Category Archives: Literacy

Read Houston Read volunteers prepare to share love of reading with students

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More than 300 caring citizens have already volunteered to work directly with first-graders through HISD’s Read Houston Read initiative, and many of them came to the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center on Sept. 26 to get a crash course in how to manage their time with the students.

“We want this to be fun,” explained HISD Literacy Director Cindy Puryear. “We don’t need you to be a teacher or a disciplinarian. We’ve got that part covered. But the one thing you can’t get more of is time, so the fact that you are here, giving of yours, means the world to me.” Continue reading →

HISD ‘goes corporate’ to recruit volunteers for Read Houston Read

When HISD announced its need for 1,500 volunteers on Sept. 4, the greater-Houston community responded with an outpouring of support. By Sept. 16, more than 250 caring citizens had already signed up to be mentors to first-graders through the district’s Read Houston Read program, but many others are still needed.

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HISD schools celebrate International Literacy Day

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Many Houston ISD schools held special events to celebrate International Literacy Day on Sept. 8.

Anderson Elementary School students held a parade of book characters, and they participated in a special presentation of the Wizard of Oz. Students and staff donned costumes to perform the story.

“We want to make sure the love of reading comes to life,” Principal Roslyn Vaughn said. Continue reading →

Will you be a reading mentor?

Houston ISD and community partners issued a call Thursday for 1,500 volunteers to join HISD’s Read Houston Read program, to mentor first-graders at more than 50 selected elementary schools as part of the district’s Literacy By 3 movement.

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“All along, as we devised our master plan to attack this literacy crisis, we have said that this is not a problem that will be solved in the classroom or the school alone,” said Superintendent Terry Grier at the news conference at Garcia Elementary, one of the participating schools. “It is a community crisis, and the community’s help is needed to solve it. This is a very important — if not the most important — district initiative since I’ve been here.”

Read Houston Read volunteers can sign up for a weekly one-hour mentoring session at a school, where they will work with two first-graders in half-hour sessions — listening to them read, doing an activity related to the book, and reading another book to them. Continue reading →

Fifth-graders learning the difference between texting, every day, and academic language

ALIAS vocabulary program helping students build literacy skills, understand the concept of ‘code-switching’

For students to be successful in the Digital Age, they must learn to distinguish between the abbreviated syntax they use in texting, the casual way they speak to their friends in person, and the more formal style of communication called for when writing school essays or drafting a business memo.

Fifth-graders at more than three dozen HISD elementary schools will soon be making those distinctions while building their academic vocabulary this year, thanks to a partnership the district forged with two educators from Harvard University. Continue reading →

Walnut Bend ES and community raise awareness for National Literacy Month

Celebrity readers share stories, set an example for community involvement

Walnut Bend ES partner Phillips 66, along with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and Lone Star Sports & Entertainment, got together at the campus on opening day Monday to raise awareness about the importance of literacy for Houston’s children. The star-studded event kicked off HISD’s Literacy By 3 program, a movement designed to turn around and end the literacy crisis in Houston.

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Literacy By 3 aims to turn around crisis with districtwide movement

This is the tenth–and final–entry in a series of stories counting down to the start of school, spotlighting what is new in HISD in the coming year.

Literacy By 3 — which launches in every school on the first day of classes — is HISD’s movement to turn around and end the literacy crisis in Houston — not a mere initiative or program. Its mission is to have every child reading and writing with fluency by the end of Grade 3 — but Literacy By 3 will reach students at every level who are struggling with reading mastery. Continue reading →

Pilot program using technology and virtual volunteers to help students become better readers

Today, video games and digital devices, such as phones and tablets, are as much a part of a child’s life as playing jacks or jump-rope or hopscotch was to a previous generation. It’s not uncommon to find a child who can navigate an iPhone or iPod better than adults. Starting this school year, HISD will leverage the fascination and skillset today’s youth have with technology to help some of the district’s youngest students become better readers.

Eighty kindergarten and first grade teachers from throughout the district are undergoing training on a program called TeacherMate®, which uses technology to support and help teachers provide differentiated literacy instruction. “It’s an exciting experience to learn this, because kids are fluent with the technology,” said Horn Elementary kindergarten teacher Nancy McDonald. “The games relate to what they’ll learn in class.” Continue reading →

Teachers get tips on maximizing resources at Personalized Learning Institute

The first day of school is right around the corner, but teachers are still busily preparing for its arrival, learning about the many new resources available to them and their students at the Personalized Learning Institute (PLI).

The annual event, which concludes this week, provides content-specific training to teachers at each grade level in advance of the new school year. The 2014 Institute also featured an overview of the district’s Literacy By 3 initiative, a new approach to reading instruction. Continue reading →