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The recent BDN/Maine Monitor article about preparing classroom teachers to teach reading skills based on the five pillars of reading did not address the fact that the most critical time for helping children acquire the skills for and love of reading is the five years before they start school. Children who are read to and who live in a reading-rich environment come well equipped to tackle “school reading.”
Sitting a child on your lap, opening an age-appropriate, colorful book, pointing to the words as you read, identifying letters and their sounds, talking about the illustrations, asking questions, all of these are important in the development of childhood literacy.
Programs like Head Start and Dolly Parton’s “Imagination Library” work to provide and supplement the work that the families do in developing readers. Sadly, with recent changes in federal funding, Maine, which had just become an Imagination Library state that provided matching funds to support local non-profit Imagination Library affiliates, will be stopping that support at the end of June. Affiliates will have to depend on fund-raising to continue the work ($25 per year can provide a book a month, mailed directly to the child from birth through their 5th birthday) of giving families, even those whose adult members struggle with reading, accessible books for all to love and enjoy.
As stated in the article, reading is not a naturally acquired skill. And schools should not be the places where children first encounter reading and its five pillars. The National Council on Teacher Quality’s report card should be taken with a grain of salt and the understanding that education begins well before school does.
Bonnie Fortini
Eileen Campbell
Literacy Volunteers of Washington County
Dennysville