The Cardinal Community Readers program will allow community members to receive training from Fairview Elementary School Literacy Facilitators and support students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 by reading with them individually or in small groups.
Interested community members are invited to attend our first Cardinal Community Readers training session on September 8, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at Camden Fairview Central Office, located at 625 Clifton Street.
For those who will not be able to do next week’s training, it will be recorded and made available on the CFSD website. Anyone who cannot attend the session in person will be able to watch this training video and then volunteer.
The Cardinal Community Readers program is looking for community volunteers to work with one to three students using school-provided read-aloud books and other literacy tools that focus on vocabulary, phonological awareness and phonetics.
“Literacy is an issue that many communities face,” said Tara Armstrong Armstrong, Camden FairviewSchool District Assistant Superintendent. “The way schools have approached literacy, probably over the past 20 years, hasn’t been the most beneficial. It’s not reaching the right students.”
Armstrong noted that while middle-income children have access to an average of 13 books, the number of books for low-income children is one book for every 300 children.
She also said that three-year-olds from professional families know an average of 1,116 words, while children from working-class families know an average of 749 words, while children from low-income families know an average of 525 words.
Volunteers will receive 30-40 minutes of training and travel to Fairview Elementary weekly or monthly during student library hours.
Armstrong said the program is designed to improve graduation rates, reduce discipline issues and improve the overall school environment.
For more information about the Cardinal Community Readers program or to register, contact Assistant Superintendent Tara Armstrong at [email protected] or 870-836-4193.
Print Title: Camden Fairview offers training session for volunteer reading program
