Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Primary school unwraps $50,000 worth of books

A three-year $350,000 federal literacy grant for Gurdon Primary School has already started to show its effects, as the coordinator is unpacking $50,000 worth of books and materials to help students improve reading skills.

Carla Jester, grade school teacher and coordinator for the Reading First program, said she has spent most of this week preparing the literacy room for the upcoming school year. The first day of school is Monday, Aug. 21.

There will be 14 classrooms, ranging from kindergartners to those in the third grade, who will be introduced to a comprehensive reading improvement program.

"We could use even more than the $50,000 allotted to buy the books and research materials needed for our assessment and reading help goals," she said. "But this program is going to help a lot of children become better readers.

"What I like the most is that the assessment of reading problems is constant and the tools and procedures help the slow readers, the fast readers and everyone in between. It is designed to improve them all."

Jester and her daughter, JoLee, were stamping books and research material with "Reading First" on Aug. 3 in the literacy room.

Shelves to store the materials have been built by Sherell Jester, Carlas husband.

"This organization for the Reading First kickoff is a family effort," she said. "My husband will also paint the shelving. The materials for the classrooms will be stored in the literacy lab and dispersed as the teachers need them."

Jester said the subject matter in the books will cover everything except mathematics. She estimates each classroom will use approximately 80 books per week.

"Every one in our 14 target classrooms will have two and a half hours per day of literacy, reading and writing," she said.

"This includes 90 minutes a day of uninterrupted reading. And the great thing is we will be able to diagnose what level the children are on and how to help improve their abilities from the first day."

The program will get under way with the first day of school. Each classroom will have its own library, with books of many varieties that are designed for that particular age group.

"Our goal is for each child to have 20 books that are designed to fit their needs available through the classroom libraries," she said.

Jester said Reading First statistics indicate any childs reading can be improved with three years of exposure to a good teacher.

The program is designed to give the teachers at GPS the tools and the time to make that sort of a positive difference in each childs life and be qualified to fit in the "good teacher" category.

"The theory is if we give our teachers the proper tools to teach quality reading skills, and the children the time to practice the skills, reading overall will improve at our primary school," she said.