themselves. I learned how to get along with a lot of different people because of course when you're in a group everybody's going to have their own ideas and we figured out how to put them all into the book so that it would work out. Well I just sort of like getting to know the people

who were in the group better than before we did it. Ellen's mother Catherine Cleary says the kids to kids project helped her to stay close to her daughter as she continues to develop reading and writing skills. Sometimes I think she's better when I'm not around but I'm glad to be there and be a part of it even though I hope sometimes it's a little sillier but it's and actually she said I'm glad to have you at the school. So that was a nice thing to hear. Beth Salinger the mother of second -grader Maggie Salinger has older children enrolled in kids to kids. She says starting the program in the early years could steer some youngsters towards a writing career. As they move on through the middle schools they're experiencing the same thing so there's a continuity and it gives these kids a chance to be writers and it may change their lives.

We know who would think a kid would publish a book and you know it gives them an opportunity to experience something that we probably never had a chance to do. Kids to Kids International has been around since 1991 nearly 60 countries participate in the program. Our organization is very involved in promoting literacy and we certainly think it helps with that. And also in these days and times when we are so aware of things that are going on around our world and the needs and our children enjoy and want to help. And this is a way that they feel like they can be helpful and create and provide something for others that don't have quite as much as they do. The young writers involved with kids to kids international agree. I think the people that get it will be happy and they happy that someone that doesn't have a book can actually have a book now. Well Agnes, that sounds like a terrific program. How does that fit into the model of

family literacy? The parents are able to help their children when they are putting together the book with the books. The students are asked to bring a present of crayons and pencils, a blank book, a little pencil sharpener and an eraser so that the children in other countries who receive these books are able to write a book and send that back to. And we have received a book from a little girl in China. It was written in Chinese that we do love this book. I've made lots of copies and passed it around. We found out just recently that all the characters on each page are actually spelling the child's name. And that's all that they're saying. But we didn't know that for a couple of years after we got the books, we can't read Chinese. But we loved it. All of us had made up different things that the story had said. This program was started by a lady in Yorktown, New York by the name of Pat

Kib. And she's the one that collects all the books. She has gotten a different groups together that help her with it. The Boy Scouts and all kinds of folks. You know, the China Institute, the Peace Corps, the Freeman Foundation. So it's more than just the United Nations project. Although they do help too there. One of the groups that helps, but it was her initiative after she had visited a refugee camp and saw how important books were and how the children really wanted books. From American children. How did you really get this program started in Wilson County? I got a letter from Pat. I didn't know her, but I was president of the Reading Association in 1993 -94. And I received a letter from her requesting that we maybe participate.

And I thought it was the most wonderful idea. My niece, I have a niece who has had the opportunity to go to other countries and deliver Christmas boxes with another organization. And she has told us how important the books are to the children. How could other counties or groups in other counties get a similar program like this one started? What kind of communities might this work well in? I think it would probably work well anywhere because kids in kindergarten all the way through high school and college have participated in our county. In different ways, the books have to be very simple. If anybody would like to do it, they could contact Pat. And she's got an email address. They can contact me in Wilson County. And I'll be glad to send the information. Terrific. Wonderful. It sounds like a great program. While we were in Elaine DePris region, Harnet County, we observed three different outstanding literacy efforts.

One of them is the congressional reading program. The principal of Anderson Creek Primary, Alice Cobb, tells us what makes this program so unique. But our main program that really connects our families and our students to our school literacy efforts is our congressional home reading program, which is sponsored by Congress from Bob Etheridge. He provides this opportunity for schools in his second congressional district. I'm having that congressional home reading program. It encourages children to learn and my children really love learning and reading. His program requires that they read at least 15 minutes each night and sign a reading log and every child who reads 100 books or more during a school year. He has promised to come to each awards assembly and give each child a personal certificate. And he does that. He lives up to his promise. She started off this year in the second grade. It's one of the top readers in her class. She's already read this year over a thousand

books. She loves to read. The whole community knows about the congressional home reading program here at Anderson Creek plus our children know how to read and they can comprehend. It's really benefited my family as far as helping my child. And I think she has accelerated. And she's like one of the top readers in her class. Actually, he gets disappointed if he doesn't get to walk across that stage, excuse me, across the stage with Congressman Bob Etheridge. He really looks forward to that. We are in our fifth year participating in this program and I will have to say our parents are involved, our students are involved. So Elaine, would you define this as part of a comprehensive literacy program or a family centered literacy program? Well, I think they kind of go together. Definitely the family is involved as well as ultimately the comprehensive literacy is taken over.

