Tag Archives: Read Houston Read

Brian Ching is the face of Read Houston Read in new public service announcement

The Houston Dynamo and Dash professional soccer teams are official sponsors of HISD’s Read Houston Read volunteer program, and their most visible face is helping to recruit reader-mentors.

Brian Ching, longtime star with the Dynamo and the U.S. Men’s National Team and now managing director of the Dash women’s team, has recorded a public service announcement seeking volunteers for Read Houston Read.

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Ching spent a day with students at The Rusk School near BBVA Compass Stadium, where the Dynamo and Dash play, to read with them and record the message. Continue reading →

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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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 →

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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Continue reading →