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Empower Families, Boost Reading Scores:
Start a Reading Camp in Just 6 Steps
Contributed by Dr. Timothy R. Blair, professor of Reading and Literacy Education, the University of Central Florida, Orlando
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 In the 12 years that I have developed and led free reading camps in one of the most socially and economically challenged neighborhoods of Orlando, I have learned an important lesson: Our model can - and should - be duplicated throughout our country. And the beauty of it all is, it's easy, affordable, and effective.
Establishing your own reading camp for two hours every Saturday over 10 weeks will allow you to provide an ongoing and valuable community service that will equip children and families in diverse communities with the tools they need for academic and lifelong success.
Here's how you can get started.
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 Maryland Principal Drives Home the Importance of Literacy
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Principal Stephanie Brant
Gaithersburg Elementary School
Gaithersburg, Md.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer, adults and children alike have lined the streets of Gaithersburg, Md., in anticipation of the familiar gray Acura RDX driven by Gaithersburg Elementary School Principal Stephanie Brant.
Stephanie's Acura has become the school's unofficial bookmobile. For the second year in a row, she has delivered free books throughout her school district to help encourage students - and even adults - to read over the summer. This summer the impassioned principal estimates she delivered about 3,000 books, many of which were donated and some bought by Stephanie herself.
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Reading Aloud to Children: What I Have Learned
By Alyson Beecher, program support specialist at Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena, Calif.
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Several years ago, I started doing classroom read-alouds. Those of you who are teachers or librarians may be saying, "What is so special about that? We do it all the time." However, as a principal, it was easy to think that I didn't have time to go into a class and read aloud on a regular basis. Yet, three years ago, I asked two teachers if I could come into their classrooms and read to their students weekly. At that point I couldn't tell you why I picked the books that I did, what I hoped to get from the experience, or what I expected children to come away with. I just had this sense that I needed to read to them. What I discovered about reading aloud is changing me as an educator and instructional leader.
Here are five things that I have discovered while reading aloud to children.
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Booktalk: Start the New School Year Strong
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August signals the beginning of the school year for many of us. If you are still in the planning stages of actually celebrating the first day of school, we want to keep great reads front and center every day. These three titles should get the year off to a great start.
Skippyjon Jones has had enough of staying home and being a cat. He looks like a Chihuahua, so why can't he go to school with the dogs? So he does just that, but he's warned: The wooly bully will find him. Who is this wooly bully, and what does he want? Can Skippyjon defeat him, or is he just a scaredy-cat? This picture book is best for ages 4 to 8.
In an early reader for ages 5 to 8, Tony Baloney is going to school. He packs his favorite things in his backpack-little green walrus guys, cheese and his stuffed buddy, Dandelion. Tony is a worrier. At school he learns about all the rules, and he has a lot to learn.
Historical fiction fans ages 10 to 14 will enjoy Ninth Ward, where something is coming. Yes, a hurricane is predicted to hit New Orleans and the surrounding areas, fast and hard. But something else, too: trouble. This time, it's something big. And there's no way to escape it.
Skippyjon Jones: Class Action
By Judy Schachner
Tony Baloney: School Rules
By Pam Muñoz Ryan
Illustrated by Edward Fotheringham
Early reader: Best for ages 5-8
Ninth Ward
By Jewell Parker Rhodes
Historical fiction: Best for ages 10-14
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