Representative S. Rich has been very supportive in our educational endeavors in Hornet County. And that's just one of the ways that he comes and really backs what he believes in. What kinds of people had to come together to make this program happen? I think the support of the schools as well as the support of the families. I mean they both have to go hand in hand to foster that love of reading. And then once the reading becomes a habit then it becomes a habit and maybe you know continues. And how long has the program been in place? I think like Alice Cobb said about five years in her school and it's in different schools at different stages of each principle is basically the overseer of the programs. But it's open to all principles are all schools and so it's been basically about five years. And what have you seen has been really the impact of the

program? I think the fact that the children are actually reading more improves those scores that everybody is so concerned about but also that love of reading is definitely fostered and developed and it goes on. And this is a part of additional activities that are taking place in the state. Do you have any other programs that you'd like to point out? There are numerous programs each school has their own like writing programs and they have parent nights with writing activities or education educating parents in the evening about how to read the children, how to work with their first graders or with their second graders or third graders. Each grade level literally puts on programs for parents as a staff development type program for them. And Marcia, do you have something of this sort going on in your community as well? Yes, we have we've done a literacy project where we worked with parents and we gave

books to each of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms with the challenge to the parents to read at home with their children and read a loud sum and listen to their children read depending on what level their children are on. As well as doing a young author's project which goes hand in hand with that. Well, it really sounds like it's important to have really sort of the community involved from libraries to schools and teachers and parents as well as the children involved with all of these programs. The young author's project is sponsored by the North Carolina Reading Association and each community or county has children who write. And then it's judged at the county level and then those entries are sent to the state level and they're also judged at the state level. We just had our celebration for our families or our children. We had 34 county winners and we had like 250 parents and

grandparents and aunts and uncles and children come for the celebration where they received their book and their awards. Agnes, how do you get parents and schools and libraries and everyone working together on this problem of literacy? The best way we can, whatever works, you know, for one person may not always work the next time. We send out letters when we have special literacy projects and we try to contact civic organizations and invite folks to special literacy programs or meetings that we have. That's one way we get started. Usually if we can have something where the children are involved then we're more likely to have parents to join us that way. So we try all kinds of things. Whatever you can do to make it work. Well with the growing Spanish speaking population in North Carolina it's very important that adult education, ESL training be included as a component of comprehensive family literacy programs. In this next example we visit an English as a second language

classroom at North Hornet Elementary and find out why ESL teacher Heather Whitehead reads aloud to both children and their parents. In charter page 198 in your greenflow and I'm going to read the sentence with the word in and we're going to try to figure out what hero is. Within the area of Hornet County we have had tremendous growth within the mostly Hispanic population. But there have been other cultures, Russia, Arabic, etc. And there has been a need for us to find another way to help these children be successful in school having two languages, their first language and their second language usually being English. So who can tell me about hero? What they think a hero is? Francisco? It saves something. It saves something? Yeah.

The children come to us an hour to an hour and a half every day. We try to work on their language skills so that when they get back in the classroom they're able to participate actively in their class and feel a part of their class. We have a tree. There's this poor little kitten that stuck up in the tree. Whenever we send something home or the teacher sends something home, we try to have it in Spanish. Or if a child's been out for two or three days, they make me call them to see if they're there because I can speak Spanish and talk to them or whatever. But that's been the biggest issue is just the communication between home and school. If we can get that going better, we're doing really good. We've improved every year, but it still has room to grow and develop. I think the benefit will be great for our children and our students and the families and everybody involved. If you can get them here and you can show them that you truly care for their children,

they're yours. They are yours for life and they'll do anything in the world because they're just so appreciative of what we do for their children. Well Elaine, we touched briefly earlier about Harnett County and ESL situation there, but perhaps you could talk a little bit more about the ESL needs in Harnett County. They're great because we have so many Spanish -speaking people coming into our community. At my school we have an ESL teacher that comes for half a day and she works with the children in K through three grades for that half day. And she's very full, I mean, as far as the numbers are concerned. I know there's a great need for the ESL teacher in the schools. I know we have some vacancies available too, so that isn't a real problem. Yeah, how about you, Marcia? Is that also true in your county? Yes, it is. They're working very hard to help bring about awareness of what things they need to

do and making sure that the connection with home as well is really hit. With our Hispanic population because it's really growing and we want to address the needs of those children and their families. Let's talk a little bit about what it means to have an ESL program in your county or an ESOL program, what actually happens within those programs? Yeah, at our schools, we have almost every school has a teacher that works with the children as well as serves as an outreach person for the families. And more or less, touch the children and intends to them to see whatever their needs are that they're working with them. And some of our classes, the children have already reached the point where they can function in their classroom span. And they just serve as a person that is there, consultative, if they need them, if there's a skill that they don't understand, then that person is there to help tuck them in and take care of them.

