Eisenhower Reads is a program dedicated to providing a wide variety of community resources to assist Eisehnower Elementary School in its goal to insure that every student is able to read at, or above grade level.
Without good, fundamental reading skills, academic achievement is severely impacted, limiting both educational potential and quality of life. Reading plays such a crucial role in future academic success that the Foundation has initiated this effort to provide as many community resurces as possible to assist the school in its literacy goals.
Eisenhower Elementary School draws many of its K-5th grade students from a highly mobile area of Southfield. Its students come to Eisenhower with a wide variety of educational preparation and achievement. For many, reading is a particular challenge. We hope that this pilot project will demonstrate the effectiveness of community participation in educational achievement.
If you would like to participate in any way, please call Warren E. Goodell at 248-351-1320.
Eisenhower Reads concentrating on four areas:
I. Tutoring/Mentoring
II. Celebrity Readers
III. Rewards and Incentives
IV. Focused community resources
I. Tutoring/Mentoring - We seek an initial target of 25 tutors to work with one or two students each week. Tutors will be asked to participate in a 2 hour training session and then commit to working with their students for one hour a day, twice a week through the end of the semester.
There is considerable flexibility in scheduling tutoring sessions, but they would generally fall into the following time slots: 9-10 a.m., 12:30-2:30 p.m. and 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tutors will be working under the direct supervision of the schools reading clinician.
Typical task would include:
- reading to the student
- having the student read to you
- drilling the student with flash cards for spelling and basic phonics.
Celebrity Readers - The Celebrity Readers program is a multi-facited approach to literacy education. Each week one or more "celebrities" spends an hour with a class of students. Celebrities are asked to take 15 minutes to talk with the students about their careers--what they do now, andhow did they get there. We believe that this career modeling can play an an important role in literacy education.
A second 15 minutes is spent talking with the students about why reading is important and exploring what the students like about reading. The final 30 minutes is devoted to reading. The Celebrity may read a favorite passage to the students, the students may read to the celebrity, or the celebrity may work with the students with flash cards or other teaching tools. Parents will be notified of the celebrity schedule and invited to attend the celebrity reading sessions. Parents will also be asked to participate as celebrity readers. Following the celebrity reading, students will be asked to write thank you notes to the readers, sharing at least one thing they liked about the visit.
Celebrity readers are asked to arrive at 9:15 a.m. The should proceed to the school office and ask for Kimberly Beckwith, the Eisenhower Reading Clinician. Any specific questions may be directed to Ms. Beckworth at 248-746-8780. To get to Eisenhower Elementary School, take 10 Mile to Beech, go south on Beech to Larkin and east till Larking dead ends at the school.
Celebrity Reading sessions take place from 9:30 to 10:30 on Thursday mornings.
II. Rewards and Incentives - The Southfield Community Foundation is seeking donations of all sorts that might be used by the Eisenhower Reads project as incentives and rewards for achievement by students, teachers and parents.
Examples of rewards might be tickets for the movies, cultural performances or professional sporting events, admission to the zoos and museums, discounts on books or retail goods, "Eisenhower Reads" T-Shirts and Hats, etc. We are limited only by our creativity.
III. Community Resources - The Eisenhower Reads program is looking for assistance from community groups in focusing programs and projects that support literacy education. Examples might be the Optimist Club's Oratorical contest for all 5th grade students, the Public Library's Battle of the Books program, etc.
Partners
The Foundation offers its thanks to the following for their generous assistance with the Eisenhower Reads program:
- University of Detroit
- Kinkos
- Star Theatres
Working together, we can make a difference
