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Save the Date! Read-A-Palooza 2023

We invite you to join us in uplifting the success of our Summer Book Binges at Read-A-Palooza 2023: Binge on Books on Thursday, March 9 from 5:30-7:30 pm in the University of Charleston’s Riggleman Rotunda. The event celebrates the significant impact of giving books that children choose before summer break, preventing and even reversing the loss of reading proficiency that sets back many students when school is out of session.

Heavy appetizers, beer, and wine will be served. A small silent auction will be available, as well as our popular Wine Pull. For $20 per pull, this activity sends participants home with a bottle of wine selected blindly from an array of options, all worth $20 or more.

Proceeds from Read-A-Palooza help fund Read Aloud programs throughout West Virginia, which are designed to engage all members of our communities in motivating children to want to read. Tickets are $35, available for purchase at readaloudwv.org/tickets. Corporate and individual sponsorships, as well as donations in lieu of attendance, are all gratefully accepted.

Significant sponsors of last year’s Read-A-Palooza include Moses Auto Group and The Elliot Foundation. Thank you to all businesses and community members who have contributed to the success of this fundraiser in the past. Your support is essential to continue to grow research-based reading interventions like Summer Book Binge.

Summer Book Binge is just one of the choice-based book distributions Read Aloud does that has helped us put over 20,000 books in the hands of students in 2022. The method is based on research that showed that six self-selected books given to students prior to summer break could motivate children to read for fun, helping to combat learning loss that occurs when students don’t practice their skills during school breaks. This loss of reading proficiency is most prevalent with low-income students who have fewer opportunities outside of school to practice reading than their middle- and high-income peers, putting them at a disadvantage when they return to school. Learning loss is cumulative, and over time, it can set students back years behind their classmates.

Summer Book Binge showed promising results combatting this proficiency loss in three schools we served in spring of 2022. The first two were Cottageville and Gilmore Elementaries in Jackson County, where 84% of rising 4th graders either increased or maintained their Lexile level over the break. These distributions were made possible by support from the Jackson County Community Foundation.

Last year, we also worked with Chesapeake Elementary School in the upper-Kanawha valley to bring their students Summer Book Binge thanks to a grant from The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation. We selected Chesapeake as a partner for program expansion because approximately 77% of Chesapeake students were not proficient readers in 2020-21.

After providing all students with six freely-chosen books to read during break, over half (53%) of the students gained or maintained their reading skills over the summer. Of those who experienced skill erosion, 38% were already reading above grade level prior to break and remained above grade level in the fall.

That means that 71% of Chesapeake students tested before and after summer break had a positive result in their reading proficiency scores following Summer Book Binge.

We know from past experience that the positive impacts of this program are cumulative, much like the learning loss it’s designed to prevent. As we continue to work with Chesapeake, Cottageville, and Gilmore, we anticipate consistent gains in reading proficiency that will build on each other, setting students up for long-term success in reading.

We hope you will join us at Read-A-Palooza on March 9 as we promote and celebrate the importance of choice-based book distributions on the literacy of WV students.

Amanda Schwartz is the Read Aloud WV Communications & Development Director.

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Students wrap up school year excited, ready to read

By Kristen LeFevers

Students at four schools received some new, special books to enjoy over the summer while they are away from the classroom.

This year, Read Aloud West Virginia offered its Summer Book Binge to schools in Greenbrier, Jackson, and Kanawha counties. The program is based on a Tennessee study showing that giving children about half a dozen freely chosen, high-interest books prevents summer learning loss better than summer school.

A Crichton Elementary student receives his “Binge on Books” tote bag filled with books to read over the summer.

In Greenbrier County, Crichton Elementary students from preschool through fifth grade browsed a sample set of books this spring. Teachers were encouraged to help students find books they would enjoy. Students were able to hold and examine the books before filling out their order forms.

Students received their books at a Memorial Day assembly after a ceremony to honor students’ accomplishments and local veterans.

“It was a moving and reverent ceremony recognizing veterans in the Quinwood community,” said Read Aloud Executive Director Dawn Miller. “The parents’ and grandparents’ presence really shows students that the time they spend reading is important and valued. And it is always good for adults to be reminded what an important influence they are.”

Students walked up one at a time and received a blue Read Aloud tote bag containing their specially chosen books, each plated with the child’s name, an important feature of the project stressing book ownership.

The process was repeated in other schools. In Jackson County that same week, the Jackson County Community Foundation, which funded the project, dressed the Gilmore Elementary School assembly room with festive beach accessories, highlighting the fun, buoyant atmosphere of summer reading.