How hard is it to find ESL teachers to help in this process? And what does it really take to be trained in that process? I think the ESL teacher has to be a caring individual, primarily. They don't have to be able to speak to the Spanish, but they are picking up Spanish or they realize the need for having that background. So many of them are going back to get this Spanish background, but the fact that they are a caring person is the most important thing and they want to help children. And Agnes, how do the ESL programs involve parents in your community? The parents have to get the children to school, so that's one way they're involved. We have a program right down the road from us at East Carolina, so that teachers can be certified in ESL. And prior to having that program, I actually worked it in the ESL program at the technical school in Wilson. That's probably been close to 20 years ago now. That's kind of

hard to believe. We had folks that spoke French and Japanese and Vietnamese as well as Spanish in Wilson County. One interesting thing that happened to me when I was a kindergarten teacher, I had a little fella that had been in the United States for two weeks and he came to my kindergarten class without being able to speak any English at all. The very first thing he learned to say was Mickey Mouse and then the next thing was good. But I found out that he could understand a whole lot more than he was able to tell me about. And he got so he could write very well. He's really bright in math. It didn't take long. I did let him watch television, set him straight a lot. Well that's a great story Agnes. Now we're going to visit the third special literacy program in Harnett County that honors fostered children on their birthdays. This program uses age -appropriate books, cards and other special gifts to

help build self -esteem and promote literacy among foster children. Here's more on the Harnett County Reading Association's countywide effort fostering literacy through birthday wishes. We wanted to do something that would be of impact to the county and so we went to social services and we said we don't know what we want to do but we need your help. And we just kind of brainstormed and met some people and came up with meeting Virginia Parker and she said here's a good idea that we can do this for the children. And then we tied it with literacy because that's our goal to help promote literacy within the state. Our target audience are basically all the children in the foster care program and we've had them from age two months all the way through age 19. We get their first name, the date of birth and how old they are. And so then the member takes that information, purchases books and things for that child and puts it in the bag. It's a birthday bag just like you would give for your birthday and then it's given to

the foster care people to deliver on their birthday. Here in Harnett County it's part of our Reading Association Community Service Project that each member of our Reading Association adapts a child of the foster care program and buys two books, a birthday card and the association gives the pencils and books to write in. And then they also put in little extra gifts like maybe photograph albums or puzzles or things that they wanted to make personalized. And then it's taken to the social service office here in Harnett County and delivered to Virginia Parker who passes it out to her social workers to deliver to the children on their birthday. Even people that aren't really members of our association or Harnett County Reading Association actually want to help with this project. So it's just a matter of going and talking with your social service representative that you know they can get somebody at that contact,

explain what they're trying to do and just go for it. What are some of the special needs that foster children would have in this kind of a program? I think primarily they need to be known that people care about them and that they are loved and even though we don't get a chance to meet them personally we have their name and we can buy gifts that we think would be appropriate for them. I've had people buy little outfits for children, I've had toys, bubbles, puzzles, you name it, it's been in the bag and that's delivered by the social worker on that child's birthday. And from what we're hearing because again we're not privy to be able to go with them, we're hearing wonderful support that the social workers are thrilled to be able to take a bag on that child's birthday to celebrate the birthday with that child. To make that child very unique and very special. Have there been any studies done or other

statistics out there about what would be the impact on the foster children with programs like these? Yeah, I don't really know if there has ever been a study, it might be a good idea to consider looking into something like that. At this point it was just to come up with an idea to help social services and we had to just brainstorm to come up with what we wanted to do. Marcia, let's talk a little bit about the parents. Do you ever find that there are actual needs amongst the parents for literacy skills and how do you deal with that in a literacy program? They definitely are and if you talk with people that are on the workforce they're saying please help and the parents are saying please help me in working with my child. And I think that's one of the biggest things we have dealt with this year is trying to help parents be more aware of what things are out and learn while you're learning with your child. Because some of the programs that are out educational and television and other will help parents learn the skills that maybe they bypassed when they were coming along and that will help them to

strengthen their children's ability to read. Great. What have you found Agnes in your area in terms of helping parents that might also have literacy difficulties? Our parents are very willing to help. Sometimes they think that it's going to be more difficult than it actually is so if you can just kind of lead them to know that it's not that difficult. You know, just by speaking, using a complete sentence is one very simple way or talking with rhyming words or something. You know, just real simple things, reading signs, just things like that. Just make it easy. Well, this next program in Hornet County helps to support the other three that we have just learned about. As Elaine might remember, we were also able to visit the Media Center at Anderson Creek Primary that also serves as a public library for the local community. This community -based effort was created out of identified needs for a local public library. Let's get a closer look at the successful community literacy partnership.

