Administrators and teachers at Morton Elementary School are hard at work making reading more enjoyable and exciting for its students this summer. MES applied for, and received, a $50,000 Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) grant that is funding a summer reading program for 200 elementary students. The reading program titled Ready-Set-Go-Read has two sessions scheduled for this summer. Session-1 kicked off Monday morning and will last two weeks, session-2 starts on July 9, and during each session children attend school each day from 8:30 a.m. through 11:30 a.m.
Each session offers 100 K-3 students the opportunity to work on their reading in a fun and controlled learning environment. This program also allows incoming third graders the opportunity to get a jump start on the upcoming school year during which they will be required to make a passing score on the 3rd Grade MAAP ELA Assessment, commonly known as the ThirdGrade Gate reading test, in order to be promoted to the 4th grade.
The ultimate goal of the program is to make reading more enjoyable for children while directly combating the reading “summer slide” most students experience during the summer vacation period.
With the grant funds secured from MDE, and the support of the Scott County School District, administrators and teachers at MES worked diligently to create a fun reading program that will benefit elementary children both during school and in their spare time at home. The second session is now accepting registrations and will begin on July 8.
MES Principal Marylynn Crotwell said that as soon as she received the information about the MDE summer grant she knew immediately she wanted to pursue having a summer reading program at MES. “I first received an e-mail announcing that the Department of Education was offering a $50,000 grant for schools that would be interested in having a summer reading program and could show the need for such a program at their school,” Crotwell said. “As soon as I read the e-mail, I knew this was something that would help our children here at Morton Elementary, and I wasted no time taking the preliminary steps in applying for the grant.”
In order to be considered for the educational grant administrators at MES, assisted by officials at the school district, had to complete an application that outlined the school’s need for such a reading program.
“We were confident that a summer reading program would be beneficial to our students at Morton in many ways,” said Dr. Regina Biggers, SCSD Elementary Curriculum Coordinator. “After making the decision to apply for the grant we had to write a grant that showed our need for a reading program at MES as well as exhibit that we had high teacher and parent interest in the program. We were able to demonstrate that we had all three components required to be considered for the grant, and we were ultimately awarded one of the grants that has made this wonderful opportunity for our students and teachers possible.”
The funds from the grant allowed the school to purchase teacher materials, 2,600 books for students to take home and secure all staff which includes 16 teachers and two bus drivers. MES was already hosting a free summer feeding program for students of all ages, so this really helped with feeding the children each day.
Crotwell said that there are other benefits for the children above and beyond working on their reading skills. “This is a wonderful opportunity for our incoming kindergarten students and their parents to get though those initial anxieties of starting school,” she said. This gives them the chance to experience the process before the actual school year begins. When they do start the full school year both the parents and the children will have a familiarity with the process of coming to school. This also gives our new teachers the opportunity to get acclimated to the school and the students before the new school year starts.”
MES Project Director, Julie Mahathy said that this program is an opportunity for the children to focus solely on reading. “I’m so excited about the benefits our kids will get from this program,” Mahathy said. “We have worked hard to create a program that will really allow the students to focus on their reading and give us teachers the chance to make reading fun and exciting. We will also be sending books home with every student so the benefits of the MDE grant and this reading program can reach beyond the classroom.
“Today we are filling out program pretests and pre-surveys that asks the students how much time they spent reading before this program started, and asks questions to determine how excited they were about reading before the start this program. We will give them another survey at the end of this session and we are hoping that the amount of time they spend reading has increased and that their excitement level about reading has grown.”
“The overall intent of these programs is to pump-up the amount the kids read, get them more engaged in their reading and to get them excited about reading to help combat the summer reading slide,” Dr. Biggers explained. “Having the opportunity to purchase over 2,000 books that will go into our students’ homes is amazing. Research says that an increase to print exposure in the home leads to higher student achievement in reading.”
If the SCSD believes this program to be a success the school district can apply for a second MDE grant for next summer. “This grant has a possible three-year continuance here at MES based on MDE funding,” Biggers said. “Each school district can be awarded up to two grants. At the completion of the two summer sessions the Scott County School District can apply for one more grant for next summer.”
Crotwell said that the overall success of this program will be measured by pre and post surveys, but in her eyes this program is already a success at MES. “Having the opportunity to have our children here at school for additional time to focus just on reading is so beneficial for them,” she said. “This program will give students additional reading time as well as put books in their hands to take home and I believe that is a huge success. Day-1 is already going great and the kids are loving the activities and the reading. I’m so proud that we have the dedicated staff here at MES that is willing to make this program possible for our students.” Crotwell said.