Jackson County Community Foundation Executive Director Misty Hamon put together a colorful balloon arch for students to walk through as their names were called to receive their personalized Read Aloud book bags.

About 150 third- through fifth-graders at Gilmore and Cottageville Elementary, like their peers in the other counties, browsed sample books ahead of time and chose six books they wanted for the summer, then walked up one at a time to receive their special order.

“We’ve had so much support from the Community Foundation,” said Read Aloud of Jackson County Chapter President Janet McCauley.

“The Foundation really made this book distribution into a special event for these kids,” Miller added, “exactly the message kids need to get from the adults around them.”

A festive balloon arch and beach-themed decorations courtesy of the Jackson Community Foundation for the Book Binge assembly at Gilmore Elementary.

“‘I got all the books I wanted!’” McCauley recalled hearing more than one student say. “The kids were so excited and pleased to get their books. It was so, so personalized for them. If they choose their own books, they’re more likely to read them.”

The summer reading fun didn’t stop there, however.

“The state office [Read Aloud West Virginia] are very frugal and are able to order some of their books from their distributors for cheaper than they expected, and get extra copies,” McCauley shared. In this instance, that frugality led to “leftovers,” or extra copies that McCauley was able to present at other schools throughout Jackson County.

“All of the leftover books have been distributed in the county,” McCauley said. “I guess you could call it a book tasting or a mini book binge.”

McCauley distributed the leftover copies at elementary schools in Fairplain, Evans, Kenna, and Ripley. Students were able to pick three books of their own.

“Read Aloud is so good at stretching their money, and other students were able to benefit from the leftovers,” McCauley said.

At Chesapeake Elementary School in Kanawha County, preschoolers through fifth grade followed a similar process, thanks to a grant from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation. At an assembly at the end of the school year, students applauded each child as their name was called to receive their books. That distribution is part of a larger project with Chesapeake that will include another book give away in the fall.

By preventing summer learning loss, Read Aloud helps students to succeed in school and throughout life. Researchers have documented that children who are not exposed to enjoyable books and other summer learning opportunities will lose reading skill during the summer. They gain again when they go back to school, but over time these losses accumulate, so that by 12th grade, children can be a year or more behind their peers and their potential in reading skill, which affects everything else – including school and job prospects.

Giving children books that they are motivated to read during the summer prevents this summer learning loss. As children spend time with books, they practice skills they learned in school. They also build vocabulary and background knowledge, an important ingredient in reading comprehension at any age. They also discover that they enjoy it.

Read Aloud’s first Summer Book Binge was held at Crichton Elementary School in 2016, and within two years, reading scores there rose noticeably, exactly as the Tennessee research predicted.

Read Aloud West Virginia will be looking for opportunities to introduce the Summer Book Binge into other schools across the state in the coming year.

Kristen LeFevers is a graduate of Marshall University and lives in Huntington.

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All through the grades

In Upshur County, high schoolers find and swap books that keep them reading

By Dawn Miller, Executive Director of Read Aloud West Virginia

Caden Andrick, Cameron Zuliani, Kiara Woods, and Katie Pearson, students at Buckhannon-Upshur High School

For School Library Appreciation Week, Buckhannon-Upshur High School Librarian Angie Westfall put the word out to students each day – there will be free books in the library at the end of the week.

Westfall, a member of the Upshur County Read Aloud chapter board, arranged to have enough books for all 1,000 high schoolers to choose a book to keep.

Back in Charleston, Read Aloud West Virginia Board member Mike Proops and wife Jo Proops, a volunteer, helped prepare and pack books. Becca Revercomb, a retired Kanawha County teacher and a volunteer reader, drove the truckload to Buckhannon.

In advance, Buckhannon-Upshur teachers read some of the books, and were seen doing it. They previewed titles and discussed choices with students. Westfall and her volunteers arranged the merchandise invitingly around the library.

On the day, groups of students, all masked, rotated through the library every 15 minutes to choose a book to keep and to talk about what they enjoy. By the afternoon, 400 books were gone.

“Everyone in the building promotes literacy,” Westfall wrote later. “Pictures of teachers and the books they were reading were put on our closed-circuit TV to add excitement. After the event, students with their choices were also added to the TV lineup.

From left to right: Alisa Compton (Science teacher), Duane Stoeckle (Social Studies teacher), Mindy Dawson (English teacher), Tracey Fluharty-Godfrey (Assistant Principal), Mike Lemley (Science teacher), and Ann Clem (English teacher)

“Teachers said that it was nice to see so many students reading! They were reading everywhere we looked: under trees, on the sidewalk, at lunch, during silent reading in classes, and in the library.”