This was the brainchild I believe of the county commissioners and the Board of Education and Mr. Emory, our county manager, because I believe they heard the need for some services, media services in this community. So the parents would have to go all the way to the main library, which is Lillerton, several miles away. They believe that this was something that this community needed. So they were going to build a new school in this area of primary school and with their collaborative efforts, they developed this program where we could have a public library in our school library. And it can serve the needs of the entire community. It's just been very convenient for my whole family as far as the district's location because we both work out of town. And that way, after school, when I pick her up, the hours of the library, we can come or on Saturday mornings we can come and she can get her books. It can help the parents, students in

all levels of education plus our students in our school. And because of this, we have a stronger effort in our literacy attempts. One nice thing that I really appreciate having is like, be able to come to a library so close to home that has encyclopedia references that I can use because we do not have anything current in our home. We have a 1979 encyclopedia and this one has everything up to date. And not only helps the children, it helps the community as a whole. It's great. It's great. You got the down -home atmosphere of friendly people. They're willing to help you if you have a problem or you just have a basic question. There's somebody here willing to answer it. So we'll just think that someone was able to provide these services and not have too much additional costs and it has helped this community tremendously. Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to really bring the community together.

It really is. Anderson Creek is located out in a very rural area and very far away from the closest town, which is Lillington. And this gave the parents and children an opportunity to use the library that was available all along. It was just a matter of changing the hours and having it work as a public library also. Have you been able to incorporate any technology into the library so that they have those opportunities as a library as well? Yes, the libraries have the computers available as far as the internet is available for the parents. So that's available for them too. And I imagine a meeting place for community groups. Exactly. And it just sounds like it's a wonderful opportunity to bring the community together. Do either of you have projects like that that you'd like to speak about as well? We don't have any like that. I think that would be wonderful. That would be wonderful idea. I've got the good idea on this. Well, we hope that we've provided some wonderful ideas for folks all across the state with your projects today that you've been talking

about. Are there any projects that we haven't touched on that you'd like to discuss? We had an international project to just collect money for libraries in one of the foreign countries. And one of our middle schools collected just one middle school collected almost $2 ,000. And I think that's a fantastic opportunity. And the children just really went ahead and they knew that they were buying books and libraries for the students. And so therefore they just went for it. And it's just amazing to me that the children of Western Harvard Middle were able to do that. Well, we've seen, oh, excuse me, go ahead. We've got a lot of projects that we have had. We did a shoes for Haiti because the children there weren't able to attend shoes. So we collected large numbers of shoes. And we managed to get them shipped out through military assistance as well as things that would help children to be able to write and all types of paper and pens and things like that sort. And also book bags for Mexico.

At the end of the school year we collect book bags and we put all sorts of things inside of those book bags that can be taken and shared with some children that our community is in Mexico. Great. Well, next we're going to talk a little bit about your community. And when we visited Marsha's community we found that parents, teachers and children joined together to enthusiastically support the literacy partners program. This is an excellent program that reaches children and their parents. Let's take a look at this joint community effort to increase literacy in Dupland County. There will be a bag for you to put your book in. There will be tissue paper. Wrap up five of the books in tissue paper. Leave the other five. Since you have two children. As one of the projects that our North Carolina Reading Association does, we wrote a grant and it was funded. And through that we purchased books from numerous publishing companies and different locations so that we did have a gambit of different types of genre. So if they needed more nonfiction or poetry or

what type of reading that they had, hopefully they would have an option to be able to pick out books that were needed in their own. What is it that the individual teachers need for their own classrooms? And so we had hopefully a good selection so that they could choose what they actually needed in their own rooms. Now there is nonfiction, all different types of genre. We're here to promote literacy. And with the Reading Association, we have councils within our state. And each of those has programs. And through the UNCTV we've learned of new things that are out that would help our parents to help the children learn literacy. And so we're very cooperative partners and we're going to gather to promote literacy in our state. Well the last and most important thing you need to make sure that you go up with all the boys and girls in your class. How important it is to be reading those books? Parents need to

