Book club to promote reading between parents and their children
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Sprock instructs parents on making crafts during a meeting of the Raising Readers Parents Club. Each week, parents are given a book to read with their children, and at the club they discuss how their children responded to the book.
Amanda Steen | Herald-Standard
Tambra Sprock, Title I teacher at South Side Elementary School, reads to parents during a meeting of the Raising Readers Club. Each week, parents are given a book to read with their children, and at the club they discuss how their children responded to the book.
CONNELLSVILLE — There’s a new reading club for adults in Connellsville to join, but the topics may be of interest to only a special set of individuals: children.
The Raising Readers Parents Club is a new initiative at South Side Elementary School in the Connellsville Area School District that gives parents the skills they need to help their children become lifelong, enthusiastic readers.
“I thought this would be a great program,” said Tambra Sprock, a district Title 1 teacher. “We really do need parent involvement in our schools.”
The six-week pilot program began in November and is targeting the parents of kindergarten students in its first year.
According to Sprock, the parents meet for an hour each week to discuss an assigned children’s book and how they shared the book with their children throughout the week.
The books cover different topics, including poetry and feelings.
“Children who are read to tend to become better performers in school,” Sprock said.
Originally, the literacy program was geared toward parents of Head Start children. But Raising Reader clubs now serve families in a wide variety of settings and areas of country.
There are several goals that the program tries to achieve. The clubs support parents to, read together with their children every day as part of a regular family routine; gradually increase the amount of time spent reading together each day; have increased access to high-quality children’s books; begin to use or increase their use of the public library; recognize the many ways books can be used as effective parenting tools; and increase their involvement in their children’s school and education.
“The thing is to get parent involvement in the school in the early grades,” Sprock said. “And they’re more likely to stay involved throughout as their children progress in their educational careers. It’s a good way to promote open lines of communication with the parents.”
The program is being funded through the Education Improvement Tax Credit program. Sprock said South Side is collaborating with the United Way of Westmoreland County.
The United Way became involved by partnering with the Pittsburgh Area Association for the Education of Young Children — an organization that supports high-quality early education.
“I thought this would be a great program,” Sprock said.
She said the club required 10 parents to get up and running, but she was able to recruit 12.
According to Sprock, parents who attend all meetings will be able to keep all of the books, giving them the chance to begin a library at home.
“The books are popular children’s books,” she said. “They get to really start a little library for their child.”
If the program is successful, Sprock hopes the expand the program next year to include the parents of first and second grade students as well.
“If the same parents are interested, we’ll select a different set of books, so that their books won’t be repeated,” she said.