The event was part of Read Aloud’s increased effort this year to help students get their hands on books that interest them while school and library access have been disrupted.

One student, tipped off that among the choices would be the title she had been wanting most — The Descendants series by Melissa de la Cruz — was particularly looking forward to the event.

Buckhannon-Upshur High School Librarian Angie Westfall dresses for a skit in the library a couple weeks after the book tasting. “The opportunity to promote one of our free books was a must,” she wrote.

But on the day, she was ill and missed school. She returned the following Monday and got her book.

“She was so excited she didn’t know what to say,” Westfall texted the following week. “She skipped on the way out of the library!”

Students were offered fiction and non-fiction, hardback and paperback, many genres, graphic novels and even a few signed copies. Many of the books were bought through First Book, a non-profit that makes high interest books available to schools and literacy organizations. All were provided by Read Aloud donors.

“Readers are well aware of the cost for books,” Westfall wrote. “Some will purchase paperbacks because of the price, but long for the hardback copy.”

“Because of the many choices, students had a difficult time deciding which one to take home.”

At least one group clubbed together, each selecting one of five volumes of Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds series. Partly set in West Virginia, it is the story of adolescents who survive a plague but who are left with extraordinary mental powers. Adults mistrust and abuse them. The group plans to swap books until they all have a chance to read the four installments plus the additional book of short stories.

“Students are still coming in to get books!” Westfall wrote weeks later. “We are still working to get books in the hands of all our students. Some students have checked out the next book in the series they first selected. Other students have decided to purchase the series, and then also read other books by the same author. In a time of so much technology, our students still enjoy holding a book in their hands! Thank you.”

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Collaborations, events, and book giveaways

Our chapters have been hard at work! Here are some highlights of things they’ve accomplished recently or are working on right now:

Read Aloud of Greenbrier County plans to read aloud for Alderson Elementary students during their deliveries of school grown produce to a local farmer’s market.

Read Aloud of Fayette County is planning a Snuggle & Read event. They are also developing another partnership with a local drug recovery court to provide books to participants and their children.

Read Aloud of Mercer County held a COVID-conscious Snuggle & Read for 117 children at a local library.

Students at Ripley Elementary peruse options at their book tasting event.

Read Aloud of Wood County has a Summer Book Binge coming up at Jefferson Elementary Center, funded through support from Tri-State Roofing & Sheet Metal. Wood County schools are also planning to let volunteer readers return to the classroom in the fall, so the chapter is preparing for that.

Read Aloud of Kanawha County had classroom book tastings for all grades at Alban Elementary.

Read Aloud of Jackson County has a lot of great news! Second graders in the county received personal copies of the first in The Fantastic Frame series, while all the second-grade classrooms received the entire set of five books to complete the series. A volunteer recorded the first book in chapters, which were made available to classrooms for them to follow along. This project was funded through a grant from Jackson County Community Foundation.

Additionally, children of families who received Christmas packages from Epworth Church each received a new book through our Jackson chapter. Book tasting events were held at Ripley, Evans, and Kenna Elementary, including twelve classrooms covering first, second, and fourth grades. And finally, Read Aloud of Jackson Co. provided books for Jackson County Early Explorers to include in two sets of theme-based Read! Play! Grow! packets. This program was so well-received that Jackson County Schools is funding similar packets for students through the summer, and Read Aloud of Jackson County board member Cheryl Miller is helping create those packets for the youngest students.

Girl Scouts of Troop 1774 Madison Boylan, Isabelle Williamson, and Abby Mabley delivered books to Little Free Libraries from Barboursville to Kenova in Cabell County.

Read Aloud of Berkeley County is exploring partnership opportunities for book distributions with their local Boys and Girls Club and Norborne Daycare center. They are also planning to work with a sleepaway camp for children of families that have been impacted by drug abuse to provide books to participants. There may be upcoming opportunities for in-person read alouds for Berkeley county-wide summer school.

Read Aloud of Putnam County is rebuilding a local presence with a recent school-wide book tasting event at Poca Middle School, serving almost 300 students with books of their choice.

Read Aloud of Cabell County volunteer and troop leader Linda Beaver has been working with local Girl Scout Troop 1774 from Community of Grace United Methodist Church to stock Cabell Little Free Library boxes with gently used books.

To find contact information for your local chapter, visit readaloudwv.org/participating-counties.