realize how important it is to read to their children. They need to realize how important it is to help them, their teachers to their first teachers. They need to know what their role is as well as building the excitement of reading with their children. And when they take part in an event such as tonight, they realize that it is important. Look how many other people are here. Look how many other children were excited. And parents were excited. And my teacher was here taking part in that as well. Well that looked like that was a very successful program there and they had a great crowd of folks that turned out. Yes, we had about 250 people that attended and it's all as exciting to see what the children do when they get their pack of books. And they get to carry them home that night to carry back to their classroom, showing ownership of those books. And I think that all the parents thoroughly enjoy getting to see their child and the excitement that that brings. Getting new books. And I guess that provides some excitement for the parents as well as they can watch their children

take an interest in books. It amazes me hearing some of the teachers. When they go back to their classroom because of the part of the program, we tell these children because they're kindergarten and first grade how to take care of the books. And it is amazing how they will go back to the classroom and step by step in their little puppet boys tell them what they need to do. So is this a program that is pretty much centralized in the county and you're pulling from all parts of the county for this project? Every kindergarten first grade teacher within the county was invited to participate. And they could, you know, just the night what we try to do is get a gambit of books that they can choose which ones that they need for their room. And as I said, all of them are invited to participate and are able to take part in the program. Well, it sounds like also a very good idea for other counties across North Carolina to think about it. So another one of the best practices that we're learning

about today. That's very exciting. Today we've been talking about family literacy and some of the work of our partners across the state to address literacy issues. UNCTV also presents the schedule of programs and services to address adult learning, family literacy needs. Here's more on what's available to you right here on UNCTV, wherever you may live in North Carolina. A lot of us haven't worked in years, years, not two months ago, three months ago, years. Workplace essential skills is a series that focuses on the needs of people who are unemployed, under employed, or new to the world of work. It teaches basic workplace readiness, reading, writing, math, and communication skills. GED Connection is a series featuring

instruction on the skills and knowledge adults need to prepare for and pass the newly revised GED exam. Each program features learning objectives, practice questions, and test taking tips. TV411 combines recognizable genres, situation comedy, documentary, sports entertainment, and talk show with a rigorous instructional focus based on real life skills enhancement. Dostinos, an introduction to Spanish, offers full communicative proficiency in Spanish listening, reading, and writing, and exposes students to the rich and diversified cultures of the Spanish -speaking world. Anyway, here I am. Crossroads Cafe is a superbly produced and entertaining educational series appropriate for teaching ESL, adult literacy and basic skills, workplace

and correctional educational programs. How about it? Kevin Casey, high school graduate. And Connect with English uses drama to teach English language skills while presenting the geographical, cultural, social, and economic diversity of America. Well, tell me how all of the programs that you've watched in your counties and helped a foster have really helped with the literacy situation in your areas of the state. I think helping people be aware of what's out there, what resources are available to them, that there is a community effort that is right there if you're wanting to plug in. And that helps people to know where I can go, connection with the community colleges, and what things they are doing with adult education, connections with our schools, our

smart start, and lots of organizations, civic groups that are interested in promoting literacy, very valuable. And Elaine, do you see sort of a common thread that runs through all these best practices that we've been sharing today? I think that the fact that the child and the parents are in the forefront, I think that we're always trying to help everybody understand their roles as far as teachers for the children. And I think that's where the thread is, and hopefully the improvement in literacy for our state. And Agnes, where can parents really get started? What are some simple things they can do if they want to get started in helping in this regard? They can just model what they expect for the children to do, it would be a good place to start. I've noticed that when we first started our kids -to -kids project, we had, I think, 16 books that were sent in the first year and this year we had over 200 so we can see that we're reaching

more people now. Just by modeling. Is it possible to involve other family members in this process as well, perhaps brothers and sisters? I know we talked a little bit about grandparents earlier. Is there training out there for that process? I think it's almost essential. It's a family project. Sometimes even together reading a book and understanding it, but there is. There's a lot of information out. And as well, to let those older siblings know that you have a role, you are the one that's going to help your little brother or sister or your little cousin learn how to read. Is your responsibility to that family affair? Well, we've learned a lot today, so I really thank you. And I would like to thank Agnes, Elaine, and Marsha for joining us today. To learn more about any of the literacy programs you heard about on today's show, please visit us online at www .unctv .org or call us at 919 -549 -7190. Reading and literacy open up the world and it's wonders so all of us can enjoy the literacy journey. I'm

Diane Lucas and we'll see you next time on Education Forum. This program was made possible by contributions to

UNCTV from viewers like you. Thank you. You