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Tempt your students with a Virtual Book Tasting

We want to give your class books!

By Amanda Schwartz

Read Aloud West Virginia is offering a new way for teachers to put books in their students’ hands: a Virtual Book Tasting.

We’re calling it a “book tasting” because like a cake tasting, you get little samples of a bunch of options. Then students can make informed choices of books they get to keep.

Students also get opportunities to have meaningful conversations about what they read. They can recommend books to friends or warn them off.  They can practice the habits of lifelong readers and learners – to read by choice and to discuss readings with colleagues.

 “The research base on student-selected reading is robust and conclusive,” literacy experts Richard Allington and Rachel Gabriel wrote in the 2012 article “Every Child, Every Day”. “Students read more, understand more, and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read.”

Researchers also agree that giving students time to discuss books with peers is essential. According to the same Allington and Gabriel article, reading outcomes were better “when kids simply talked with a peer about what they read than when they spent the same amount of class time highlighting important information after reading.”

Our book tastings emphasize choice and create opportunities for students to chime in with opinions and questions. They even include a conversation starter “The Worst Book Ever,” in which a volunteer presents a popular book they don’t recommend, and participants are prompted to respond with their own opinions. This activity is intentionally designed to demonstrate to students that readers don’t love every book they crack open, and that it’s OK to quit a book they don’t enjoy and try something else. It is designed to welcome students who have not already discovered pleasure in reading, as well as avid readers.

After the book tasting, students will have an opportunity to choose a book from those discussed. We’ll pack the selected titles, tag them for each student, and arrange to deliver them to the school for distribution.

All schools enrolled with Read Aloud qualify for free book tastings and other book distributions, and because of  pandemic pressures on school staff, all schools enrolled in the 2019-20 school year have been automatically re-enrolled with us for 2020-21, unless schools have notified us otherwise.

Click here to fill out an application to request books for your students. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Thank you to all of our Read-A-Palooza 2020 donors and sponsors

Read-A-Palooza 2020 was our biggest and best fundraising event to date. We had an amazing volunteer committee who helped us create a beautiful celebration of Read Aloud’s history and original founders, honoring the past leadership of Mary Kay Bond and looking to the future. We had scores of donors and supporters who purchased tickets and sent donations in Mary Kay’s honor. Even on a weeknight, 13 of our volunteer county chapters were represented, some traveling a great distance to attend. Twenty-six sponsors made this event possible, and they are listed below with links to their individual websites so you can learn more about them.


Signature Sponsors


Platinum Sponsors

The Becker Family


Gold Sponsors

Kim & Greg Burton

William Maxwell Davis


Silver Sponsors


Bronze Sponsors

Ned & Barbara Rose

Juli Hatcher Mock

David & Susan Turnbull

Tom Heywood & Melody Simpson


Read Aloud would not be able to do the important work of motivating West Virginia students to read for fun without the support of local businesses, corporate sponsors, private foundations, and individual donors. As master of ceremonies Tom Tinder shared with the crowd at Read-A-Palooza, we serve 23% of PK-8th graders with an annual budget under $200,000. Every dollar given to Read Aloud is carefully and strategically spent to make the best impact on the children of West Virginia. As little as $100 can supply an entire class of students with high quality, high interest books to add to their home libraries.

That’s why we’d like to say a very special thank you to all of our donors and sponsors who have helped us to secure not only Read Aloud’s future, but the future of literacy in WV.

And for supporters who are still considering donating, it’s never too late! Any amount is significant. Even $5 can put a new book in the hands of a child to help them fall in love with reading.

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Updates on our chapters

Harrison

Read Aloud West Virginia has been granted funds from Dominion Energy Foundation to cultivate a new Read Aloud chapter in Harrison County. During our Books-A-Million fundraiser a few months ago, Marion County volunteers who crossed county borders to help out received frequent questions about the fledgling chapter. To get involved, email stateoffice@readaloudwv.org.


Preston

Preston County chapter members gave out children’s magazines and encouraged parents to read with children at a Lights On! event in Kingwood.


Logan

Communications & Development Director Amanda Schwartz attended a Logan County Community Baby Shower hosted by Mountain State Healthy Families. This event not only allowed us to reach new and expecting parents in Logan County about reading together from birth, but also connected us with new potential partners in Logan County, like their local Headstart and WIC offices.


Greenbrier

Read Aloud of Greenbrier County is getting ready to put on several Snuggle & Read events with local PreK students.


Marion

Marion County chapter board member Nicole Walls attended a Marion County Family Resource Meeting and met Pam Nolan of Marion County Headstart. This led to interest from the North Central West Virginia Headstart centers in enrolling with Read Aloud’s programs. Rivesville and West Fairmont Headstart centers have already enrolled.


Jennifer Foster prepares blankets for the Berkeley County Chapter.

Berkeley

The Berkeley County chapter is gearing up for their series of Snuggle & Read events funded by Procter & Gamble. They recently had a blanket making party to prep the two-sided fleece tie blankets for the parents and children to complete at the events. Special thanks to participating volunteers, the local MOMS Club, and Jessica Ramey for helping make this possible.


Raleigh

Raleigh County just had their first Reader Appreciation event of the year, and it looks like it was a success! We’re happy for any opportunity to say thank you to our wonderful readers who change the lives of kids across the state.


Kanawha

Preschoolers at Bream Preschool in Charleston show off their bookmarks and magazines with volunteer reader and Kanawha chapter board member Raney Exline, an education major (rear).

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‘Find the right book’ at the WV Book Festival, Oct. 4-5

Looking for your next favorite book? The West Virginia Book Festival’s got you covered. With a used book sale, writing workshops, and a line-up of authors including James Patterson, Salina Yoon, Orson Scott Card, and more, this gathering of readers and writers will have something for the whole family.

Orson Scott Card
James Patterson

Read Aloud is particularly excited about the opportunity for cross-generational interest in authors. Headliner James Patterson, for example, a well-known adult author, also has several successful young adult (YA) series, including Maximum Ride, Middle School, and I Funny. Orson Scott Card, author of the popular sci-fi novel, Ender’s Game, also has a YA series called Pathfinder. This is a great opportunity for parents to foster and/or bolster a love of reading with their children through the shared experience of meeting or discovering an author they both enjoy.

James Patterson claims to have set a mission with his writing career that we heartily agree with – “to prove that there is no such thing as a person who ‘doesn’t like to read,’ only people who haven’t found the right book.” We hope to see this message resonate through all aspects of this year’s book festival and awaken the reader in everyone.

Join us on October 4-5 at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center to celebrate our favorite thing – books!

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Join Team Read and WVU Coach Neal Brown: Read-A-Palooza 2019 on June 6

Join Read Aloud and WVU Football Coach Neal Brown in building excitement for books and reading at our annual fundraiser, Read-A-Palooza, at the University of Charleston Riggleman Rotunda on June 6!

Though we may be a little later than usual this year, Read-A-Palooza is sure to be bigger and better than ever with a new venue courtesy of our partnership with the University of Charleston Education Department, and our 2019 theme: “Join Team Read,” exploring how we can create a culture that values reading in the same way we do sports.

The event will open at 4:30 p.m., and Coach Brown will give his remarks at 5:15 p.m. As always, we’ll have appetizers, beer and wine, and a silent auction to augment the lively conversation and good company that’s a staple of Read-A-Palooza. As our largest fundraiser of the year, proceeds from the event help fund Read Aloud programs, which strive to engage all members of our communities in motivating children to want to read.

Tickets are $40 prior to June 6 or $50 at the door, but for those looking for a little more facetime with Coach Brown, we’re offering a special pre-event reception with him for sponsors of $1,000 or more. Sponsorships also come with tickets and public recognition, including logo displays at the event, depending on the level. To find out more about how to purchase tickets and sponsorships, visit the Donate tab, click here, or call the state Read Aloud office at 304-345-5212.

We hope you will join us as we celebrate Read Aloud’s progress and look forward to new reading adventures!

Show, don’t tell: Poetry, relevance sell middle schoolers on reading

 

By Dawn Miller

“What would you say to the kids in the room to encourage them to read?” Newbery Award winner Kwame Alexander was asked at the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston.

“I wouldn’t say anything,” Alexander answered.

“Who wants to be told? If you really want to connect and make somebody feel engaged, show them. That’s the real way to reach anybody. Make them feel something.”

From one of the readers in the crowd, Alexander borrowed a copy of his novel Rebound, a story about a 12-year-old boy who is dealing with loss, who can’t play basketball, but wishes he could. “This is what I would do,” he said, and recited an excerpt from the novel, which like all his books, is written in almost singable poetry.

It’s so singable, Alexander’s musician best friend Randy Preston, a retired teacher, brought hs guitar and sang a song from it. The two perform together now. They have visited almost 900 schools in the last three years.

“I don’t think you have to tell kids why they need to read,” Alexander said. “I think you’ve got to show them.”